The tide was coming in, and there was little or no wind when the Americans went aboard of the San José; hence the vessel remained at anchor waiting for the turn of the tide and for the morning breeze to spring up. Most of the soldiers, fatigued by their toils and excitement during the last three or four days, at once threw themselves on the decks and were asleep almost the moment after they touched the planks. Walker, however, with Captain Hornsby and a few others, kept awake, watching anxiously the shore for any signs of movement there, and as keenly regarding the waters and the heavens, in order to catch the faintest signal of the ebbing tide or of the expected breeze. With all their senses on the stretch, they suddenly saw the flames burst forth from the barracks near the beach, and in an instant the blaze seemed to their startled view to spread over half the town. Immediately a boat was sent off to gather the meaning of the fire. The flames, on close observation, seemed to be confined, and owing to the calmness of the night the fire did not spread. In a few minutes the boat returned with the news that the barracks had been set on fire by Dewey and a sailor named Sam: the former being an American, who had lived for a while on the Isthmus, and the latter being the owner of a small launch running between Realejo and San Juan del Sur, and which had followed the Vesta on her voyage to El Gigante. These two men had some private hatreds against certain legitimists about the Transit: and taking advantage of the times, they determined to wreak their revenge by this act of destruction. It may be, too, that the thirst for plunder and the hope of satisfying their avarice during the confusion of the fire partly prompted the act: for Dewey was a desperate man who had fled from California to escape the punishment of his crimes. Their act had jeoparded the whole town; for all the houses being built of wood, a light wind would have borne the flames to most of the property of the place.