when an accident removed all doubt on the subject, from his own mind at least.  Spike had, once or twice, given his opinion that the weather was treacherous, and urged the people of both crafts to extraordinary exertions, in order that the vessels might get clear of each other as soon as possible.  This appeal had set various expedients in motion to second the more regular work of the purchases.  Among other things, planks had been laid from one vessel to the other, and barrels were rolled along them with very little attention to the speed or the direction.  Several had fallen on the schooner’s deck with rude shocks, but no damage was done, until one, of which the hoops had not been properly secured, met with a fall, and burst nearly at Mulford’s feet.  It was at the precise moment when the mate was returning, from taking his glance into the cabin, toward the side of the Swash.  A white cloud arose, and half a dozen of the schooner’s people sprang for buckets, kids, or dishes, in order to secure enough of the contents of the broken barrel to furnish them with a meal.  At first nothing was visible but the white cloud that succeeded the fall, and the scrambling sailors in its midst.  No sooner, however, had the air got to be a little clear, than Mulford saw an object lying in centre of the wreck, that he at once recognised for a keg of the gunpowder!  The captain of the schooner seized this keg, gave a knowing look at Mulford, and disappeared in the hold of his own vessel, carrying with him, what was out of all question, a most material part of the true cargo of the Swash.

At the moment when the flour-barrel burst, Spike was below, in close conference with his Spanish, or Mexican guest; and the wreck being so soon cleared away, it is probable that he never heard of the accident.  As for the two crews, they laughed a little among themselves at the revelation which had been made, as well as at the manner; but to old sea-dogs like them, it was a matter of very little moment, whether the cargo was, in reality, flour or gunpowder.  In a few minutes the affair seemed to be forgotten.  In the course of another hour the Swash was light, having nothing in her but some pig-lead, which she used for ballast, while the schooner was loaded to her hatches, and full.  Spike now sent a boat, with orders to drop a kedge about a hundred yards from the place where his own brig lay.  The schooner warped up to this kedge, and dropped an anchor of her own, leaving a very short range of cable out, it being a flat calm.  Ordinarily, the trades prevail at the Dry Tortugas, and all along the Florida Reef.  Sometimes, indeed, this breeze sweeps across the whole width of the Gulf of Mexico, blowing home, as it is called—­reaching even to the coast of Texas.  It is subject, however, to occasional interruptions everywhere, varying many points in its direction, and occasionally ceasing entirely.  The latter was the condition of the weather about noon on this day, or when the schooner hauled off from the brig, and was secured at her own anchor.