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 CHAPTER XXIX.

ASHLEY LAGS SUPERFLUOUS.

"If she is the property of the revolutionists, gentlemen, with her phenomenal speed she can run the strictest blockade the Spaniards can institute, can land arms, ammunition and re-enforcements at will, and practically snap her fingers at the whole Spanish navy."

The speaker is Capt. Meade and the place the officers' mess table on board the America. Naturally the one topic of conversation is the strange yacht and her remarkable performance.

"Yes," continues the captain, impressively, "I believe that the result of the insurrection may hang on the fate of that steamer. My sympathies as an individual, I do not hesitate to say, are with the rebels. But my duty as an officer impels me to notify the War Department of the departure of the Semiramis and the flaunting of the Cuban flag. However, I hardly think the warning will harm her, even if it should set the entire Spanish navy in pursuit."

"Do you think the yacht is bound for Cuba now?" inquires Ashley, with an unpleasant sensation in the vicinity of the fifth rib.

"Certainly. She is apparently coaled and equipped for a long voyage. She set low enough in the water to carry quite a cargo, too. Oh, yes; she is off for the West Indies sure enough."

Ashley relapses into a reverie and the burden of his thoughts is something like this: "Louise Hathaway, Cyrus Felton and this mysterious Van Zandt on the same steamer and bound for Cuba! How and why?" He mechanically pulls at his cigar. Finally, as the signal for breaking up of the dinner party is given by the commander, he murmurs: "What will John Barker say?"

The America has completed her run; and now, her officers and the naval experts aboard having expressed