Williams loosened three long triumphant
shrieks from his whistle and the sailors stood up and cheered.

"Let them shout," cried Clay. "Everybody will have to know now. It's
begun at last," he said, with a laugh of relief.

"And we took the first trick," said MacWilliams, as he ran his engine
slowly into the railroad yard.

The whistles of the engine and the shouts of the sailors had carried
far through the silence of the night, and as the men came hurrying
across the lawn to the Palms, they saw all of those who had been left
behind grouped on the veranda awaiting them.

"Do the conquering heroes come?" shouted King.

"They do," young Langham cried, joyously. "We've got all their arms,
and they shot at us. We've been under fire!"

"Are any of you hurt?" asked Miss Langham, anxiously, as she and the
others hurried down the steps to welcome them, while those of the
'Vesta's' crew who had been left behind looked at their comrades with
envy.

"We have been so frightened and anxious about you," said Miss Langham.

Hope held out her hand to Clay and greeted him with a quiet, happy
smile, that was in contrast to the excitement and confusion that
reigned about them.

"I knew you would come back safely," she said. And the pressure of her
hand seemed to add "to me."

XII

The day of the review rose clear and warm, tempered by a light breeze
from the sea. As it was a fete day, the harbor wore an air of unwonted
inactivity; no lighters passed heavily from the levees to the
merchantmen at anchor, and the warehouses along the wharves were closed
and deserted. A thin line of smoke from the funnels of the 'Vesta'
showed that her fires were burning, and the fact that she rode on a
single anchor chain seemed to promise that at any moment she might slip
away to sea.

As Clay was finishing his coffee two notes were brought to him from
messengers who had ridden out that morning, and who sat in their
saddles looking at the armed force around the office with amused
intelligence.

One note was from Mendoza, and said he had decided not to call out the
regiment at the mines, as he feared their long absence from drill would
make them compare unfavorably with their comrades, and do him more harm
than credit. "He is afraid of them since last night," was Clay's
comment, as he passed the note on to MacWilliams. "He's quite right,
they might do him harm."

The second note was from Stuart. He said the city was already wi