The Cruise of the Thetis: A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  CIRCUMVENTING THE ENEMY.

  "Whither away now, Mr Singleton? Down channel, I suppose?" enquiredMilsom, when the yacht began to forge ahead.

  "I think not," said Jack. "In view of the fact that there is somebodyin that boat who appears to be willing to adopt very energetic measuresto get hold of Senor Montijo--or the yacht--it will perhaps be a wisestep for us to run a few miles up channel, instead of down, until we getout of sight of any inquisitive eyes which may possibly be watching us:so please shape a course up through the Straits for an hour or two--saytwo hours; then we can seize a favourable opportunity to turn round andrun down channel, hugging the English shore fairly close. But yourquestion reminds me that the time has arrived when we ought to decidefor what port we are to make, in order that you may work out your GreatCircle courses. What think you, Don Hermoso?" he continued, in Spanish."Have you any definite idea as to the precise spot which it would bebest for us to make for?"

  "Really, Senor, that is a detail that I have not yet seriouslyconsidered," answered Don Hermoso. "My idea was to get intocommunication with the Junta as soon as we reach the other side, andlearn from them what spot would be the most suitable at which to makethe attempt to land our consignment. What think you, Captain Milsom?"

  "Where has this Junta of yours established itself?" asked Milsom, alsotaking up the conversation in Spanish, of which he had a serviceableknowledge. "Would it be possible to get a cable message into theirhands from this side without the risk of it being intercepted by theSpaniards?"

  "Oh, yes; quite easily!" answered Don Hermoso. "They have establishedtheir headquarters in New York, and I could cable to them in cipher, ifnecessary."

  "Then," said Milsom, "if I may be permitted, I would suggest that, sincewe are now running up channel, it would be a good plan for you to landat Dover, and cable to the Junta the information that you have actuallystarted; that you have some reason to suspect that we have notaltogether escaped the suspicion of the Spanish authorities, and thatconsequently the yacht may be watched for, and perhaps followed when wearrive in Cuban waters; and that it would therefore be a very greatconvenience if, when we get across, we could find a communicationawaiting us--say at Key West--giving us the latest information upon thesituation generally, and advice as to the most desirable spot at whichto attempt the landing of our cargo."

  "A most excellent suggestion!" exclaimed Don Hermoso. "Come, gentlemen,let us enter the chart-house and draft the message at once, after whichI will transcribe it into cipher in readiness to dispatch it upon ourarrival at Dover."

  With the exercise of considerable thought and ingenuity a conciserendering of the points suggested by Milsom was at length drafted: and,upon the arrival of the yacht off Dover, Don Hermoso and Singleton wentashore in the steam pinnace and dispatched the message to New York;after which the yacht's bows were turned southward again until she hadrounded Beachy Head, when Milsom set the course at west by south for theLizard, from which headland he intended to take his final "departure".It was just nine o'clock in the evening when the _Thetis_ rounded BeachyHead; and at noon next day she was abreast of the Lizard and two milesdistant from it.

  "A splendid `departure'!" exclaimed Milsom enthusiastically, when he hadtaken a careful bearing of the headland. "I now know the ship'sposition at noon to-day almost to a foot; and I was anxious to make areally good departure, for I have worked out a very elaborate andcomplete system of Great Circle courses from the Lizard to the north-west end of the Little Bahama Bank, which is a spot that must be hit offvery accurately if one would avoid disaster. Thence I shall run downthe Florida Strait to Key West, the course which I intend to steer beingthe shortest possible distance to that spot. And we must not run a milefarther than is necessary, Jack, for Macintyre tells me that it willtake him all his time to make his coal last out."

  As it happened, there was no cause for apprehension as to the coallasting out, for when the _Thetis_ was two days out from the Lizard shefell in with a fresh easterly wind which enabled her to use her sails tosuch great advantage that she saved a full day in the run across,steaming in through the East Channel and dropping her anchor in fourfathoms of water within half a mile of the town of Key West a fewminutes before six o'clock in the evening of her eleventh day out fromthe Lizard. There were several American men-o'-war of variousdescriptions, ranging from battleships to torpedo boats, lying at anchorin the roadstead, as well as two cruisers, three gunboats, and a torpedoboat flying the Spanish flag; and Singleton noticed, with mingledconcern and amusement, that, as the little _Thetis_ swept past theSpanish vessels at close quarters, with the blue burgee and ensign ofthe "Royal Thames" gaily fluttering from masthead and ensign staff, theyacht was an object of the keenest interest to the officers who werepromenading the navigating bridges. A boat from the custom-house, withthe health officer of the port in her, came off to the yacht almost assoon as her anchor was down: but as the _Thetis_ had a clean bill ofhealth there was no difficulty about getting pratique, and the partymight have landed forthwith had they so pleased; they deemed it wise,however, to exercise a certain measure of restraint, by abstaining fromlanding until the next morning. But although the port authorities wereperfectly polite, Singleton thought--or was it only a case of a guiltyconscience?--that the custom-house officer betrayed even more thanordinary Yankee curiosity as to the reasons which had prompted Jack toselect West Indian waters as the spot in which to pursue his quest ofrenewed health; and there seemed to be a very marked disposition on thepart of the man to indulge in hints and innuendoes suggesting that hewas perfectly aware of the existence of a certain something "under therose", until Singleton at length put a stop to it by asking him, point-blank, what it was at which he was hinting. And when he at length wentdown the side to return to the shore, he left a subordinate on board theyacht. The Montijos were very wroth at this act of the customsauthorities, which they rather wished Jack to resent as an act ofdiscourtesy on the part of the American Government; but Milsom promptlyinterposed, explaining matters, while Jack laughed heartily, declaringthat there was not the slightest need to worry, since they had nothingin the shape of contraband or otherwise that they wished to land at KeyWest.

  The saloon party breakfasted at nine o'clock the next morning, and,embarking in the steam pinnace about ten, went ashore, ostensibly toenquire at the post office for letters, and to view the quaint littletown, but really to visit an agent of the Cuban Junta who wasestablished there; upon whom, however, Don Hermoso did not call untilnearly two o'clock in the afternoon, at which hour the streets werepractically deserted. The first visit of the party was to the postoffice, where, as he had expected, Don Hermoso found awaiting him a longletter, written in cipher, from the Junta at New York, cordiallythanking him for his generous assistance, and informing him thatarrangements had been made for a trusty party to await the arrival ofthe yacht in the Laguna de Cortes, at the south-west end of Cuba, whereeverything was to be landed, and where also a pilot would be foundwaiting to take the yacht into the lagoon. The letter ended up bygiving a password which would be evidence of the _bona fides_ both ofthe pilot and of the party who had been told off to receive thecontraband.

  It soon became apparent to Jack that he and his party were attracting avery considerable amount of attention from certain individuals, whoappeared to be following them about the town persistently, andapparently with very little pretence at concealment. It was thereforearranged that when the moment arrived for the visit to be paid to theagent of the Junta, Don Hermoso should pay it alone, Carlos and Jackmeanwhile doing their best to decoy the persistent spies in some otherdirection. But their efforts were of no avail, for it soon became clearthat a separate spy had been told off to watch each member of the party;when they separated, therefore, Jack found that while one man remainedto watch him, a second followed Don Hermoso, and a third, with equaltenacity, followed Carlos. And finally, when, later on in theafternoon, Jack set off to walk down to the wharf in order to go backab
oard the yacht, he suddenly found himself accosted by a swarthy,unkempt individual, picturesquely attired in rags, yet whose manner wassomehow out of keeping with his appearance.

  "_Pardon, Senor_" exclaimed the fellow in Spanish, with an air ofmystery, as he took off his sombrero with a flourish, "but have I thesupreme honour of addressing the noble Englishman who owns the beautifulyacht that came in yesterday?"

  "If you refer to the English yacht _Thetis_," said Jack, "yes, I am theowner of her."

  "_Mil gracias, Senor_, for your condescension," answered the man."Senor," he continued, "I have a very great favour to beg of you. Ithas been said that the Senor is about to visit Cuba. Is this so?"

  The mention of Cuba instantly put Jack on his guard: he at oncesuspected that he was face to face with another Spanish spy, and feltcurious to know what the fellow was driving at. Yet he was careful toconceal the fact that his suspicions had been aroused; he thereforeanswered, with an air of carelessness:

  "Indeed! That is curious, for I am not aware that I have thus farmentioned my intentions to anyone ashore here. And, as to visitingCuba--well, I am not at all certain that I shall do so; for, from what Ihave gathered to-day, I am led to understand that the country is in avery disturbed condition, and that it is scarcely safe for strangers togo there at present. But you have not yet mentioned the favour that youwish to ask me. Has it anything to do with my supposed intention tovisit Cuba?"

  "Assuredly it has, Senor; most intimately," answered the other."Senor," and the speaker assumed a yet more furtive and mysteriousmanner, "I am a Cuban--and a patriot; I am destitute, as my appearancedoubtless testifies, and I am most anxious to return to my country andtake up arms against the oppressor. The English, enjoying libertythemselves, are reputed to be in sympathy with us Cubans in ourendeavours to throw off the hated yoke of a foreign oppressor; and Ihave ventured to hope that the Senor would be magnanimous enough to giveme a passage across to Havana in his beautiful yacht."

  "I think," said Jack, with an air of hauteur, "that you have altogethermistaken the character of my vessel. She is not a passenger ship, but aprivate yacht in which I am taking a cruise for the benefit of myhealth; and it is not my custom to give passages to total strangers,especially when by so doing I should run the risk of embroiling myselfwith the Spanish authorities, with whom I have no quarrel. No, Senor,you must pardon my seeming churlishness in refusing so apparentlytrivial a favour, but I decline to associate myself in any way with thequarrel between your country and Spain. I have the honour to bid yougood-day."

  "Ah, pardon, Senor; just one moment!" persisted the man. "The nobleSenor disclaims any intention to associate himself with the quarrelbetween Cuba and Spain; yet two well-known Cuban patriots are guests onboard his yacht!"

  "It would almost appear that my yacht and I are attracting a quiteunusual amount of attention here," laughed Jack. "The gentlemen of whomyou speak are personal friends of mine--the younger of them, indeed,went to the same school as myself, in England--which should besufficient to account for my intimacy with them. But it does not followthat, because they happen to be friends of mine, I am to give a freepassage to Cuba to anyone who chooses to ask me. Were I to do so Ishould probably have to carry across half the inhabitants of Key West!No, Senor, I must beg to be excused."

  And, bowing profoundly to his ragged interlocutor--for with the languageJack always found himself falling into the stately mannerisms of theSpaniard--the young man passed on, wondering whether he had indeed beenguilty of an ungracious act to a genuine Cuban patriot, or whether theman whom he had just left was a Spanish spy.

  He put the question to Don Hermoso that night over the dinner-table,while relating to his companions the incident of the afternoon; but theDon laughed heartily at Jack's qualms of conscience.

  "Never trouble yourself for a moment on that score, my dear Jack," saidhe. "The man was without doubt a Spanish spy. Had he been a genuineCuban patriot, as he represented himself to be, he would have known thatit would only have been necessary to present himself to the local agentof the Junta, with the proofs of his identity, when he could easily haveobtained a passage across to Cuba. But the incident is only one moreproof, if such were needed, that our party and the yacht have somehowincurred the very gravest suspicion of the Spaniards, and that we arebeing most jealously watched. I fear that Carlos and I are chieflyresponsible for this; indeed, the agent here did not scruple to say thatwe--Carlos and I--committed a very great tactical blunder in coming outhere in the yacht. He asserts that we ought to have come out in theordinary way by mail steamer, and that in such a case little or nosuspicion would have attached to the yacht; but that certain newstransmitted from Europe, coupled with the fact of our presence on board,has convinced the authorities that the yacht is in these waters for thepurpose of running a cargo of contraband into the island. Of course wehave our spies, as the Spaniards have theirs, and one of our most trustyinvestigators reported to-day, while I was with the agent, that it isundoubtedly the intention of the Spanish authorities that their torpedoboat shall accompany the _Thetis_, so long as she remains in Cubanwaters."

  "Phew! that sounds awkward," remarked Milsom. "Does anybody know whather speed is?"

  Nobody did, it appeared; whereupon Milsom undertook to ascertain whetherthe custom-house officer possessed the knowledge, and, if so, to extractit from him. Accordingly, when, a little later, the saloon partyadjourned to the deck for the enjoyment of their post-prandial cigars,the skipper sauntered away forward and up on the top of the deck-house,where Perkins and the officer were sitting yarning together, and joinedthem. He sat chatting with them for nearly an hour, and then, upon thepretext that he had forgotten to speak to Mr Singleton about thearrangements for coaling the ship, rose and joined the trio who weresitting aft near the stern grating.

  "Well," said Jack, "have you been able to learn anything, Phil?"

  "Yes," answered Milsom; "and what I have learned is not very comforting.That torpedo boat, it appears, is practically a new craft, and she hasa sea speed of twenty-five knots, which is one knot better than ourbest; so how we are going to dodge her is more than I at present know.The three gunboats we need not trouble about, for the two-masted craftare only capable of sixteen knots, while the three-masted boat--the_Destructor_--can do about seventeen, at a pinch, though she is said tohave been at one time capable of twenty-two and a half. Neither need wetrouble about the cruisers, for the faster of them--the _Lepanto_--isonly capable of twenty and a half knots when she is clean, and I am toldthat at present she is dreadfully foul."

  "Still, it appears to me that the torpedo boat is, apart from the rest,more than we shall be able to manage," remarked Don Hermoso. "If shepersists in dogging our heels we shall not have a ghost of a chance oflanding our cargo anywhere."

  "No," said Jack. "But she will not dog our heels, Don Hermoso; don'tyou trouble. This is where my submarine comes in, and is going toscore, if I am not mistaken. Macintyre and I will be able to doctorthat torpedo boat so that she will not trouble us. We will just go downin the submarine and remove the nut that secures her propeller to itsshaft, and when she begins to move, her propeller will drop off; andbefore it can be replaced we will have our cargo ashore, and be in aposition to laugh at her."

  "But how will you manage that, Jack, in the presence of all theseships?" demanded Milsom. "You could not possibly do what you suggestwithout being seen. Besides, there is the custom-house officer to bereckoned with; and I really do not believe that the man is to be trustedwith your secret."

  "We shall have to do the job at night-time--the night before we leavehere for Cuba," said Jack. "And, as to the custom-house officer, wemust trust that he will sleep too soundly to hear anything."

  "Leave him to me," said Don Hermoso. "I am a bit of a chemist, in myway, and I will concoct a liquid a few drops of which in his grog thelast thing at night will cause him to sleep soundly all night, and awakenone the worse in the morning."

  "That will get us ov
er one difficulty," said Jack, "and I have justthought of a plan that will get us over another--that of getting thesubmarine into the water unobserved. It strikes me that we can do allthat is necessary without using the submarine at all. That torpedo boatis, as you may observe, lying quite close to the shore, so close,indeed, that there cannot be much more than two feet of water under herkeel. Consequently Macintyre and I have only to don our special divingdresses--which, as I think I have explained to you, need no air-pipe oranything of that sort--go down over the side of the yacht, and make ourway to our prey under water. With a little management we could even dothe trick in broad daylight, and nobody be any the wiser!"

  "Excellent!" exclaimed Milsom enthusiastically. "We will have thelighters alongside to coal us to-morrow; and before they come along wewill hang tarpaulins all round the ship to keep the paint clean. Then,while everybody is busy coaling, you and Macintyre can watch youropportunity and slip over the side through the ash port. Gad! won'tthose fellows be wrathy when their propeller parts company! They willno doubt suspect us, but they cannot possibly prove anything."

  On the following morning, immediately after breakfast, Milsom wentashore and made arrangements for the immediate coaling of the yacht; andwhile he was absent, Jack and Macintyre, the chief engineer, got out thediving dresses and thoroughly overhauled them, charged the air cylinderswith densely-compressed air, and collected such tools as they expectedto require for their job. By the time that this had been done, Milsomwas back aboard the yacht, having made all his arrangements, includingone which was of considerable assistance to Jack and Macintyre. Thisconsisted of an arrangement to take the yacht directly alongside thecoal hulk, instead of coaling from lighters, and the advantage to theconspirators arose from the fact that the particular hulk from which the_Thetis_ was to coal lay within a short hundred yards of the spot wherethe Spanish torpedo boat rode at anchor. Then a number of tarpaulinswere got up on deck and hung over the ship's sides, fore and aft,covering the hull from the bulwark rail right down to the surface of thewater, to protect the white paint from defilement by flying coal dust;and, this having been done, the yacht was taken alongside the coal hulk,and the process of coaling the vessel at once began under the jointsupervision of Milsom and the second engineer, the skipper beingespecially particular in the arranging of the fenders between the hullsof the two craft. So fastidiously careful was he, indeed, in thismatter, that he finally caused two booms to be rigged out, one forwardand one aft, to bear the yacht off from the side of the hulk, with theresult that there was a clear space of fully two feet between the sidesof the two craft. And, to facilitate as much as possible the process ofcoaling, Milsom caused a broad gangway, nearly six feet wide, to berigged between the two vessels, so that the porters might pass to andfro freely without obstructing each other. And, singularly enough, thisgangway happened to be rigged exactly over the ash port, which was thusquite effectually concealed from the view of even the most prying eyes.And there undoubtedly were several pairs of eyes very curiously andintently watching everything that was happening aboard the Englishyacht, not the least intent among them being those of the custom-houseofficer, who planted himself upon the bridge of the _Thetis_, fullydetermined that nothing great or small should be passed from the yachtto the coal hulk without his full knowledge and consent. Thus, thanksto the exceeding care with which Milsom had made his dispositions,Jack--who, with the two Montijos, was supposed to be down below--andMacintyre, fully equipped in their diving dresses, and with their toolsslung to their belts, had not the slightest difficulty in leaving theyacht unobserved, and descending to the bottom of the harbour by way ofa diving ladder.

  The water being shallow and tolerably clear, and the sun high enough inthe heavens to throw a strong light down into it, the two adventurerswere able to see well enough to be able to pass from the yacht to thetorpedo boat without any other guide than that of their unaidedeyesight; and within ten minutes the pair found themselves beneath thebottom of their quarry, the keel of which was, as Jack had anticipated,within about three feet of the ground. The boat, they found, was drivenby a single propeller protected by a skeleton frame forming the boat'skeel and sternpost, and to climb into this frame occupied Macintyre lessthan a minute, helped as he was by Jack. Macintyre's first act was tosubject the propeller nut to a very careful examination, after which hefixed a big spanner in position and threw his whole weight upon it,assisted by Jack, who was pulling at a rope attached to the extreme endof the spanner handle. The nut, however, was rusted on so effectuallyas to be immovable, so Macintyre climbed down and, by means of a slateand a piece of chalk, consulted Jack as to what was best to be done toovercome the difficulty. Looking up, and studying the structure of theboat's stern intently, Jack saw that by steadying themselves by therudder chains they could both climb up and stand upon the arm of thespanner, when, by bracing their shoulders against the boat's overhangingstern, they could bring the whole of their united strength to bear, andthus possibly start the nut. By means of a diagram and a few wordschalked upon the slate Macintyre was soon made to comprehend what Jackmeant, and then they both climbed up and, with considerable difficulty,arranged themselves in the required position. Then, bracing theirshoulders against the vessel's hull, the two men thrust with all theirmight, with the result that the nut suddenly started, and the spannerfell off, dropping to the bottom of the harbour and leaving the twooperators hanging by the rudder chains. The drop from thence to thesand, however, was not above six feet--a mere trifle in water--so theylet go, recovered the spanner, and got to work again. Once started, thenut gave them very little further difficulty, and ten minutes later itwas off and safely buried out of sight in the sand. The propeller,however, still remained on the shaft, and might quite possibly continueto remain there for a time, even should the boat get under way; but themoment that she stopped her engines after once getting under way, or ifshe should happen to attempt to go astern, the propeller would at onceslip off and be lost. Three-quarters of an hour from the moment ofleaving the yacht, Jack and Macintyre were safely on board her again,with their task accomplished, much to the satisfaction of the party.

  It was well on toward lunch-time ere the yacht's bunkers were full andshe was able to haul off from the coal hulk, and the greater part of theafternoon was occupied by the crew in washing down the decks and paintwork, cleaning up generally, polishing brasswork, and restoring thelittle vessel to her normal state of immaculate neatness; during whichJack and the two Montijos took a final run ashore, for it had beendecided that, failing the occurrence of anything to cause an alterationof their plans, they would leave for Cuba on the following day.

  No attempt was made to preserve secrecy as to the yacht's movements;nor, on the other hand, were the preparations for her departureostentatiously displayed. Soon after eight o'clock in the morning athin film of smoke was seen to issue from the vessel's funnel, graduallyincreasing in density, and it became quite apparent to all who chose tointerest themselves in the matter that the _Thetis_ was getting up steamin readiness to take her departure. And that she intended to leavealmost immediately was further indicated by the arrival alongside her ofa boat containing fresh water, and other boats containing fresh meat,vegetables, fruit, and supplies generally. But there were no signs ofhurry on board the vessel: everything was done openly and leisurely, asis the way of people who are taking their pleasure; and it was not untilnearly five o'clock in the afternoon that the boats were hoisted to thedavits, and a thin jet of steam spouting from the bows of the vesselproclaimed that her crew were getting her anchor. And when at lengthPerkins, the chief mate, standing in the bows of the vessel,vociferously announced that the anchor was aweigh, there was no sign ofhaste or anxiety in the slow, leisurely movement of the yacht as sheswept round in a wide circle from the spot where she had lain at anchor,and headed seaward by way of the West Channel, dipping her ensign to themen-o'-war in the roadstead as she went, while her crew catted andfished the anchor on its appearance above the surfac
e. Then, and notuntil then, did the _Thetis_ quicken, until she was running at a speedof about fourteen knots.

  The yacht had been under way about half an hour when Jack, who with thetwo Montijos and Milsom was on the top of the deck-house, diligentlywatching the roadstead which they had just left, exclaimed: "Here shecomes!" and the Spanish torpedo boat was seen coming along astern, witha dense cloud of black smoke pouring from her funnels, and the waterplaying like a fountain about her sharp stem as she swept after the_Thetis_ at full speed. Milsom looked at her long and earnestly throughhis binoculars; then he turned to Jack and, with a frown wrinkling hisbrow, said:

  "By the look of that boat, and the pace at which she is coming throughthe water, it appears to me, young man, that something has gone veryseriously wrong with the little job that you undertook to do yesterday.Are you quite sure that you removed the nut?"

  "Absolutely certain," answered Jack cheerfully.

  "Then how do you account for the fact that she has not yet dropped herpropeller?" demanded Milsom.

  "Easily enough," answered Jack. "She got under way, like ourselves, bysteaming ahead and sweeping round in a wide circle. So long as herengines continue to turn ahead, her propeller will probably retain itsposition on the shaft, kept there by the pressure of the water on itsblades; but the moment that she eases down, it will probably drop off,or, if not then, it certainly will at the instant when her engines arestopped. Don't be alarmed, Phil; you have only to cause her to stop herengines, and you will see what will happen."

  "Then," said Milsom, as he laid his hand upon the bridge telegraph andsignalled "Full speed ahead", "we will entice her a bit farther out tosea before we do anything more. If she runs out of sight of theanchorage before breaking down we shall get a nice little start, andshall probably not be interfered with for the rest of the trip. Ah,there is the edge of the bank ahead of us!" as a line of demarcationbetween the pale, greenish-blue water over the reef and the deep-bluewater beyond it became visible. "Let her go off to due south," to thequartermaster at the wheel; "we'll try to persuade them that we arebound for Havana!"

  "A stern chase is a long chase", especially when one craft has five orsix miles start of the other, and the pursuing craft has only a singleknot's--or perhaps not quite so much as that--advantage in speed; it wasconsequently not until the brief dusk was deepening into darkness, andthe great mellow stars were leaping into view in the rapidly deepeningazure of the sky, that, the _Thetis_ being by that time about midwaybetween Key West and Havana, Milsom rang down to the engine-room forhalf speed, and allowed the torpedo boat to range up abreast of theyacht. This she did at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, withoutmaking any attempt to speak to or interfere with the English vessel,merely slowing down to regulate her pace to that of the yacht. ThenMilsom spoke down through the voice tube, ordering the engines to befirst stopped, and then to go slowly, but at a gradually increasingspeed, astern, by which means he quite expected to induce the commanderof the torpedo boat to stop. The result was everything that could havebeen desired, for as soon as the Spaniard realised that he was runningahead of the yacht in the most unaccountable way, he stopped his enginesand waited patiently for the other vessel to overtake him, his propellerdoubtless slipping off the tail-shaft and going to the bottom at theinstant of the stopping of the engines. But while the torpedo boat,deprived of the drag of her propeller, continued to forge strongly aheadunder the impetus of her own momentum, the _Thetis_ was even morerapidly widening the distance between herself and the torpedo boat bygoing full speed astern, until, when the two craft were separated bysome three miles of heaving water, the perplexed and astounded Spanishlieutenant, still ignorant of what had happened, made up his mind to goback to see what the English ship was about, and, ordering his helm tobe put hard over, rang down to his engine-room for "full speed ahead".Then the furious racing of his engines, as steam was admitted into thecylinders, revealed the ghastly truth that he had lost his propeller andwas absolutely helpless, with the nearest land fully forty miles away.He rushed from the bridge down into the tiny engine-room, to consultwith and explosively reprimand the engineers for permitting such amishap to occur; and at length, when his vexation had worked itself off,returned to the deck and gave orders for signals of distress to be made,by means of rockets, to the English yacht. But by that time the_Thetis_ had vanished in the darkness; nor did she re-appear, althoughthe unfortunate lieutenant expended his entire stock of rockets in avain attempt to attract her attention.