angham, who had been persuaded to remain overnight, while Stuart rode
off to acquaint Alvarez and General Rojas with what was going on.

XI

There was no chance for Clay to speak to Hope again, though he felt the
cruelty of having to leave her with everything between them in this
interrupted state. But their friends stood about her, interested and
excited over this expedition of smuggled arms, unconscious of the great
miracle that had come into his life and of his need to speak to and to
touch the woman who had wrought it. Clay felt how much more binding
than the laws of life are the little social conventions that must be
observed at times, even though the heart is leaping with joy or racked
with sorrow. He stood within a few feet of the woman he loved, wanting
to cry out at her and to tell her all the wonderful things which he had
learned were true for the first time that night, but he was forced
instead to keep his eyes away from her face and to laugh and answer
questions, and at the last to go away content with having held her hand
for an instant, and to have heard her say "good-luck."

MacWilliams called Kirkland to the office at the other end of the
Company's wire, and explained the situation to him. He was instructed
to run an engine and freight-cars to a point a quarter of a mile north
of the fort, and to wait there until he heard a locomotive whistle or
pistol shots, when he was to run on to the fort as quickly and as
noiselessly as possible. He was also directed to bring with him as
many of the American workmen as he could trust to keep silent
concerning the events of the evening. At ten o'clock MacWilliams had
the steam up in a locomotive, and with his only passenger-car in the
rear, ran it out of the yard and stopped the train at the point nearest
the cars where ten of the 'Vesta's' crew were waiting. The sailors had
no idea as to where they were going, or what they were to do, but the
fact that they had all been given arms filled them with satisfaction,
and they huddled together at the bottom of the car smoking and
whispering, and radiant with excitement and satisfaction.

The train progressed cautiously until it was within a half mile below
the fort, when Clay stopped it, and, leaving two men on guard, stepped
off the remaining distance on the ties, his little band following
noiselessly behind him like a procession of ghosts in the moonlight.
They halted and listened from time to time as they