It was best that he delay his desperate work until San Juan had at least in a measure quieted down, since there was more chance of the sentries being careless, and less fear of running against citizens in the street after the rescue should have been effected. The minutes dragged, for he was eager to get to work--like a war horse that paws the ground and tugs at his halter when the distant booming of guns and the pungent scent of burnt powder announce the battle to have begun. At length his patience gave out. By stretching a point the time had come for him to advance on the outer works, for which he was extremely grateful; with a sigh of genuine relief he threw off the incubus that had borne so heavily upon him during this delay, and set his face toward the ancient fortress that had seen almost every event of interest happening in San Juan from the days of that gallant adventurer and seeker after the Fountain of Youth, Ponce de Leon. CHAPTER XXIII. HOW THEY WENT IN. The battlements and towers of the old fortification stood up grimly against the clouded heavens when Roderic drew near--just as they had reared themselves for centuries, and looked down upon many of the strangest scenes marking the history of new America. Roderic had considerable respect for antiquity, and yielded the palm to none when it came to holding in reverence such wonderful mementoes of the past; but common sense triumphed over such feelings, and when necessity demanded that he should push the sanctity of age and tradition into the background, he never hesitated. Should the success of his avowed undertaking be in peril he would feel it incumbent upon himself to walk roughshod over the range and even destroy if necessary the finest and most venerated relic of olden days. Such is the price of American progress--a musty disease breeding old palace must be transformed into a modern hive of industry or be leveled to the ground in order to make way for some edifice of more value to humanity; for these Americans are a practical people of to-day, seeking not to perpetuate the evils of the dead past, but to raise up the masses to a higher plane where they may enjoy the fruits of their labor, reap the benefits of free education and worship God in their own way, irrespective of church and state. It was well known to Owen that Spanish sentries, Mauser in hand, patroled the walls and corridors of the old building. He had even marked as minutely as possible where each soldier's beat began and ended, for it is such little things as this that count in the long run, often most unexpectedly. It appeared to be a formidable task for one American to undertake--seldom had a heavier load been placed upon a single pair of shoulders; but fortunately this man was singularly well equipped for the task, since his previous work for years had always been in this same line.