rom the water, and that the rescuers
must work from the outside. To get at Rojas from the inside it would
be necessary to take into their confidence some one of the prison
officials, and there was no one they dared to trust. Had it been a
question of money, Roddy pointed out, the friends of Rojas would
already have set him free. That they had failed to do so proved, not
that the prison officials were incorruptible, but that their fear of
the wrath of Alvarez was greater than their cupidity.

"There are several reasons why we should not attempt to bribe any
one," said Roddy, "and the best one is the same reason the man gave
for not playing poker. To-morrow I will introduce you to Vicenti, the
prison doctor, and we'll ask him to take us over the prison, and count
the cells, and try to mark the one in which we see Rojas. Perhaps we'd
better have the doctor in to dinner. He likes to tell you what a devil
of a fellow he was in New York, and you must pretend to believe he
was. We might also have the captain of the port, and get him to give
us permission to take the launch out at night. This port is still
under martial law, and after the sunset gun no boat may move about the
harbor. Then we must have some harpoons made and get out that
headlight, and spear eels."

"You couldn't spear an eel," objected Peter, "and if you could I
wouldn't eat it."

"You don't have to eat it!" explained Roddy; "the eels are only an
excuse. We want to get the sentries used to seeing us flashing around
the harbor at night. If we went out there without some excuse, and
without permission, exploding like a barrel of fire-crackers, they'd
sink us. So we must say we are out spearing eels."

The next morning Roddy showed a blacksmith how to hammer out tridents
for spearing eels, and that night those people who lived along the
harbor front were kept awake by quick-fire explosions, and the glare
in their windows of a shifting search-light. But at the end of the
week the launch of the Gringos, as it darted noisily in and out of the
harbor, and carelessly flashed its search-light on the walls of the
fortress, came to be regarded less as a nuisance than a blessing. For
with noble self-sacrifice the harbor eels lent themselves to the
deception. By hundreds they swarmed in front of the dazzling
headlight; by dozens they impaled themselves upon the tines of the
pitchforks. So expert did Roddy and Peter become in harpooning, that
soon they were able each mo