point of lighting it when the officer appeared.

"Stop, sir!" he commanded. "Would you blow us all to destruction?"

Others standing near made a move as if to stop Clif, but it was too
late. The fuse was burning rapidly.

With a cry of alarm and amazement, the officers, American as well as
Spanish, sprang to one side and dodged in great fright.

But Clif calmly stood by, his arms folded and a confident smile playing
about his lips.

He was putting his theory to the test.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE MYSTERY OF THE UNEXPLODED SHELL.

Mingled with evident fright and alarm there was upon the face of each a
look of incredulity at rashness of the cadet. Had his adventures and
narrow escapes turned his brain, and were they now at the mercy of a
maniac? was in the minds of all.

They had not long to wait. The fuse burned rapidly and spluttered to the
end, and as they all involuntarily ducked their heads at the impending
explosion, a peculiar thing happened.

When the fire from the fuse reached the shell there was a sharp clicking
sound, and those who were looking at the shell saw it suddenly open like
a book, and from its hollow interior fell a roll of paper upon the
table.

This Clif seized and waved over his head in triumph.

"Hurrah!" he cried. "It is as I suspected. Secret dispatches from the
enemy that are worth all they have cost!"

The officers were struck dumb with amazement, and stood and stared at
the smiling young man as though they could not believe their eyes. But
after a time they crowded around him and examined the shell curiously,
and then the papers that Clif held in his hand.

The papers were evidently written in Spanish, and though the American
officers could not read them, they now had conceived sufficient
confidence in Clif to believe that they were indeed of importance.

The shell, whose quest had caused Clif so much peril and danger, was a
curious affair. It had been cunningly contrived for the purpose it had
so admirably fulfilled. Though very much in appearance like the
old-fashioned round shells, it was in two parts, ingeniously hinged so
that when closed it required very close scrutiny to detect the seam.

It was hollow, and consequently light in weight. This fact had first
arrested Clif's attention and had set his thoughts to work upon the
mystery that was connected with it. In the opening where the fuse was
inserted there was a concealed mechanism so arranged that it might not