The prisoner was sent ashore in charge of Capt. Hornsby and a few select men, with orders to shoot him and place on his body a memorandum stating the offence, and by whose command he had been executed; for haste was necessary, it being far past midnight and Alvarado’s skipper was expecting every moment to be able to weigh anchor and set sail. The duty was disagreeable; and therefore, the Colonel commanding had himself chosen the men for the performance of it. Hornsby was an upright honorable soldier; but, then, his ability to fulfil the order might depend on the disposition of those who were to carry it into execution. He was almost the only commissioned officer left to Walker; yet, he was without the large views requisite for perceiving the great importance of clearing the Americans from any participation in the arson which had been committed. Therefore, the commander took aside those who were to go with Hornsby and strove to impress on them the urgent necessity for faithful and conscientious conduct on their part. Hornsby and his detail took the prisoner off in a small boat; in a short time Walker heard the crack of the rifles, and soon afterward the rubbing of the oars against the rowlocks as the boat approached the schooner. Hornsby came back to report that the prisoner had escaped; that while the men were in the act of untying Sam he had broken away, and the rifles being fired at random in the dark, it was not known whether he had been hit or not. It was afterward ascertained that he escaped unhurt to Costa Rica. The escape of Sam gave an air of connivance at his crime to the action of the Americans. This was the impression certain to be made on the natives of the country, unless some means were found to counteract it. Indeed, when the Costa Rican merchant, Alvarado, who was watching the events as they happened, heard Sam had not been shot, he seemed, by his air, more than by his words, to intimate that the Americans were not over-anxious to punish the offender. Hence, it became necessary to guard against Dewey’s escape; for such an event would tend to strengthen the inference enemies might draw from the failure to execute the sentence of his accomplice. Throughout the night, therefore, which seemed to Walker as if it would never end, strict guard was kept over Sam’s launch. The wearying wretchedness of that night’s watch may be imagined when it is considered that the future character of the Americans in Nicaragua depended, to a great extent, on their ability to punish Dewey’s crime.