t.

But suddenly he hit on a daring scheme.

"Captain," he said, "my orders are from General Blanco himself. He
charged me above all things to see these people safe at once, even if I
had to go out to the ships with them. I don't see that there is but one
thing we can do."

"What is it?"

"We will have to hoist a flag of truce and take them out on this
vessel."

The captain started.

"Can we trust the Americans?" he gasped.

"They are expecting us," said the lieutenant quietly.

And then for a minute the captain was silent; when he spoke it was to
the man at the wheel.

"Steer us out to the Yankee fleet," he said. "It will have to be done,
and run up that white flag."

* * * * *

Perhaps ten minutes after that the blockading squadron sighted a Spanish
gunboat coming toward them with a flag of truce.

The New York steamed to meet it; and the vessel came alongside and
without a word of explanation the two prisoners were sent aboard.

Clif and Bessie both gazed longingly at the noble-hearted lieutenant as
he stood on the deck and watched them leave. Their look said plainer
than words, "Come with us!"

But he only shook his head; and when he saw the two disappear upon the
deck of the big cruiser, and when the gunboat was well on her way back
to shore he turned with a slight groan and went below.

Clif and Bessie wondered with anxiety and sorrow what would be his fate.
They dreaded for him the worst tortures of Castle Morro, but the heroic
Spaniard escaped that--in a way that Clif learned a few days later.

CHAPTER XXII.

CUTTING A CABLE.

The cadet's report was soon made. Under ordinary circumstances he would
have been ordered to report back to the Uncas, but that stanch little
gunboat was then miles beyond the western horizon. Moreover, the admiral
had other work for the cadet.

As to Miss Stuart; there was a parting between her and Clif that was
such as should be between acknowledged lovers, but it was a parting of
the most decided kind, for his duty lay in the war, hers on land. She
was sent to Key West on a cruiser that was then leaving the squadron to
recoal.

What the young man and the girl said to each other cannot concern us
here, for we have now to do with Faraday's experience as a sailor. His
love affair had to await the events of war, and so may the story of it.

Clif's next service began on the morning following his escape. A small
boat left the