As we entered, we found ourselves in a great square red-tiled parade-ground. There were open thatched sheds all round two sides of it, and a dozen or more soldiers were hurriedly pouring out from under them to form a guard of honour. A couple of antiquated ’smooth bores’ lay on the ground with their trunnions smashed, in the centre was a broken-down well, and the whole place was littered with rubbish, old clothes, bones, and empty ammunition boxes. We’d hardly had a look round when who should come across, from some buildings on the far side, but old Gerald, a grey-haired, sunburnt, and bent-backed officer talking very fast to him. For a second I wondered whether he was a prisoner, but then I saw my friend the ’Gnome’ and several others of Gerald’s officers. The ’Gnome’ recognised me at once, showed his white teeth, smiled, pointed up to a flagstaff where that green and yellow flag hung, and then to a roll of green and black bunting which he was carrying under his arm, and I knew at once that Gerald was there to accept the surrender of the place, and that my bandy-legged chum was going presently to hoist the insurgent flag. Poor old Gerald! He looked so splendidly English, in his white riding-gear and polo-hat, and so proud, that I hated to meet him and tell him the awful news. He introduced the Skipper, and then me, to the weather-beaten Commandant. ’I no speak the English,’ he said, bowing. ’We’re just arranging the terms of surrender,’ Gerald told the Skipper. ’You’ve come in the nick of time, because the Commandant won’t trust himself in de Costa’s hands. They are old enemies, and I cannot persuade him.’ Oh! Fancy having arrived at this very moment to spoil all poor old Gerald’s hopes. I saw the Skipper ship his ’sea-boot’ face again, and felt certain that he was wondering whether it was possible to let things go on as they were, and not tell the news. He ’tut-tutted,’ screwed in his eyeglass, took off his helmet, and ran his fingers through his long hair, as he always did when worried, and then burst out with, ’Wilson, I’ve bad news for you—very sorry, lad, very sorry; the fleet and the transports cleared out because that cruiser of yours, _La Buena Presidente_, may be here at any minute, and, very sorry, lad, but I’ve got to capture her and give her up to the people at Santa Cruz. Our Government won’t recognise the insurgent Provisional Government, and I’m ordered to inform the Commandant. That’s why I’m here now.’ I could hardly bear to look at Gerald. He caught his breath for a moment, and his grand jaw tightened the least little bit as he said slowly, ’We shall have to make a fresh start, Captain Grattan.’ ’What shall I do?’ the Skipper asked him. ’You’d better explain to the Commandant.’