“She’s away! She’s safe!” suddenly exclaimed the captain. “She’s made out the trap and is putting out to sea again!”
Then everybody saw the lighter reappear under the war-ship’s counter, and gradually the water and sky line broadened between the big ship and the boat.
CHAPTER XVIII.
JOHN LONGMORE’S REVENGE (concluded).
Señor Cisneros gave vent to a sigh of relief; so did Mr. Dartmoor. The boys were both disappointed and pleased. If they could have seen a war-ship destroyed without loss of life, the spectacle would have thrilled them; or could they have been eyewitness to a naval engagement in which both sides had warning, they would have enjoyed nothing better. They understood perfectly the attitude taken by their seniors, and their love of fair play told them that such methods of warfare as that employed by John Longmore could have no honest approval.
Captain Saunders picked up his hat from a table, and, rising from the chair where he had ensconced himself so as to look the better through the telescope, he prepared to leave the veranda, and waited a minute until the others could make ready. Several club members had hurriedly taken their departure, anxious to avoid the crowd that would throng the streets.
“Come, boys,” Mr. Dartmoor said, and he started toward the stairs.
“Just a minute, please, father?” asked Louis, who had taken a seat at the telescope. Then he added, “I wonder what the Blanco is signalling for?”
“She is signalling, that’s a fact,” said Carl, who had taken up a pair of marine glasses and was looking seaward.
“Hurry! Don’t you see you are keeping us all waiting?” insisted Mr. Dartmoor.
“One second, please, one second! Oh, father, look! There’s another ship coming up. See, that one to the south is leaving the line!”