!" exclaimed Clif, as he backed water
and rested upon his oars. "She'll succeed, too, unless one of our ships
should happen to discover her with its searchlight."

And then his responsibility, in view of the discovery he had made,
flashed upon him.

"I must warn the flagship at once," he exclaimed, seizing the oars and
sending the boat forward with a spurt.

But after a couple of strokes he suddenly stopped again.

"What a fool I am!" he exclaimed. "By the time I can row out to the
flagship, it will be too late. They must be warned instantly, and there
is only one way of doing it."

He reached for the signal rockets he had brought at the rear admiral's
order. Should he fire them?

Those on board the strange boat that was nearly abreast of him did not
know that he was there. If he gave the signal it would betray his
presence, and no doubt lead to an attack upon himself in his open boat.

Clif looked far out to sea for a moment, half hoping to see the flash of
the searchlight play upon the water, and lead to the detection of the
strange craft.

But the delay was only momentary.

"It is my duty to warn the ships," he exclaimed, as he set a rocket up
in the stern, and drawing a match from his pocket, struck it upon the
seat of the boat. "Here goes!"

A moment later, with a sharp whirr and a flash of light, the rocket shot
up into the air. A second and third followed; then Clif sprang back upon
his seat and seized the oars.

The signal had been given. He had done his duty at whatever risk there
might be to his own safety.

CHAPTER XXXI.

CAPTURED.

Clif had elected to imperil his own existence rather than allow one of
the enemy's boats to pass that blockade without warning to the American
ships. But he had no intention of lying idly by in the path of the
hostile craft.

He waited but a moment after the glare of the last rocket had died out
in the air, and then bent to the oars, and urged the boat toward the
open sea beyond.

And then he had every confidence that he had little to fear from the
enemy's boat.

"They'll have all they can do to look out for their own safety now," he
thought, "without paying any attention to me. The New York has seen the
signal, and will not be slow in making out the cause. Then look out, Mr.
Spaniard."

But there was more taking place upon those waters than Clif was
cognizant of, and peril came from an unlooked-for source.

His decision to send up the warning si