haped eyes, such as I had never
before seen. The fact is, my friends, I had always before fancied blue.
But there stood this girl, with eyes like a wounded stag, leaning up
against the weather bulwarks near the open cabin door.

"Babette, take away all but the wine and fruit, and bring fire. Pass
that box this way, if you please, _compadre_! Thank you."

Don Ignacio seemed to have an affection for the trifle, and had counted
the brilliants over and over again, and made a mental calculation of
their weight and value; and when he did move it as he was desired, his
greedy eye followed it with fascination.

"Yes, it's very pretty, and I set a great store by it," parenthesized
the host, as he resumed his tale:

"The girl never screamed or even spoke, and, amid all the hubbub of a
drunken skipper and a disorderly crew, she remained quiet and unmoved.
To assure the people, I told them that I would stay by the ship and do
what I could for them. At this the old lady clasped me around the neck,
and kissed me, and blubbered over me more than ever she did, I imagined,
to the old Spanish judge, her husband--imploring me too, by all the
saints she could think of, to take herself and daughter out of the
sinking vessel at once. You may believe that I would much rather have
been treated in that way by the lovely girl with the wonderful eyes
instead of the fat, rancid old woman beside her; but there was no help
for it just then, and so I consented, with all the professions of
sympathy I could make, to do as she desired."

Here the captain lit a pure Havana, and, after a few puffs and a sip of
Port, continued:

CHAPTER XV.

DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER.

"At last she startled up,
And gazed on the vacant air
With a look of awe, as if she saw
Some dreadful phantom there."

"No sooner had I assured the old lady that I would transfer them to my
vessel than her daughter made a step forward, and, letting her shawl
fall upon the deck, she seized my hand with both of hers, and said, in a
low contralto voice,

"'Heaven bless you, _senor_!'

"By the cestus of Venus, _caballeros_, the pressure of that girl's hand,
and the deep, speaking look of gratitude she gave me out of her liquid
eyes, quite did my business!"

"And the senorita's too, I think," chimed in the one-eyed commander, as
he wagged his uneasy head at the narrator.

"_Quien sabe?_" (who knows?) went on Captain Brand: "at all events,