"It would be foolhardy," he said. "We have suffered too great a loss to make an immediate aggressive movement. Besides that, the local sympathizers tell me that the old stone structure is a formidable fortress. Wait a few days, and I'll see what can be done about an attack." "A few days!" cried Howard. "I can't wait a day--not an hour. You don't realize the importance of the matter." "Yes, I do--to you--but not to the cause of Cuban liberty," and Martinez smiled good-naturedly, and Howard had to admit that from his point of view Captain Martinez was right. Yet he did not intend to give up. He called Tomasso to him, and sent the faithful man out to drum up volunteers. General Corona heard of the move, and offered a good round sum to every man who took part in the attack, provided the place should be captured and his daughter saved. The call was quickly responded to by over sixty men, all anxious to win prize money, as they called it. They were trained soldiers, and in half an hour Howard had them enrolled and drilled as a company, with himself at their head, and Tomasso as his first lieutenant. Then, without so much as the tap of a drum, they marched out of the city, crossed the river and struck out on the route for Red Valley. The day was warm and oppressive, as nearly all days are in Cuba, but Howard paid no attention to this nor to the fact that the hard work of the past few days had well-nigh exhausted him. His whole mind was concentrated upon saving Estella, the pride and joy of his heart. "I will rescue her or die in the attempt!" he said, not once, but many times. "There must be no such word as fail!" Three hours after crossing the river the outriders announced that they had reached the border of Red Valley. The old stone fortress, if such it might be called, was half a mile away. "We will have to go slowly, capitan," said one of the men to Howard. "The Spanish spies are out. I saw one just ahead." "We will leave the road," returned Howard. "We can do better by stealthily advancing through the woods. It is likely their vedettes guard only the road." His order was obeyed, and they proceeded for a quarter of a mile further. Here two Spanish soldiers were encountered, but ere they could give the alarm one was killed, and the other made a prisoner and gagged. At noon Howard found himself approaching the edge of a cliff that overlooked the fortress. His soldiers were behind him and he motioned them to halt. Then he took a pair of field-glasses and surveyed the situation. That the Spanish troops had taken possession of the stone structure there was not the slightest doubt. Sentinels stalked around the walls and a camp-fire was burning brightly in the open square where the soldiers' dinner was being prepared.