Not a word was uttered on the crowded deck, and so deep was the silence, that the low throbbing of the Alabama's propeller, as it revolved slowly in the water, seemed to strike on the ear with a noise like thunder.

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.