n green water was being lifted from the surface of the sea and
falling back like dull golden metal in patches, with an interval of
darkness between them, the bestirred water looking like so much molten
ore as it splashed about.

Then there was the scraping of a boat-hook against the side, close to
the gangway, and the dimly-seen figure of a man scrambling on board.

No enemy certainly, for Fitz made out that the newcomer grasped both the
captain's hands in his, and began talking to him in a low eager excited
tone, the captain's responses, given in the man's own tongue, sounding
short and sharp, interspersed too with an angry ejaculation or two. The
conversation only lasted about five minutes, and then the visitor turned
back to the side, uttered an order in a low tone which caused a little
stir in the boat below, and stepped down. Fitz could hear him crossing
the thwarts to the stern, and the craft was pushed off. Then the golden
splashes in the sea came regularly once more, to grow fainter and
fainter, in the direction of the city lights; and then they were alone
in the silence and darkness of the night.

It was not Fitz's fault that he heard what followed, for the skipper
came close up to where he was standing with Poole, followed by the mate,
who had sent the men forward as soon as the boat was gone.

"Well," said the skipper, "it's very unfortunate."

"Is it?" said the mate gruffly.

"Yes. Couldn't you hear?"

"I heard part of what he said, but my Spanish is very bad, especially if
it's one of these mongrel half Indian-bred fellows who is talking. You
had better tell me plainly how matters stand."

"Very well. Horribly badly. Things have gone wrong since we left
England. Our friends were too venturesome, and they were regularly
trapped, with the result that they were beaten back out of the town, and
the President's men seized the fort, got hold of their passwords and the
signalling flags that they had in the place, and answered our signals,
so that they took me in. If it had not been for his man's coming
to-night with a message from Don Ramon, we should have sailed right into
the trap as soon as it was day, and been lying under the enemy's guns."

"Narrow escape, then," said the mate.

"Nearly ruin," was the reply.

"But hold hard a minute. Suppose, after all, this is a bit of a trick,
a cooked-up lie to cheat us."

"Not likely," said the skipper. "What good would it do the enemy to
send us