of
finding a way to get across the river; and he knew that there were only
two points at which this feat of crossing was possible, namely, those
which Carlos and he were defending. He therefore scribbled a little
note to his friend, warning the latter what to guard against, and
dispatched it by a negro messenger, whom he also instructed to
afterwards call at the house and bring from thence a pair of binocular
glasses which were to be found on a table in his (Jack's) bedroom.

By the time that the messenger returned with the glasses it had grown
intensely dark: for to the natural obscurity of night there was added
the further obscuration caused by the smoke with which the atmosphere
was laden; while, to still further intensify the blackness, a heavy
thunderstorm was working up against the wind, the combined result being
a darkness in which it was literally impossible to see one's hand before
one's face. Jack was at first inclined to anathematise the darkness;
but when at length he was enabled to fully realise the intensity of it
he felt much more disposed to bless it, for, having moved about half a
dozen paces away from his post, and experienced some difficulty in
finding his way back, he began to comfort himself with the reflection
that the enemy, utterly strange to the country as they were, could do
nothing until light enough should come to at least enable them to see
where to put their feet.

Yet Jack was mistaken in so supposing, for as the time went on he became
aware of certain sounds out there on the plain which seemed to indicate
pretty unmistakably that, despite the darkness, the Spaniards were
busily employed. When the moaning and sighing of the night wind among
the branches of the trees, the rustle of the bamboos, and the clash of
the palm leaves subsided for an instant, allowing more distant sounds to
reach his ears, he intermittently caught what seemed to be the sounds of
picks and shovels at work at no very great distance; moreover, there
were lights flitting about the distant camp, and much movement there,
though what it portended Jack was quite unable to discover, even with
the help of his night glasses. At length, however, the period of
darkness came to an end, for sheet lightning began to flicker and quiver
among the densely packed clouds low down on the western horizon, at
first for an instant only and at comparatively long intervals, but soon
increasing greatly in vividness and rapidity: and then