Nicky and Tom, lying on the floor, could not see; but they heard the foul words of the Libertad’s crew and saw the flashes of their weapons. Directed against the three in the cutter, their superior fire was a menace that Lieutenant Sommerlee could not overcome; before he could, under the circumstances, get the cutter around, El Libertad was racing, full speed, for the channel that led outward. The cutter came on, but the Libertad had the headway and the advantage of her straight course while the cutter had to swing in a wide circle before she could take full advantage of her speed.
“You boys will be sorry for what you tried,” grated Don Ortiga.
“We’re sorry now,” said Tom shortly. “We are sorry that we tried to get away.”
“Yes,” panted Nicky, “we ought to have succeeded.”
He turned his head toward Tom, his lips shaped words, but only Tom, reading his lips, got the message.
“There’s only one hope,” Nicky’s lips formed, “Cliff!”
CHAPTER XXX
CLIFF PLAYS HIS PART
Cliff, on board the stranded Senorita, with Sam and Jim and the naval patrol sailor, Jack, knew nothing of the exciting events that had just occurred.
Nor did he guess that an escaping white boat full of desperate men was laying its course to pass his station.
Tom’s effort to destroy the carbureter had drawn the attention of the crew to the engineer’s repeated assertions that the leaky old carbureter was wasting gas, and that they ought to be sure they had enough to run the channel and escape.