The cadet whirled about.
He saw the girl, her face transfixed and white as a sheet, pointing with a trembling finger off to starboard.
Clif followed the direction of her gaze; what he saw made his brain reel, made him almost totter backward into the boat.
Not half a mile away, coming straight down the coast and bearing down upon them at full speed, was a vessel, a low gunboat.
And high above her bow was floating a Spanish flag.
Clif stared at the frightful apparition as if he had seen a ghost.
What it meant to him may be imagined--the failure of all their hopes--their capture and death!
And there was not the slightest possibility of escape!
Perfectly wild with terror the agonized cadet whirled about, gazing seaward, with a faint hope of the possibility of there being seen by some American vessel.
But the gray horizon was not light enough for them to be sighted. And all hope was gone.
Bessie Stuart continued pointing to the vessel as if she were paralyzed by fright.
"Row! Row!" she shrieked.
And Clif seized the oars frantically. But he knew that it was utterly useless. The gunboat was coming on like a race horse.
And scarcely had he taken two strokes before the matter was settled finally. For there came a puff of white smoke from the Spaniard"s bow.
And almost at the same instant with a deafening, blinding crash, a solid shot struck the tiny rowboat.
It plunged through, almost tearing the frail craft in half, hurling splinters about and sending the two horrified occupants tumbling into the water!
CHAPTER XXI.
RECAPTURED BY THE ENEMY.
Clif was so heartbroken at that sudden ending of all his hopes, that he scarcely cared whether he was drowned or not. But he saw Bessie Stuart struggling in the seething waters, and toward her he struck out desperately.
It took the cadet but a moment to reach her side. The shattered wreck of the wooden boat was floating near, and to that he struggled, helping her on.
And they reached it, in what it sounds like mockery to call safety. The girl scarcely knew whether it were best to hold on or to drown.
But instinctively she clung to the side as the great waves swept over them; and the two fixed their eyes upon the approaching vessel.
She came on swiftly, sheering the water with her sharp bow. And Clif could see half a dozen men standing in the bow watching them.
"Perhaps they have heard of our escape," he growled, "and come after us."
The vessel was not coming from Havana, but the cadet knew that a telegram might have sent it out.
At any rate, they were recaptured; and the horrors of Morro were before them again.
Steadily the gunboat drew nearer; the two half-drowned Americans were reached in a minute or two.
And the vessel slowed up and a rope was thrown to them. Clif desperate from despair, seized it and drew himself close.
A couple of Spanish sailors leaned down from the low side and lifted first the half unconscious girl and then the cadet up to the deck.
And then, weak and pale and dripping wet, they confronted a tall, ugly-looking Spaniard with an officer"s chevrons.
He stared at them curiously.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
And Clif, grim with desperation, looked him in the eye and answered boldly:
"We are Americans," said he.
"Prisoners?"
"Yes."
"From where?"
"Morro Castle."
The Spaniard looked the amazement he felt.
"Morro Castle!" he echoed. "Humph! How did you get out?"
"Take us back there and you"ll find out," was Clif"s defiant answer.
And with that he turned toward the girl to wipe her dripping hair from her face.
He expected that the man would continue questioning them. But he was mistaken. The Spanish gunboat had done a risky thing, running out as it had, and her officers were anxious to get back.
The man turned away and hurried off. A sailor with a pair of handcuffs approached Clif, and the cadet quietly allowed his wrists to be secured.
Bessie Stuart was fortunately spared that indignity. The sailor gruffly ordered them to go below.
The vessel, meanwhile, had resumed her trip. She had been running along close to the coast under cover of the darkness of the previous night.
And now she turned to steal back.
Clif"s heart was heavy, and he was miserable beyond description.