rmaid was hidden, and walked a few paces beside it before discovering their error. When they did so, they at once began

llowing us?" cried Carl Baldwin, sei

and darted away, but not before the gleam of a stre

than likely a Spanish spy. It is a narrow escape, my Carol, for if our blunder had not forced us to

n, then, befo

ill dare do that. He

o discover had passed beneath the wharf. As he dared not attempt to follow them through the impenetrable gloom into whic

and reported all that had happened, to the Professor. Then Carl Baldwin unfolded

ur with the ebbing tide, until she came abreast the great black hul

d like a gi

known that it was caused by the motion of the Mermaid's propeller necessary to hold her in position against the stream while she hovered like a gigantic fish directly above the screw of his ship, how easily could he have won the promotion for which he longed. But he suspected nothin

walk quickly away. For a moment the spy was undecided as to whether he should follow this person or seek to discover where he had come from. Then choosing the former course, he follo

bour. Undoubtedly a store of contraband goods was concealed under the wharf, and an effort would be made to c

f he had watched so long. Suddenly between them and the outer daylight two men appeared one after the other. Both slid down one of the piles s

ierce Spanish oath. Finally, convinced that further search in that direction was fruitless, he pulled out into the harbour to watch the mysterious tow that still lay at anchor. As he drew near to it he saw its captain come off from shore alone. Then the guar

at screw began to churn the water, and she slowly forged ahead. Suddenly her screw ceased to act, she took a sheer in the wrong direction, there was a vast amount of confusion on her decks, and in another minute she was fast aground on a bank of the narrow channel. Every eye in Key West harbour was fixed u

port, which at sunrise of the following morning passed beneath the fro

ew looked eagerly upon the wonderfully beautiful scene unfolding before them as t

se tower, the white Cabanas fortress, the tinted, flat-roofed buildings of the city across the placid basin, th

er such strange conditions, gazed in silence, but as though hoping with the very intensit

ur held half-a-dozen, as he speculated upon the ease with which his

ened that, as the captain of the tug was preparing to go ashore and make formal entry at the custom-house, after having successfully passed examination by both health officers and port authorities, two barges fi

e spy was forced to confess that there was no person aboard unaccounted for in the tug's papers, and that he must have laboured under a delusion as to what he had seen. He was bewildered, morti

mping scow, the authorities only laughed at him, and referred him to General Weyler, who happened at that time to be absent with an expe

lose at hand. Here she received a supply of fresh air through a flexible tube, one end of which was supported on the surface of the water by a small float. Duri

gain the city streets. This was most important, for though in the darkness they might have landed anywhere along the quay, they would still have been shut off from the streets by a tall and stout iron fence, the gates of which were always guarded, and at

aid might pass beneath them. This proved to be the case; for when, after a long search and several narrow escapes from discovery, the dock was reached, the Mermaid managed to squeeze under the barrier, and when she next rose to the surf