“I will furnish the men,” Ta-Ling cried, beside himself with impatience. “You must furnish me a launch with some one to run it; but hurry, man,” he urged excitedly. “The grass must be burned off before the fleet arrives at the island, or else we are defeated.” Commander Ignacio immediately awoke to action. The thought of the lieutenant who had innocently betrayed him came happily to his mind; he could run the engine and the sailors could remain on board ship. The secret would be safe with this officer. No one could connect him with the act of burning the island. The lieutenant was called and was eager to regain his captain’s favor. Ten minutes later the launch from the “Albaque,” manned by the Chinese soldiers, with Commander Ignacio himself at the helm, had quietly left the gunboat. Reaching the northern point of the island, a landing was made and a Chinaman landed, armed with instructions from the viceroy’s secretary to set fire to the grass in as many places as possible and to return in time to be picked up on the launch’s return. The launch then steamed down stream, stopping at several points to land the soldiers. As yet, all was well. The launch had run the complete length of the long island, landing the incendiary soldiers; the south end of the island was only a few hundred yards ahead. Ta-Ling directed the foreign captain to steer once more to the steep shore. There were no more soldiers remaining; the ten men had all been landed and ten fires were by now burning fiercely in as many places on the long island. Stepping ashore, he was soon lost in the high grass towering over twenty feet above him. Lighting a fire-brand, hastily made of dry reeds, he carefully applied it, as he walked along, to the dying vegetation. Now in an hour the island would be a blazing furnace. For the rest of the night the channels would be lighted as bright as day. Even the monitors would not dare to attempt to pass the forts until the following night, and by that time he would have fully revenged himself on the Americans and escaped to the interior. He smiled cruelly as his thoughts dwelt upon his cunning ruse upon the viceroy; the mandarin, in his excited fear, had signed the order to Hang-Ki to withdraw his soldiers from the mission to protect the forts. Now the bloodthirsty rabble, armed and organized by him (Ta-Ling), could with impunity hurl themselves upon the mission. CHAPTER XX RUNNING THE BATTERIES The midshipmen gazed fearfully toward the island. What could it mean? Had the grass on the island been fired, and if so, would the fire reach dangerous proportions before the fleet had safely passed its shelter? What was the meaning of the launch ahead of their own?