ast of the Englishmen--who
happened to be Dick--had vanished over the brow of the hill and was
racing down the steep slope toward the spot where the longboat had been
left in hiding, urging those ahead of him to redoubled efforts, lest the
Spaniards, rallying from their first surprise and panic, should sally
forth and attempt to cut off the fugitives.

The disturbance was all over in less than a minute; the echo of the last
explosion died away along the mangrove-bordered shore; the thud of the
last falling piece of fractured ordnance, as it crashed through the
boughs of the trees, had faintly reached the ears of the flying
Englishmen; and the birds were rapidly beginning to persuade themselves
that the whole thing had been no more than a peculiarly weird and
startling dream, when the whole party--which had been joined on the way
by the man from the lower battery--reached the boat and pulled up for a
moment to listen and recover their breath. But there was neither sight
nor sound of pursuit; and presently, after Dick had counted his party
and found that all were present and perfectly sound, the order was given
to get the boat afloat and shove off. This was done in a perfectly
quiet and orderly manner; and five minutes later, with the beams of the
rising sun brilliantly gilding her sails, the little craft slid down the
harbour entrance on her way to seaward, passing close under the walls of
the beach battery, the bewildered garrison of which had by this time
summoned up the courage necessary to enable them to go up on the gun
platform, to ascertain precisely what had happened. Most of them were
gazing earnestly out to seaward as the longboat slid past, consequently
they did not see her until it was too late, when, with loud outcries,
they seized their calivers and poured a hot but absolutely ineffective
fire after the bold adventurers. Two minutes later the boat swept round
the low point which forms the southern extremity of Tierra Bomba Island;
and then her occupants saw what it was that had so strongly attracted
the attention of the Spaniards; for, scarcely three miles away, they
beheld the _Adventure_ beating up toward the Boca Chica under a heavy
press of canvas. Bascomb had seen and interpreted aright the explosions
in the two batteries on Tierra Bomba, and was now fearlessly working the
ship in toward the land, knowing that, the guns in those two batteries
having been destroyed, there was now nothing to restrain