and violent "flaws" of wind so peculiar to high and
mountainous coasts.

All this was extremely gratifying to the commander of the American ship;
in the first place the Venganza (for that was the warlike name of this
redoubtable man-of-war), by lying so far up the harbor, was out of the
line between the Albatross and the point where it was intended to send a
boat that night; and secondly, the absence of so indispensable a spar as
the fore-yard would render pursuit impossible.

Captain Williams went on shore in the afternoon, and met the old Don,
who treated him with great condescension, and even hinted at the
probability of his making another visit to the Albatross, to which hint
the seaman replied as politely as could be expected. It was nearly night
when he once more entered dame Juanita's shop, from which he took the
liberty to despatch a message to Isabella. She appeared in a few
minutes, and hastily assured him that the prospect of success was
bright, and that nothing existed at that time that threatened to defeat
their plans.

As soon as he returned to his ship, he made preparations for getting
under way as speedily as possible; the bower anchor was hove up, and the
ship rode by a light kedge, there being then but little wind or tide;
the gaskets were cast off the topsails, and their places supplied with
ropeyarns, which would break as soon as the "bunts," or middle of the
sails, were let fall; the chewlines and other running-rigging were
overhauled; and every other plan for making sail upon the ship as
expeditiously and as silently as possible, was adopted. The crew of the
Albatross performed all these different acts of duty with silence and
alacrity. Although their commander had not communicated his plan to
them, they knew by instinct that something bold and daring was to be
attempted that night for the rescue of their favorite officer, and their
four messmates; and their hopes of a brush with the "Don Degos" were
most keenly excited. They were assembled on the forecastle, holding
"high dispute" and conjecture upon the course about to be pursued.

"Now if I was the old man," said one of the younger seamen, "I tell you
what I would do. I would jest land as many of us as could be spared,
with cutlasses and boarding-pikes"--

"And pistols," interrupted another.

"No; d--n your pistols; they make too much noise; they're all talk and
no cider; besides, they miss fire half the time; and before you get
ready fo