fifteen miles away,
although the coast did not seem to be five. At such a distance the dull
gray hulls of the vessels could hardly be seen, even if they were not
below our horizon. With much lighter hearts, but with a feeling,
nevertheless, that something of importance had occurred or was about to
occur, we ran down alongside the _Iowa_, hailed her through a megaphone,
and asked if there was any news. "It's reported that they are fighting
over there," replied the officer of the deck, waving his hand toward
Santiago, "but we haven't any particulars." There was no smoke rising
above the rampart in the direction of the city, we could hear no sound
of cannonading, and I was more than half inclined to believe that the
report of fighting at the front was premature; but whether this were so
or not, the _Iowa_, the _Texas_, the _New York_, and all the warships
near us were cleared for action; their officers seemed to be eagerly
awaiting orders; Admiral Sampson's flagship was exchanging wigwag
flag-signals with a man on the beach beyond the mouth of the Aguadores
ravine, and it was perfectly evident that something was expected to
happen. Under such circumstances, the thing for us to do was to get
back, as speedily as possible, to Siboney. Turning in a great circle
around the _Iowa_, we steamed swiftly eastward along the coast, passing
the _New York_, the _Suwanee_, and the _Gloucester_, which were lying,
cleared for action, close under the walls of the Aguadores fort;
exchanging greetings with the New York "Sun's" graceful despatch-boat
_Kanapaha_, which came hurrying westward as if bound for some important
field of expected activity; and finally rounding to alongside the _State
of Texas_ in the Siboney cove.

There was nothing in the appearance of the village to indicate that a
battle was in progress, or even in anticipation. Boats were going to and
fro between the transports and the pier as usual; there was the usual
crowd of Cuban ragamuffins and tatterdemalions on the beach, with a
sprinkling of soldiers in the streets; everything seemed to be quiet on
board the _State of Texas_, and I said to Mr. White, as I bade him
good-by, that I did not believe we had missed anything after all.

We soon had evidence, however, that there was an engagement in progress
off the coast, if not at the front. Between nine and ten o'clock in the
morning heavy cannonading could be heard in the direction of Morro
Castle, and great clouds of whit