was so slow as to be
almost useless, and Paul's Peruvians had a wholesome dread of the
enemies' guns which could be turned with great rapidity in any
direction. Daily they sailed to some barren, desolate island, hoping for
a chance to blow one of the Chilean's vessels out of the water. The
Huascar stood up and down the coast at times, almost within range of
the Peruvian guns. As she was one of the vessels Paul wanted to get, he
determined to lay in her track and risk an attempt to destroy her.
With such intention, he ran the sloop out as far as he could, one night,
and went overboard in his dress, with a screw torpedo, that would
have blown the Huascar as high as the topmost peaks of San Lorenzo. It
was a favorable night--dark, with a choppy sea that turned the
phosphorescent lights up, all over the surface, so that no single object
could be distinguished in it. He sighted the Huascar crawling slowly
along the coast, with not a light to be seen aboard of her. Being short
of coal, her fires were banked and she was carried forward by her own
momentum. When there was danger of her losing steerage way, her engines
would be started again and then shut down as before. Thus she was slowly
creeping along the coast line.

Her bow glided by Paul not more than twenty feet away. He moved
cautiously to her side expecting to catch hold of her rudder chain. He
saw one-hundred-thousand dollars in his grasp. Now, he thought, "one of
the most powerful enemies of Peru will be put beyond doing damage." When
he was about midship and was preparing to reach for her chain, the
steersman's bell rang a signal to the engineer, her wheel began to
revolve and she slipped by him out of danger, of which those on board
were unconscious. Paul was terribly discomfited at the result of that
attempt which was so near being successful. He left the torpedo
floating on the sea and struck out to reach shore before daylight
discovered him, knowing that it would be impossible to gain the sloop.

The next move of the torpedo men was to sail to all the outside islands,
which are literally alive with seals and sea lions. So thick were
those mammals, that the guns were frequently turned on them. Their
numbers so emboldened them that unless frightened away, they would
attack the intruders on their territory. From those islands Paul took
observations of the movements of the Chileans and came to the
conclusion that they were running