"Oh, pray don't say any more to me about it, sir," cried Fitz, the next day. "It was only just an idea." "An idea, my dear young friend!" cried the President. "Yes, sir; a mere trifle." "A trifle!" said the President. "Oh, how lightly you English boys do take such things. Your trifle, as you call it, has made me fast in the Governmental chair. I shall always think that I owe you my success." "What, because I thought there was another breech-block, sir?" "Oh, not merely that. There was your first idea about getting away from the hacienda and coming round here by sea. They may seem trifles to your young elastic spirit, but their effect has been great." "Once more, sir; please don't say any more. My only wonder is now, that somebody else on board the gunboat did not think about the spare block and get it into use." "Ah, yes; one of the officers has been talking to me about it. He said he was the only man on board who knew of its existence, and--simply because it had not been wanted--he had almost forgotten, or, as he put it, it was for the time driven out of his head by the great trouble they were in, caused by the fouling of the screw, and the current carrying them on to the rocks." "Oh, I am glad of that," said Fitz. "Glad? Why?" said the President, looking at him wonderingly. "Because it makes Poole Reed stand out so much better than I do. It was entirely his notion to foul the screw." "Oh, come, come, come!" cried Don Ramon. "I am not going to weigh you both in the balance to see which was the better. I shall always look upon you as a pair of young heroes." "Oh, I say," cried Poole, "please don't!" "Very well," said the Spaniard, laughing; "I'll say no more, but I shall think." "I don't mind his thinking," said Fitz, a short time later when he was talking to his companion about what had been said. "But I hope next time he wants to go into ecstasies about what we did, he'll let them all off at you." "Thankye," said Poole; "much obliged." The lads had something else to think of the next day, for in the midst of the rejoicings over Don Ramon's success, and when the gunboat was dressed with colours from head to stern, the new President's flag predominant, and her old officers accepting the alteration in the state of affairs with the greatest nonchalance, and in fact on the whole pleased with the change of rulers, signals were shown from the high look-out at the entrance of the harbour indicating that a vessel was in sight. In the midst of the excitement that this caused, steam was hastily got up on board the gunboat, and the decks cleared for action ready for an engagement if necessary in Don Ramon's cause. The excitement soon ceased to be alarming, for in due course the stranger's flag was made out, her signal for a pilot answered, and in the course of the afternoon a United States cruiser steamed in, answering the salute from the fort and gunboat, and taking up her position close under their guns.