Next morning Dick reviewed the situation as he ate his breakfast in the
fresh coolness before the sun got up. He had got a shock, but he was
young and soon recovered. His anger against the unknown plotter remained
fierce, but this was, in a sense, a private grievance, by which he must
not be unduly influenced. It was plain that he was thought dangerous,
which showed that he was following the right clue, and he had determined
that the raiding of ships belonging to Britain or her allies must be
stopped. Since he had gone to the representative of British authority and
had been rebuffed, he meant to get Fuller to see if American suspicions
could be easier aroused, but he must first make sure of his ground. In
the meantime, Don Sebastian had asked his help and he had given a
conditional promise.
Dick decided that he had taken the proper course. Don Sebastian held
Kenwardine accountable and meant to expose him. This was painful to
contemplate for Clare's sake, but Dick admitted that he could not shield
Kenwardine at his country's expense. Still, the matter was horribly
complicated. If Kenwardine was ruined or imprisoned, a serious obstacle
in Dick's way would be removed, but it was unthinkable that this should
be allowed to count when Clare must suffer. Besides, she might come to
hate him if she learned that he was responsible for her father's
troubles. But he would make the liner's fate a test. If the vessel
arrived safe, Kenwardine should go free until his guilt was certain; if
she were sunk or chased, he would help Don Sebastian in every way he
could.
For three or four days he heard nothing about her, and then, one hot
morning, when Stuyvesant and Bethune stood at the foot of the tower by
the sluice examining some plans, Jake crossed the pipe with a newspaper
in his hand.
"The Diario has just arrived," he said. "I haven't tried to read it
yet, but the liner has been attacked."
Dick, who was superintending the building of the sluice, hastily
scrambled up the bank, and Stuyvesant, taking the newspaper, sat down in
the shade of the tower. He knew more Castilian than the others, who
gathered round him as he translated.
The liner, the account stated, had the coast in sight shortly before dark
and was steaming along it when a large, black funnel steamer appeared
from behind a point. The captain at once swung his vessel round and the
stranger fired a shot, of which he took no notice. It was blowing fresh,
the light would soon fade, and there was a group of reefs, which he knew
well, not far away. The raider gained a little during the next hour and
fired several shots. Two of the shells burst on board, killing a seaman
and wounding some passengers, but the captain held on. When it was
getting dark the reefs lay close ahead, with the sea breaking heavily on
their outer edge, but he steamed boldly for an intricate, unmarked
channel between them and the land. In altering his course, he exposed the
vessel's broadside to the enemy and a shot smashed the pilot-house, but
they steered her in with the hand-gear. The pursuer then sheered off, but
it got very dark and the vessel grounded in a position where the reef
gave some shelter.