The chart showed Santa Anna to be a harbor not unlike in formation that of Boca del Sierras. Instead of the town lying on a flat, however, it actually climbed up the sides of the steep range which sloped down to the water’s edge. Geographers have termed Costaveza a country set on edge. On no part of it was this characteristic more marked than at Santa Anna. But this feature interested the two persons in the captain’s cabin of the General Barrill less than certain red-inked portions of the coast line, marked “Forts.” These forts, the captain informed Midshipman Stark, were built in the rock above Santa Anna, and rendered the place practically impregnable from the sea.

“Then how are we to get in after the insurgent ships?” asked Stark, who had been informed that the captured vessels were lying inside the  landlocked harbor, under the very guns of the forts, awaiting word to set out for Boca del Sierras. This, of course, would not be till the two armies had effected a juncture.

As the young officer asked the question, the captain smiled somewhat grimly.

“They will come out to us,” was his reply.

“Come out to us!” The boy’s voice held a note of astonishment, as well it might.

“I beg your pardon, sir,” he went on, “but did I understand you correctly?”

“Perfectly, my boy. The General Barrill is capable of twenty-five knots. The fastest of the vessels lying in that harbor is the Manueal Calvo. She can make, under forced draught, about eighteen knots. The Bolivar and the Migueal de Barros are rebuilt steam yachts, and can almost come up to this pace, but I don’t imagine that they’ll want to burn coal at that rate unless they have to.”

The midshipman looked puzzled.

“I see that you have some plan, sir, but for the life of me I cannot comprehend it.”
 
“Well,” smiled the South American seaman, “you have seen in your country a retriever follow and make desperate efforts to capture a lame duck?”

“Why, yes, but I don’t see——”

“The General Barrill will be a lame duck,” said the veteran, with one of his grim smiles. “It is the only way we can draw the vessels lying in that harbor from under the protection of those guns of the forts.”

“I see, sir,” cried the midshipman, in a burst of comprehension. “You mean to play ’possum and drag them out to sea, and then pick their bones at your leisure.”

“Well, I don’t know about the latter part of it. But I am pretty certain we can lure them out. But recollect, young man, that it will be no child’s play. The Manueal Calvo, the flagship, mounts three six-inch guns and a secondary battery of rapid fires. The other two carry bow-chasers and stern guns of the same caliber, besides a battery of small rapid-fire rifles.”
 
“Phew!” whistled the middy. “Your country had money to spend on armament, sir.”

“I was minister of the marine for a time,” rejoined the other, with a mild sort of pride beaming on his weather-beaten countenance. “I saw to it that we were as well equipped as possible. Little did I dream, however, that one day my own guns would be turned against me.”

He sank his grizzled head in his hands, his impressible Latin temperament overcome for a moment at the bitterness of his thoughts. To create a diversion the middy struck in with another question.

“Have they torpedoes, sir?”

“Only the Bolivar. She is, in fact, a semi-torpedo boat. The others were being equipped with tubes when the revolution broke out, and the crews mutinied.”

“The Bolivar, then, is the only one that can plump a Whitehead at us?”

“That’s it, but she carries a good supply.”

“And so do we, don’t we?”

“I am sorry to say not. The last shipment of[224] Whiteheads from your country was delayed. We have on board now not more than four.”

“Hum, that’s bad,” mused the middy. “However, captain, we have a first-rate armament, and I guess we’ll be able to give a good account of ourselves.”

“I sincerely hope so,” rejoined the other, with a dubious intonation that, in spite of his courage, made cold chills run down the middy’s spine, “but it is three against one——”

“Lame duck!” laughed Stark, throwing off his nervousness with an effort. “Do you intend to put your strategy into effect at once?”

“No, I think the best plan would be to cruise off here for a time. There is always a chance that they may send out one of the vessels alone to reconnoiter. In that case we could cut her off and have her at our mercy.”

“That is right,” agreed Stark, “but there is one serious objection.”

“And that is?”

“They are likely to see us from the shore and report our presence along the coast. That might[225] precipitate a night attack or some sort of sortie that might put us in an awkward hole.”

“By the great bells of Sevilla, you are right. What do you suggest? You see, already I am beginning to lean on you Americans.”

The brave old captain smiled wanly as he spoke.

“Why, sir, I have a plan in my mind. It came to me while we were talking. The Barrill is exactly like the Beale, is she not?”

“They were built at the same yards. The Beale is slightly longer, and more modern, and heavily engined. But why?”

“Well, you have an American flag on board?”

“Yes,” rejoined t............