AFTER THE EXPLOSION. 319 the Spaniards, but there was a raft, or float, secured by a longline to the deck, which remained on the surface of the water. It was by means of this raft that Hobson and his companions made their marvellous escape from death. How they did it had best be related in the lieutenant'sown words, as he told the story after his release from a Spanish prison:— out of the affair alive,but luckily the Spaniards did not think of the apparently damaged,halfsunken raft floating about beside the wreck. They came to within a cable's length of us at intervals of only a few minutes all night. We could hear their words distinctly, and evenin the darkness could distinguish an occasional glint of light on the rifle-barrels of the marines and on the lace of the officers' uniforms. We wereafraidto speak above a whisper, and for a good while,in fact, whenever they were nearus, we breathed as easily as we could. Iordered my mennot to speak unless to address me, and with oneexception they obeyed. After we had been there an hour or two the water, which we found rather warm at first, began to get cold, and my fingers ached where the wood was pressing into them. The clouds, which were running before a pretty brisk breeze when we wentin, blew over,and thenby the starlight we could see the boats when they came out of the shadows of the cliffs on either side, and even when we couldnot see them we knew that they were still near, because we could hear very plainly the splash of the oars and the grinding of the oarlocks.

"Iswam away from the ship as soon as I struck the water, but Icould feel the eddies drawing me back in spite of allIcould do. That did not last very long, however, and as soon as Ifelt the tugging cease Iturned and struck out for the float, whichIcould see dimly bobbing up and down over the sunken hull. TheMerrimac's masts wereplainlyvisible, andIcould see the heads of my seven men as they followed my example and made for the float also. We had expected,of course, that the Spaniards wouldinvestigate the wreck, but we had no idea that they would be at it as quickly as they were. Before we could get to the float several row-boats and launches came around the bluff from inside the harbour. They had officers on board, and armed marines as well,and they searched that passage,rowing backwards and forwards, until next morning. It was only by good luck that we got to the float at all, for they were upon us so quickly that we had barely concealed ourselves when a boat, with quite a large party on board, was right besideus.

" We all knew that we would be shot if discoveredby an ordinary seaman or marine, and Iordered my men not to stir, as the boatshaving officers on board kept well in the distance. One of my mendisobeyed orders and started to swim ashore, andIhad to call him back. He obeyed at once, but myvoice seemed to create some commotionamong the boats, and several of themappeared close beside us before the disturbance in the water made by the man swimming had disappeared. We thought it was all up with us then, but the boats went away into the shadowsagain.

"Unfortunately, as we thought then— but it turned out afterwards that nothing more fortunate couldhave happened to us— the rope with which wehad secured the float to the ship was too short to allow it to swing free, and when we reached it we found that one of the pontoons wasentirely out of the waterand the otherone was submerged. Had the raft lain flat upon the water we could not have got under it, and would have had to climb upon it, to be an excellent target for the first party of marines that arrived. Asit was, we could get under the raft, and by putting our hands through the crevices between the slats which formedits deck we could hold our heads out of water and still be unseen. That is what we did, and allnight long We stayed there with our noses and mouths barely outof the water." Soruns the narrative ; but it must be noted that, long as the time must have seemed to the eight men, there was at most an hour of the night left when the Merrimac went down.

" When daylight came a steam launch full of officers and marines came out from behind the cliff thathid the fleet andharbour and advanced towardsus. All the menon board were looking curiously in our direction. They didnot see us. Knowing that someone of rank must be on board,Iwaited until the launch was quite close andhailed her. My voice produced the utmost consternation on board. Everyone sprang up. The marines crowded to the bow, and the launch's engines were reversed. She not only stopped,but she backed off untilnearly a quarter of a mile away,where she stayed. The marines stood ready to fire at the word of command, when we clambered out from under the float. There were ten of the marines, and they would " Noneof us," he continues,"expectedto get