e distance astern. As that
did not suit the Spaniard's purposes, he very calmly slowed up.

And that in spite of the fact that the tug was so close that the
rapid-firing gun was hitting him every other shot!

That the vessel had slowed up, Lieutenant Raymond of course could not
tell. But he wouldn't have cared anyhow, for he had made up his mind to
go in there no matter what was there, torpedoes or the very Old Nick
himself.

And he went; for perhaps five minutes more the Uncas dashed in at full
speed, and the merchantman still never swerved.

"They're within a quarter of a mile of the shore!" gasped Clif.

He turned to his third box of cartridges with a grim smile on his face.
For he knew that something must happen soon.

It did, too--very soon.

It began when the merchantman suddenly swung round to starboard.

"Aha!" chuckled the cadet. "They're as close in as they dare. And now I
suppose they'll run down shore awhile."

Lieutenant Raymond was much puzzled to think why the vessel had risked
going so close in that storm; but he wasted no time in speculating, but
drove the wheel around with all his might.

The Uncas swerved and sped over to shut the merchantman off; at that
same instant the reason of the whole thing was seen.

The Uncas was not a mile from shore, and as she turned her broadside to
the land a masked battery in the sand let drive with a dozen guns at
once.

The whole thing was so sudden that for a moment it quite frightened the
Americans. Clif even stopped firing long enough to stare.

But the sudden alarm did not last very long; it left the men on the
Uncas laughing. For they had quite forgotten the character of the
Spanish gunners' aim.

A shot tore through the tug's funnel, another chipped a piece from her
bow, half a dozen shells whistled over her. And that was all.

Clif turned calmly to his gun again.

"If that's the best they can do," he thought, "they're welcome."

But that was not the best.

It wasn't that the batteries were aimed better next time. They were
aimed far worse in their eager haste. They did not even touch the Uncas.

But an instant later something happened that showed that the captain of
the Spanish merchantman had one more string to his bow.

He not only knew the location of the batteries, but he knew the location
of the sand bars. While his own vessel sped on in safety, on board the
Uncas there suddenly came a grinding thud, and an instant later the tug
st