The attitude of the prisoners was reassuring; they could not load as rapidly as O’Neil had made the soldiers do; but they were used to naval warfare, they were on their own element, the night and the unseen danger held for them many terrors, but they were not so terrified as their soldier comrades; also they had been told that they would all be drowned if the “Aquadores” was torpedoed and that if they refused to fire they would suffer death from the soldiers’ rifles. Phil felt confident the sailors could be depended upon. He glanced aloft at the search-light platforms, high above the bridge deck; the operators stood ready, like shrouded statues, silhouetted against the starless sky. Captain Garcia was the man of action, one hand on the telegraph to the engine room and his other on the switch for the search-lights, his eyes peering into the night. Phil read his intention at a glance: on the discovery of the enemy to start ahead at full speed and flash both search-lights on her simultaneously. “The ‘Barcelo’ should be there by now,” the captain said in a tense voice to the lad beside him. “Will my strategy fail? Have I made an error in my judgment of my countrymen?” Phil was silent. His nerves were at too high tension to speak. “The ‘Barcelo’s’ orders were if she discovered the torpedo-boat,” Captain Garcia continued in a nervous whisper, “to turn her search-light upon the enemy and steam at full speed toward us. We shall remain dark. My dread is that our enemy may be now returning to the harbor and will suddenly find me in her path.” “But even if that happens will she be able to fire a torpedo immediately?” questioned Phil in a voice he tried hard to control. “Her torpedoes will be in the tubes,” he answered, “and probably primed ready to be fired, but she must first aim her tube at us and not suspecting that we are near, there should be a sufficient interval for us to sink her.” Captain Garcia had been so fully occupied gazing to seaward that he had failed to notice that the tide entering the harbor was slowly setting the “Aquadores” in toward the forts. An exclamation from the lad at his side made him throw an apprehensive glance over his shoulder at the near-by shore. It seemed very close. He seized the engine room telegraph and signaled for full speed ahead. But a flash from the batteries and a sullen roar showed him their thoughtlessness had discovered them to the watchful enemy. The shells screeched over their heads and struck the water with a spiteful hiss. “We have lost,” Captain Garcia exclaimed in bitter anguish; “if the torpedo-boat is out she can easily avoid us, knowing we are near. From her deck she can see us long before we can sight her. My hope was that they would not be watchful; now they have been warned and will run cautiously.” The “Aquadores” slowly gathered speed and, turning, steamed out to sea in the direction taken by her consort.