"I'll be shot for disobedience of orders before I ever again undertake to act the low-down part of a spy," he reflected, bitterly. At the same time he was wondering how he should manage to escape the kindly but embarrassing attentions of these new-found friends, and reach Daiquiri in time to communicate with General Shafter upon his arrival. In spite of these thoughts, he did not fail to admire the beauty and massive symmetry of the ships they were approaching. There lay the _Cristobal Colon_, latest product of Italian skill; the splendid _Vizcaya_, that had recently attracted the admiration of all who saw her in New York Harbor; the _Almirante Oquendo_, that had been received with such wild enthusiasm in Havana; the _Maria Teresa_, famed for the richness of her interior fittings; the _Reina Mercedes_, used as a hospital-ship; the _Pluton_ and the _Furor_, low, black, and ugly to look upon, both holding records for enormous speed, and more dreaded as engines of destruction than all the others put together. Stripped to fighting trim, these ships were the very embodiment of modern sea-power, and in his ignorance Ridge wondered if anything afloat could resist them. From them his attention was at length attracted to the Admiral, who was saying: "I am about to send this launch, under a flag of truce, out to the American flag-ship to procure some supplies for our prisoners, the Senor Hobson and his men. So if you have a desire to view the Yankee ships at close range I shall be pleased to have you accompany it. Possibly you speak the English, in which case you might prove of use as interpreter." "I do not speak it so well as does my friend the Senor Remelios," replied Lieutenant Navarro, to whom this invitation had been extended. "Then it may be that he will do me the favor to accompany the launch," suggested the Admiral, and of course Ridge gladly embraced the opportunity thus offered. "Perhaps I can stay on board the American ship," he said to himself, "and not be compelled to revisit Santiago until I can do so as an honest fighter, instead of as a contemptible spy. And what a chance it will be for Navarro to escape from the Spaniards!"