outnumbered,
not one doubted their ability to repel the attempt to board. There was
only one condition that they would have changed; that was the presence
of the ladies. They could be safeguarded during the fight, but it
would have been better had they been far away. Such absence, however,
was impossible and no one referred to it.

But the naval battle never took place. When all the defenders were
alert and on edge, it was observed that the yacht was floating. The
disappointment was felt keenly even by the bellicose cook. There
was a general peering into the gloom in the hope of discerning the
approaching boats, and a sigh when they failed to appear.

"It sometimes takes more courage to run away than to fight," said
Major Starland with a laugh; "therefore we shall run away."

He called his orders to Captain Winton, who, having shaken off the
clutch of the mud, turned the prow of the craft so as to flank the
obstruction, and signalled the engineer to go ahead at moderate speed.
At the same time, he sent out a reverberating blast from the whistle,
which the Atlamalcans might accept as a parting salute.

The yacht steamed carefully down the river, and in the early hours of
the morning passed Zalapata, where a few lights twinkled, and then
proceeded toward the more pretentious town of San Luis. The only ones
awake on the _Warrenia_ were those whose duties required them to be
alert, and Captain Winton, knowing that General Bambos was absent,
held the whistle mute as he went by.

* * * * *

If the yacht _Warrenia_ and its crew and passengers had been called
upon to pass through a series of stirring incidents while in tropical
America, a rare and most gratifying experience now came to them. The
weather remained calm and the run to the southern extremity of the
continent was as smooth and tranquil as it had been across the
Caribbean Sea. When the neighborhood of Cape Horn was reached, Major
Starland, in order to keep his pledge with his father, took the wheel.
Captain Winton lit his pipe, sat down in the pilot house and grimly
waited until his services were necessary.

But not for an hour were they required, except now and then, in the
way of simple relief. He had passed that danger region more than once,
but never had he seen it so free of storm and rough weather. There was
not a single moment when the yacht was in the slightest danger. In
fact, to emphasize the wonderful, summer-like ca