t which could have but one ending, considering the fact
that the corvette was now the only effective ship which the Peruvians
possessed in their sadly depleted navy. He consequently put up his helm
and, describing a wide sweep to port, made off toward the entrance to
the "Second Narrows," maintaining, however, a well-directed fire as he
went with his 8-inch stern gun, which weapon dropped shell with
remarkable precision aboard the cruiser and her consort.

Jim had just signalled the _Miraflores_ that he was going to chase the
_Union_, and that the prize was to rendezvous at Punta Arenas, when an
event occurred which made a rendezvous as unnecessary as it was
impossible for the second gun-runner.

For, as though determined to do all the damage he possibly could before
slipping away, Villavicencio had ordered a number of his broadside guns
to be shifted aft, to enable him to maintain as heavy a fire as possible
from that part of the ship; and so rapidly did he now fire from his
stern ports that the series of explosions looked almost like a
continuous sheet of flame, while the solid shot and shell fell round the
Chilian ships like hail. The _Miraflores_ had by this time dropped
about a quarter of a mile astern of the _Angamos_, and the latter was
gaining rapidly on the corvette, when the _Union_ fired what was
intended to be her last shot, a shell from an 8-inch gun. But that
shell was the saving of her for, having pierced the unarmoured sides of
the _Miraflores_ as though they had been paper, the explosion took
effect right among the tightly packed ammunition-cases which constituted
her cargo, and the next second she went into the air, as the _Huemul_
had done, with an appalling roar, followed by a tremendous shower of all
kinds of debris.

From the very nature of the explosion Jim felt practically certain that
no one could possibly be left alive out of her whole company, yet there
was nevertheless just one chance in a thousand that there might be; and
with a groan of disappointment at being obliged to abandon the chase of
the _Union_, he turned his ship round and began to search for possible
survivors.

But he found none. A few poor unrecognisable human remnants were all
that rewarded him for his attempt at rescue; and after a precious hour
lost in this way, he once more turned his ship's head and went off at
full speed after the _Union_.

But that hour's start had been sufficient for the corvette, and had
enab