A rocket had gone up, not over fifty feet to the leeward of them. The trail of fire was followed by a flood of light overhead that illumined the waters for several hundred feet around. The negroes gave a shout of terror, and well they might. The boat was headed directly for a large gun-boat, one of the long guns of which was pointed directly at them! "Surrender! or we'll blow you to pieces!" came in a loud tone of command, and as the light of the rocket died out a flash-light was thrown upon the scene. Howard waited to hear no more. Softly and silently he slipped overboard into the water and dove out of sight. CHAPTER VIII. ESTELLA'S APPEAL. "Oh, my mistress, what is it?" cried the ever-faithful Cara, as she rushed to Estella's side and raised up her young mistress. "It--it is nothing, Cara, nothing!" murmured the beautiful young woman, as with a shudder she recalled what had occurred. "He--he--is gone!" "Señor Howard? Yes, he has gone--he fairly ran away! Did he----" "No, Cara, it is all right that he should go! But, oh!" she gave a deep sob, "to say that of me!--that I flirted with him, when my very heart is breaking!" She threw herself into Cara's arms, and for a long while her frail body was torn by such a fierce gust of pain, anger, and anguish, that even the maid grew afraid. "Don't go on so, my darling," she said. "Remember, we must away from here. It is not a safe place in which to stay! Not only are there Spaniards about, but city thieves and murderers----" "Lead the way; I will follow, Cara," returned Estella, faintly. "But, child," she caught the maid's arm. "Of this scene, not one word to any one, I command you." "My lips shall remain sealed," replied the maid, and led the way from the vault into the open air. The seminary grounds were now deserted, and they met no one as they returned to the hotel they had left so many hours before. Once in the room prepared for her, Estella found herself completely exhausted, both mentally and physically. She had delivered the letters as agreed, but at what a fearful cost! "He will never come near me again!" she moaned, when left entirely alone. "He will go back to the United States thinking me only a heartless flirt, unworthy of the love of any man! And I--I will have to return to the plantation and marry Lieutenant Mazenas! How I hate the very thought of that man! It will be a living death! I cannot bear it!" For two hours she tumbled and tossed on her bed in the depth of her awful misery. The approaching marriage seemed to her to be worse than the approach of death would have been. In the midst of it all there came an unexpected knock on her door just as the first streak of dawn was beginning to show in the east. It was a hotel maid who had aroused her. "Your father, Doña Corona--General Corona!"