n, as he swept the sea with his glasses.

"She looked as if she had once been a pleasure yacht," said Harry.

"So she was, my boy. The Spaniards bought her from a New York
millionaire, but she was an old model then, and they have top-hampered
her with armor and guns until they have knocked what little speed she
had out of her. We'll not even see a whiff of their smoke in half an
hour."

"Will she continue so hopeless a chase?"

"O, sure she will. She hopes to trap us down the coast. See, there are
the shores of Cuba."

The boys turned quickly as he pointed over their starboard bow and saw a
low dark line in the distance.

"Hurrah," shouted Bert.

"Hurrah for what?" asked the captain, smiling at the enthusiastic boy
who swung his cap as he shouted.

"Why, just hurrah," answered Bert, sheepishly. "I began to think all
land had disappeared from the face of the ocean."

"Then you don't like the water?"

"Heretofore I always considered myself dead stuck on it, but hereafter
terra firma for mine. Something that you can dig your heels into and
where disagreeable Spaniards don't send bullets whistling around your
ears. How soon will we make Havana, captain?"

One of Dynamite's roaring laughs greeted this question of Bert's.

"Me boy," he said, as soon as he caught his breath, "if we should sail
into Havana harbor every mother's son of us would be shot by sunrise
to-morrow."

"But you are going to land somewhere?" questioned Harry.

"Sure there's a fine bit of a place down the coast that we'll take a
peep into before the moon's high to-night--barrin' any more Spanish
terriers. Sure they're thick on this coast. A pack of snarling mongrels,
and all snapping at the heels of Captain Dynamite. It's a proud man I
should be with a head on me that's worth five thousand dollars to the
man who can take it to Weyler."

"Do you mean that the Spaniards have put a price of five thousand
dollars on your head?" asked Harry in amazement, as he backed away from
the man instinctively.

"That was before my last voyage," chuckled the captain. "I would not be
surprised if they had boosted the quotation a point or two since then.
Gomez will know the latest market price."

The boys looked at him with awe. Here was a man who, though sailing into
the enemy's waters, boldly laughed at the thought that there was a price
on his head.

"He's the finest buccaneer I ever met outside of story books," whispered
Mason, as if meeting buccan