the
white. So! And the red again. Now we must wait!" and he sank down again
upon the blanket. All the impatience and languor were gone from him. The
moment had come. He was at once steel to meet it.

"Yes," said Jose Medina, "we shall see nothing more now for a long
while."

They heard no sound in that still night; they saw no gleam of lights. It
seemed to Hillyard that aeons passed before Jose touched him on the elbow
and pointed downwards.

"Look!" he whispered excitedly.

Right at their very feet the long, grim vessel lay, so near that
Hillyard had the illusion he could pitch a stone on to the conning
tower. He now held his breath, lest his breathing should be heard. Then
the water splashed, and a moment afterwards the submarine turned and
moved to sea. They gave it five minutes, and then climbed down to a tiny
creek. A rowing-boat lay in readiness there, with one man at the tiller
and two at the oars.

"You saw it, Manuel?" said Medina as he and Hillyard stepped in.

"Yes, Senor Jose. It was very close. Oh, they know these waters!"

The oars churned the phosphorescent water into green fire, and the foam
from the stem of the boat sparkled as though jewels were scattered into
it by the oarsmen as they rowed. They stopped alongside a little white
buoy which floated on the water. The buoy was attached to a rope; that
again to a chain. A mat was folded over the side of the boat and the
chain drawn cautiously in and coiled without noise. Hillyard saw the two
men who were hauling it in bend suddenly at their work and heave with a
greater effort.

"It is coming," said one of them, and the man at the tiller went forward
to help them. Hillyard leaned over the side of the heavy boat and stared
down into the water. But the night was too dark for him to see anything
but the swirl of green fire made by the movement of the chain and the
fire-drops falling from the links. At last something heavy knocked
against the boat's flanks.

"Once more," whispered the man from the tiller. "Now!"

And the load was perched upon the gunwale and lowered into the boat. It
consisted of three square and bulky metal cases, bound together by the
chain.

"We have it, my friend Marteen," whispered Jose Medina, with a laugh of
sheer excitement. He was indeed hardly less stirred than Hillyard
himself. "Not for nothing did the little Marteen lead the horse across
the beach of Benicassim. Now we will row back quickly. We must be far
away from