leveled weapons.

"_Maldito_ on the brat! Pshaw!" said Captain Brand, quieting down, and
returning the pistols to his pockets. "How nervous I am! Excuse me,
_caballeros_. I was thinking of something else."

CHAPTER XVIII.

END OF THE BANQUET.

"There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks,
As he stalked away with his iron box.
Oh, ho! oh, ho! The cock doth crow,
It is time for the fisher to rise and go.
Fair luck to the abbot, fair luck to the shrine!
He hath gnawed in twain my choicest line;
Let him swim to the north, let him swim to the south,
The _pirate_ will carry my hook in his mouth."

In the pause which followed the dreadful episode just recounted by
Captain Brand, the padre was occupied in pattering a prayer, counting
his beads, and elevating his crucifix as if he was mumbling high mass at
the altar. Don Ignacio slowly waved his brown fore finger, and his
single spark of glowing eye glared fiercely and fixedly at his host. A
clammy sweat burst out on the pallid brow of the doctor, and his hands
were clutched before him on the table like the jaws of a steel vice. And
still the drunken shrieks and cheers of the piratical crew at the sheds
arose wild and shrill in the calm night, making a gloomy echo for the
banquet. The doctor was the first to break the awkward silence which
pervaded the saloon.

"_Capitano!_" said he, in his habitual calm, deep voice, "with respect
to what you said in the early part of the evening, of breaking up this
establishment, what, may I ask, are your plans for the future?"

"_Gracias!_ _amigo_ doctor! Thank you, my friend, for changing the
conversation. My plans! eh! ah! Well, they are these--"

Here Captain Brand's face assumed its usual expression; and entirely
himself again, he went on to state, in a precise, business-like way, the
views he had resolved upon for future action.

"--To-morrow, gentlemen, is Sunday. Those boisterous fellows out there,
after mass, will need rest all the day. On Monday, however, I shall
begin to change the rig of the schooner, fill up with provisions for a
long cruise, take on board all the loose odds and ends we have stowed
here, of course," he added, as he remarked an inquiring and a rather
alarmed mercenary look from the Tuerto's glim--"of course, after having
squared up all claims of our _compadre_ there!"

"Hum!" croaked that sharp rascal, with a nod of satisfaction quite like
an old raven.