"I warn you," he said to Ruggles as that worthy stepped to his side. "You have committed an unpardonable atrocity in laying violent hands on the Liberator of Venezuela. I demand that you set me ashore at the earliest possible moment, otherwise you will have a heavy reckoning to pay when I establish my authority."
"Don't you worry, General," said Ruggles consolingly. "You wanted to get into Bolivar, I understand. Well, we'll take you there, free of charge. Couldn't be a fairer offer."
The General muttered an oath and relapsed into silence.
The hawser having been made fast, Will started the motor and set the hydroplane going at a speed of about ten miles an hour. To go faster while it was still dark was unwise: he hoped also unnecessary. Azito stood forward with his pole: José was at the engine with his oil-can; Machado, to his disappointment, was given a seat beside Will at the steering-wheel. In that position he was unable to interfere with the machinery. But he still hoped that an opportunity might offer before the night was over.
It was more than fifty miles by river to the junction. Will had pondered his task as the yacht drifted down the smaller stream, and recognized the dangers. First, there was the navigation of the river in the darkness; but the danger of this might be avoided with Azito's care, and by maintaining only a moderate speed. The second danger was that Captain Espejo might run a train to the narrowest part of the river some forty miles away, where the bank was fairly clear of vegetation and the railway line was near the stream. That spot would be reached about dawn. If the enemy got there first and lined the bank, they could riddle the hydroplane with bullets, and a single well-planted shot would cripple the engine, to say nothing of the risks to which the occupants of the vessel would be exposed. The third danger was that Captain Espejo might run the train beyond the narrows to the junction. At this part of its course the river made a wide bend, while the railway ran fairly straight; so that if the hydroplane got safely past the narrows there was still a possibility of the train outstripping it before the junction was reached. But the train, consisting as it must do of heavy goods wagons, could not approach without noise, which would give warning of the necessity of increasing speed. Nor did Will suppose that the Captain would venture to drive the train at full speed in pitch darkness over a new track, in which there were many awkward curves before it reached the straight run to the junction. On the whole, Will felt fairly easy in mind, and since the safety of the hydroplane was all-important, he contented himself with the moderate speed of ten knots.