But the minutes passed by and the expected broadside
never came. The straining eyes of the look-outs could see no sign of the
San Jacinto. Either she had misunderstood the signals of her accomplice
on shore, or by some strange fatality they had altogether escaped her;
and the Alabama held on her course unmolested, until, at twenty minutes
past eight, less than an hour after the start, she was considered fairly
out of danger of interception.
The guns were now run in and secured, the word passed to the engineers
to fire up and give her a full head of steam; the men were piped below,
and the Alabama, throwing off the silence in which for the last hour she
had been wrapped fore and aft, darted off merrily over the rippling
waves, in the direction of the island of Blanquilla, at the rate of
fourteen knots an hour. It subsequently transpired that, notwithstanding
all her vigilance and all her pre-arranged signals, the San Jacinto had
been totally unaware of the escape of her agile foe, and actually
remained for four days and four nights carefully keeping guard over the
stable from which the steed had cleverly stolen away.
The morning of the 21st of November found the Alabama off the Hermanas,
and by 1.30 PM. she was in sight of the island of Blanquilla, the
appointed rendezvous of the Agrippina, who had already, about nine
o'clock that morning, been descried on the port bow making all speed
towards her destined anchorage.
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