Estella and her father occupied a seat in the first car, with Cara opposite to them. The general was highly excited, and soon went forward on the platform, to speak to the soldiers stationed there. The train stopped for a minute on the outskirts of the city, and then went on at an increased rate of speed, word having been received that the line was clear for the next eight miles. Alas! the information proved erroneous. Scarcely a mile had been passed when there came a quiver and a shock, and the locomotive and cars left the track, and ran off into the edge of a swamp. The locomotive went over on its side, but no one was seriously hurt. The cars remained standing, the wheels sunk deeply in the water and mud. In the darkness Estella looked about vainly for her father, who had still been outside, talking to the Spanish soldiers. The soldiers themselves had gone off, and the sounds of a conflict in an adjacent sugar-cane field told that they were essaying to punish the rebels who had thus balked the government's desire to run a train through to Bayamo. Shots arose, and wild cries for mercy, as the bullets were answered by a fierce use of the deadly machete. "We must get away from here!" cried Cara, in terror. "Come, dear mistress!" "But, papa----" began Estella. "Your father has joined the soldiers in the fight," responded a stranger, who stood near. "I saw him draw a pistol and leap from the car with them." For the instant Estella's face blanched, as for the first time she realized what war and carnage really meant. Then silently she took Cara's hand and they left the car by the back way, leaped to the dry ground beyond, and walked after those who were headed back to the city. She had gone a distance of less than quarter of a mile when a shout arose in the direction of a road which runs down to the bay. The shout was followed by pistol-shots, and in an instant later a man came flying up the road, hatless, and dripping to the skin. "Howard Sherwood!" The figure came to a sudden halt, as though stopped by the challenge of a sentry. "Estella!" "Where are you going? Where have you been?" "I tried to get out of the city by crossing the bay--we were discovered--I swam from the row-boat to shore," he panted. "They are even now on my track--do you hear them? What are you doing here?" "We were on a train that was thrown from the track," rejoined Estella. "But you have no time to waste if you would escape. See the torches approaching! Fly! fly instantly!" "But, Estella----" "There is not time for a word, much as I wish to speak to you," she interrupted. "But you are alone, unprotected--the others have left you behind. And there is no telling what those rascally soldiers will do," he went on, with a groan. "Would that I had a good gun and a sword--I would stand here against a dozen of the cowards!"