t after such costly experiences, the Chileans
redoubled their watchfulness. They would not approach anything
seen floating on the water; but turned their guns on whatever they saw
at long range. They were known to fire at a seal that had wandered away
from its usual haunts. Paul and his crew were compelled to keep close
under cover. The Chileans were daily drawing their lines closer to the
doomed city of Lima. Boyton dispatched an officer to Don Nicholas with a
request to be sent with his torpedo crew down to Pisco where he expected
the Chileans would attempt to laud troops. The answer he received was
"Impatience is a bad counselor. Wait for orders."

If Paul had followed his own instincts, he could have knocked two or
three Chilean vessels out of the water, for they landed at Pisco a
few days later and no very sharp lookout being kept, he might have put
torpedoes under them at night.

As the enemy was gradually closing in by land and sea, Paul was ordered
to Callao to take charge of a submarine boat that had been built by a
Swiss engineer. The boat was to be run by compressed air under water and
by steam on the surface. It was a complicated affair and Boyton had
but little confidence in it and that confidence was considerably
lessened when the inventor himself refused to go down in her. However,
it was decided to try her. Having managed all the details of her
construction, Boyton ordered her swung under a big pair of shears and
from their support hung the boat on chains, so that in case she would
not run to the surface by her own power, she could be hoisted by the
machinery above. She was then lowered to the water. Paul and two of his
crew entered, but before descending to the bottom, gave orders to those
manning the shears, to hoist at the expiration of twenty minutes. After
fastening the man-hole, the valves were closed. There was an ominous
hissing of air that sounded peculiar; but when she got her weight of
water, she slowly settled on the mud bottom in twenty-three feet of
water.

"Now get at your compressed air and see how she will go on the bottom,"
said Paul to the engineer as soon as they felt they were down.

She wheezed and groaned and moved slightly on the mud; but she refused
to rise. Groping about with his lantern, the engineer found something
was the matter with the valves as lie could not get one of them to work
and he grew excited. He was advised to keep cool as there was