tcap.

"I have to report, M. le Baron, that we are in possession of the fort
on Boca Chica. The standard of France is flying from what remains of its
tower, and the way into the outer harbour is open to your fleet."

M. de Rivarol was compelled to swallow his fury, though it choked
him. The jubilation among his officers had been such that he could not
continue as he had begun. Yet his eyes were malevolent, his face pale
with anger.

"You are fortunate, M. Blood, that you succeeded," he said. "It would
have gone very ill with you had you failed. Another time be so good as
to await my orders, lest you should afterwards lack the justification
which your good fortune has procured you this morning."

Blood smiled with a flash of white teeth, and bowed. "I shall be glad of
your orders now, General, for pursuing our advantage. You realize that
speed in striking is the first essential."

Rivarol was left gaping a moment. Absorbed in his ridiculous anger, he
had considered nothing. But he made a quick recovery. "To my cabin, if
you please," he commanded peremptorily, and was turning to lead the way,
when Blood arrested him.

"With submission, my General, we shall be better here. You behold there
the scene of our coming action. It is spread before you like a map."
He waved his hand towards the lagoon, the country flanking it and
the considerable city standing back from the beach. "If it is not a
presumption in me to offer a suggestion...." He paused. M. de Rivarol
looked at him sharply, suspecting irony. But the swarthy face was bland,
the keen eyes steady.

"Let us hear your suggestion," he consented.

Blood pointed out the fort at the mouth of the inner harbour, which was
just barely visible above the waving palms on the intervening tongue of
land. He announced that its armament was less formidable than that
of the outer fort, which they had reduced; but on the other hand, the
passage was very much narrower than the Boca Chica, and before they
could attempt to make it in any case, they must dispose of those
defences. He proposed that the French ships should enter the outer
harbour, and proceed at once to bombardment. Meanwhile, he would land
three hundred buccaneers and some artillery on the eastern side of the
lagoon, beyond the fragrant garden islands dense with richly bearing
fruit-trees, and proceed simultaneously to storm the fort in the rear.
Thus beset on both sides at once, and demoralized by the fate of the
m