It would be a decidedly unpleasant episode in his checkered career should they capture him on board the Sterling Castle--he was a marked man in the minds of those whose sympathies were enlisted for Spain, and they could imagine nothing finer than an opportunity to lay him by the heels. Georgia too was on the watch for danger, since any injury to her lover must cause suffering in her own devoted heart. She imagined the three brave gentlemen when they returned after finishing the wine and cigars would come as they went, in a bunch. If this were the case she would receive ample warning of their approach--when the voice of the siren was heard rumbling afar it would be time for Roderic to say good bye, and to get down from that quarter deck with all due alacrity. A chance was given them to speak of the future in the land where fate was taking them as fast as steam could drive, and Roderic improved the opportunity to arrange it so that he might be sure of meeting Georgia should fortune allow him to enter San Juan ere it was surrendered to General Miles or those under him. It looked rosy enough just then while her loved presence beamed upon him--perhaps later on, with lowering clouds of misfortune shrouding his future, Roderic might have cause for doubts and fears that it would require all his personal valor to scatter. The warning she counted on failed them, for Don Porfidio knew better than most men when he had discovered a good thing, and could not be prevailed upon to leave it short of an earthquake or a simoon. Thus it chanced that Jerome returned alone, returned smoking a prime weed, and possibly filled with the thought of a quiet little flirtation with the general's charming niece, whose cold treatment of his Beau Brummel advances had rather piqued his spirit of romantic interest, and aroused his manly desire for conquest--returned so quietly that his approach was quite unobserved by the two lovers among the steamer chairs on the quarter deck until his head and shoulders loomed dimly into view above the top of the short ladder. CHAPTER XIII. ADONIS ON A NEW TACK. Ordinarily it took considerable to surprise Jerome Wellington--he had such good control over his nervous system that he could take in a philosophical manner much that might have rattled a less collected customer. In plainer words he had studied the art of appearing cool under all conditions. As an adventurer with an enviable record for successful achievements behind him he had many times found this accomplishment very useful in carrying out the bold designs necessary to the fulfillment of his game. For once at least Jerome was obliged to confess to weakening--for once his confidence appeared to have overshot its mark, and he even doubted the positive evidence of his senses.