Major Jack Starland flashed up the glass and studied the other craft.
"By Jove! you are right; where do you suppose they came from, Dick?"
"The General must have established communication with his friends soon
after we left him; he certainly has a strong crew."
"That means he intends to attack us; it looks as if there is to be a
naval battle between an American yacht and the navy of the Atlamalcan
Republic."
It was Miss Starland who said this without a trace of excitement, and
as if the impending struggle was of only passing interest.
"She is right," observed the mate; "it is hard to tell which has the
advantage with one crippled and the other hard aground."
"They will wait till night and then come at us in their small boats.
As nearly as I can make out, they have all of twenty men on board.
What is your opinion, Miss Starland?"
She pointed the glass again for several minutes before replying:
"There are nearer forty, for it is certain that some are keeping out
of sight. I suppose they are well armed, and it seems to me we are in
a bad situation."
"There's no denying it," remarked her brother with a grave face; "they
will wait till night and then dash upon us from several sides at the
same time; the hour or two before the moon rises will be their
opportunity."
"But why," was the natural feminine inquiry, "does General Yozarro
molest us? He has always claimed to be your friend, and, until today,
has treated us both with courtesy. What pretext can he offer for his
course?"
"While there is little in his excuse, it will doubtless be that the
owner of this yacht captured his flimsy tug which he persists in
calling a gunboat, or rather that I stole it, for which offence he
means to punish me."
"Will he not in the end have to reckon with our government?"
"Yes, but he must first reckon with _us_; the affair is a ridiculous
one in which to involve the United States, and I shall not feel proud
of my part, if forced to make the appeal; but General Yozarro will
find it is no child's play in which he engages when he attacks us. We
have not a very full supply of small arms on board, but we shall make
things lively for him."
When night closed in, the relative position of the two craft was
unchanged. Every possible preparation was made on the yacht, for there
could be no doubt of the hostile intentions of the Atlamalcans. A
small boat was seen to leave its side and pass to the southern shore.
Followed through the glasses, it disclosed two seamen swaying the
oars, but when it returned after a brief absence, it held six
passengers. The crew of the crippled tug was fast growing and General
Yozarro had certainly made good use of his time.
The twelve-pounder of the _Warrenia_ was loaded to the muzzle. Six
rifles were distributed among the men, several of whom had revolvers
and all knives. Lookouts were placed at all points. The conviction was
that during the brief period of gloom before the rising of the moon,
two or three or possibly more small boats, crowded with armed men,
would dash simultaneously upon the grounded craft and strive
desperately to board her.
The sanguinary fight that impended, with the certain loss of life on
both sides, could be averted by a surrender, which calm judgment would
have justified under the peculiar circumstances, but it was not
strange that even Miss Starland and Aunt Cynthia hinted nothing of
that nature. As for the officers and crew, they eagerly awaited the
conflict with a band whom they despised. Although greatly outnumbered,
not one doubted their ability to repel the attempt to board. There was
only one condition that they would have changed; that was the presence
of the ladies. They could be safeguarded during the fight, but it
would have been better had they been far away. Such absence, however,
was impossible and no one referred to it.
But the naval battle never took place. When all the defenders were
alert and on edge, it was observed that the yacht was floating. The
disappointment was felt keenly even by the bellicose cook. There
was a general peering into the gloom in the hope of discerning the
approaching boats, and a sigh when they failed to appear.
"It sometimes takes more courage to run away than to fight," said
Major Starland with a laugh; "therefore we shall run away."
He called his orders to Captain Winton, who, having shaken off the
clutch of the mud, turned the prow of the craft so as to flank the
obstruction, and signalled the engineer to go ahead at moderate speed.
At the same time, he sent out a reverberating blast from the whistle,
which the Atlamalcans might accept as a parting salute.
The yacht steamed carefully down the river, and in the early hours of
the morning passed Zalapata, where a few lights twinkled, and then
proceeded toward the more pretentious town of San Luis. The only ones
awake on the _Warrenia_ were those whose duties required them to be
alert, and Captain Winton, knowing that General Bambos was absent,
held the whistle mute as he went by.
* * * * *
If the yacht _Warrenia_ and its crew and passengers had been called
upon to pass through a series of stirring incidents while in tropical
America, a rare and most gratifying experience now came to them. The
weather remained calm and the run to the southern extremity of the
continent was as smooth and tranquil as it had been across the
Caribbean Sea. When the neighborhood of Cape Horn was reached, Major
Starland, in order to keep his pledge with his father, took the wheel.
Captain Winton lit his pipe, sat down in the pilot house and grimly
waited until his services were necessary.
But not for an hour were they required, except now and then, in the
way of simple relief. He had passed that danger region more than once,
but never had he seen it so free of storm and rough weather. There was
not a single moment when the yacht was in the slightest danger. In
fact, to emphasize the wonderful, summer-like calmness of those
usually turbulent waters, which are the dread of veteran navigators,
Miss Starland held the spokes of the wheel for several hours. Such
good fortune is not likely to come to a navigator once in a score of
times.
When the yacht steamed out of the wide mouth of the Amazon and headed
southward, the assumed relationship between Major Starland and his
"sister" was dropped. There was no call to keep it up, since every one
on board knew the truth.
The _Warrenia_ was well up the western coast of South America and
steaming rapidly toward the city of the Golden Gate. Hardly a breath
of air rippled the bright waters, and the sky overhead was brilliant
with its myriads of stars, whose gleam was intensified in the soft
crystalline atmosphere.
Major Starland was seated on a camp chair, where he and Miss Rowland
were sheltered from the wind created by the motion of the yacht. She
hardly needed the gaudily-colored zarape wrapped about her shoulders.
They had been talking of their strange experiences, of Manuela
Estacardo, of Captain Ortega and of those whose memories were much
less pleasant.
You can imagine the trend of that low, delightful conversation, for
the scene, the surroundings, the time, indeed all the circumstances
tended to draw them closer. What was said was too sacred in its
nature, for us to quote in full: the conclusion is enough.
"Warrenia, you have played the sister for some weeks to perfection.
You must have become accustomed to hearing yourself called 'Miss
Starland;' it certainly has a familiar sound by this time."
"Yes," she replied, ceasing her efforts to disengage her hand from the
fingers that had made it prisoner; "it could not well be otherwise.
You know there is quite a similarity in our names."
"What I wish to ask, Sweetheart, is whether you will not agree to make
a slight change in the term by which you were addressed so long."
"In what way?" she asked, as if she did not know what was coming.
"Instead of being 'Miss Starland,' will you not consent that your
correct name shall be 'Mrs. Starland?'"
At first she begged for time in which to consider the proposition, but
Jack was always headlong and presumptuous, as you know, and he
insisted, and what could she do but consent? And among all the friends
the two most pleased were "Teddy" Rowland and his partner, Tom
Starland, when they heard the good news.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors;
otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the author's
words and intent.