“There must be a boat tied up somewhere along here,” exclaimed Ned.  “The castle, of course, keeps communication with the town!”

“Yes, here it is!” said Obed.  “Fortune favors the persistent.  It’s only a small boat, and it’s a big sea before us, but, Ned, my lad, we’ve got to try it.  We can’t look any further.  Listen!  That’s the alarm in the castle.”

They heard shouts and clash of arms above the roaring of the wind.  They picked in furious haste at the rope that held the boat, cast it loose, and sprang in, securing the oars.  The waves at once lifted them up and tossed them wildly.  It was perhaps fortunate that they lost control of their boat for a minute or two.  Two musket shots were fired at them, but good aim in the darkness at such a bobbing object was impossible.  Ned heard one of the bullets whistle near, and it gave him a queer, creepy feeling to realize that for the first time in his life someone was firing at him to kill.

“Can you row, Ned?” asked White.

“Yes.”

“Then pull with all your strength.  Bend as low as you can at the same time.  They’ll be firing at us as long as we are in range.”

They strove for the cover of the darkness, but they were compelled to devote most of their efforts to keeping themselves afloat.  The little boat was tossed here and there like a bit of plank.  Spray from the sea was dashed over them, and, in almost a moment, they were wet through and through.  The captured musket lay in the bottom and rolled against their feet.  The wind shrieked continually like some wild animal in pain.

Many torches appeared on the wharf that led up to the castle, and there was a noise of men shouting to one another.  The torches disclosed the little boat rising and falling with the swell of the sea, and numerous shots were now fired, but all fell short or went wild.

“I don’t think we’re in much danger from the muskets,” said Obed, “so we won’t pay any more attention to them.  But in another minute they’ll have big boats out in pursuit We must make for the land below the town, and get away somehow or other in the brush.  If we were to land in the town itself we’d be as badly off as ever.  Hark, there goes the alarm!”

A heavy booming report rose above the mutter of the waters and the screaming of the wind.  One of the great guns on the castle of San Juan de Ulua had been fired.  After a brief interval it was followed by a second shot and then a third.  The reports could be heard easily in Vera Cruz, and they said that either a fresh revolution had begun, or that prisoners were escaping.  The people would be on the watch.  White turned the head of the boat more toward the south.

“Ned,” he said, “we must choose the longer way.  We cannot run any risk of landing right under the rifles of Santa Anna’s troops.  Good God!”

Some gunner on the walls of San Juan de Ulua, of better sight and aim than the others, had sent a cannon ball so close that it struck the sea within ten feet of them.  They were deluged by a water spout and again their little vessel rocked fearfully.  Obed White called out cheerfully: