ts.

Finally a buoy was moored by Spaniards inside the entrance of the bay to
mark the position for the entrance of the gunboats. The signal-station on
the shore opposite was instructed to notify the gunboats inside when the
torpedo-boats were within the limit distance marked by the buoy.

The scheme was that the gunboats could run out, open fire at a one-mile
range thus marked off for them, and retreat without the chance of being
cut off. The men of the _Winslow_ eyed this buoy and guessed its purpose,
but did not attempt to remove it.

On the afternoon of the eighth the _Machias_ stood away to the eastward
for a jaunt, and the _Winslow_ was left alone to maintain the blockade.

In a short time she steamed toward Cardenas Harbour. There was great
excitement at the signal-station, and flags fluttered hysterically. The
three gunboats slipped their cables and went bravely out to their safety
limit.

Three bow 6-pounders were trained at two thousand yards. In a few minutes
the shore signals told them that the torpedo-boat was just in range. Every
Spaniard aboard prepared to see the Americans blown out of the water.

Three 6-pounders crackled, and three shells threw waterspouts around the
_Winslow_, but she was not struck. Instead of running away, she upset
calculations by driving straight ahead, attacking the boats, and
Lieutenant Bernado no sooner saw the first white smoke puffs from the
Spanish guns than he gave the word to the men already stationed at the two
forward 1-pounders, which barked viciously and dropped shot in the middle
of the flotilla.

On plunged the _Winslow_ to within fifteen hundred yards of the gunboats,
while the row raised by the rapid-fire 1-pounders was like a rattling
tattoo.

The Spaniards were apparently staggered at this fierce onslaught,
single-handed, and fired wildly. The _Winslow_ swung around broadside to,
to bring her two after guns to bear as the Spanish boats scattered and
lost formation.

The _Winslow_ soon manoeuvred so that she was peppering at all three
gunboats at once. The sea was very heavy, and the knife-like torpedo-boat
rolled so wildly that it was impossible to do good gun practice, but
despite this big handicap, the rapidity of her fire and the remarkable
effectiveness of her guns demoralised all three opponents, which, after
the _Winslow_ had fired about fifty shells, began to gradually work back
toward the shelter of the harbour.

They were still hammering away