deterred them from laying in to shore at night. Paul drilled
the officers that were placed under him in the use of the rubber dress
and in handling torpedoes; but he did not find them overly energetic
in their work. They spent most of their time among the islands, that
were formed by great rocks which had been cast from the mainland
by earthquake or volcanic action, watching the movements of the
Chileans. All day long the blockading vessels would lay in sight; but
at night they would steam further out to sea and stand slowly up and
down the coast. Night after night Paul and his crew watched for an
opportunity to place one of their torpedoes under the dark hull of a
Chilano; but the latter were on the alert for them, having been informed
that Boyton had been engaged by Peru. The phosphorescence of the water
at night was also against them. The least disturbance on its surface
would cause a glow of silver to flash in the darkness that could be
seen for quite a distance.

One night as they were watching from Chorrillos, a cruiser was sighted
steaming slowly up the coast and Paul determined to test her alertness
at all hazards. He put on his dress and taking a one hundred pound
torpedo in tow, paddled out as carefully as possible until he saw her
head toward him. Then he set the fly torpedo across what he thought
would be her track and pulled in shore. Had the cruiser picked the line
up with her bow, it would have thrown the torpedo along her side,
setting an automatic wheel in motion that would explode it. When he had
reached a safe distance, he turned to see the vessel blown up and to
his intense disappointment, the cruiser turned a gatling gun on the
torpedo. The Chileans were more watchful than he had given them credit
for.

After the Chilean had discovered the torpedo, the little sloop barely
escaped by putting out her sweeps and drawing close up under the land,
by that means reaching Chorrillos next morning in safety. A party of
marines from the cruiser were landed on an island near where they
had discovered the torpedo, next day, to hunt out those who had placed
it. Fortunately for Paul and his crew they had eluded the cruiser
under cover of the night. For some two months after the above adventure,
the torpedo men laid under the shelter of the batteries on the top of
Moro, a high bluff. They made sorties every night; but the Chileans were
on the watch for them, besides the sloop