On the port side—the breakwater side—we were now right alongside the Santa Cruz Navy—miserable dirty little ships when you saw them close to us. Their people were awake and on deck, but hardly bothered to look at us, and were fishing over the side, smoking cigarettes, and spitting in the water, some of them washing clothes and hanging them up in the rigging. They did hoist their colours—the vertical green and yellow stripes—after a time, but that was the only thing they did. Not very exciting, after all we had been hoping for, was it? Just before we got up to the end of the breakwater we’d dropped a kedge anchor made fast to our biggest wire hawser, and as we went along we paid the hawser out astern. Then when we’d got just beyond the landing-stage we dropped an anchor, and there we were in a pretty close billet, not enough room to turn, but our kedge ready to haul us out stern first, and everything as snug as a tin of sardines. We were not a hundred yards from the wharves where that guard of honour had been yesterday, but only a few people and some mules were moving sleepily about, and a lonely-looking sentry leant against a great pile of cocoa bales and yawned. Well, we’d taken them by surprise right enough, and there was nothing to do but to wait till noon and see what happened. It was a jolly long wait, and I don’t really know whether I wanted most to see Billums come off, or to capture the cruisers if he didn’t. I know that all the other chaps didn’t want him to come off. Outside the breakwater the _Hercules_ still steamed backwards and forwards, with her guns trained on the forts in case anything happened, and during the forenoon got down her top-masts and wireless gear. This made her look all the more ferocious, and our Commander began bellowing and cursing ’that he’d have to do the same and spoil all his paint-work.’ It took us a couple of hours, but it was much better than doing nothing, and later on in the morning crowds of people came down on the wharves to look at us, and watch us working. My eye! but it was appallingly hot in there. At about ten o’clock the forts began to show signs of life, hoisting yellow and green flags and training their guns round and round. They had two dynamite guns in one of them—so the books said—and we felt as though they couldn’t possibly miss us if they had fired. That sounded far too exciting—dynamite seemed rather unpleasant—-but the Gunnery Lieutenant’s ’Doggy’ brought the news that none of the guns in the fort could be depressed enough to hit us, which was rather a relief—really—though the others didn’t think so. The cruisers, too, began to get up steam, let down their gun ports, and ran their guns out. We could see them being loaded, and then they were trained on us, which was very exciting when you remember that they were only fifty yards away.