pirate. Ho! ho!"

"If Don Ignacio declines to take me, Captain Brand, of course I can not
go in the felucca; but, let come what will, I am resolved not to sail in
the 'Centipede.'"

The pirate regarded the doctor for a moment with a cold, freezing look,
not wanting, however, in a partial glimmer of respect and admiration, as
he thus resolutely stated his determination; and then, putting his
finger lightly on the doctor's arm, as he saw Don Ignacio and the padre
draw near, he said impressively, in a low tone,

"_Monsieur le Docteur_, do not make hasty resolutions. _I_ command here,
and my will is law. I will turn the matter over, however, in my mind,
and give you a final decision before we part to-night. Now let us
return. The sun is down, and the rocks are slippery."

"Well, _caballeros_, let us have a little social amusement," said
Captain Brand, as he sat down at the table in the padre's and doctor's
quarters, and wound up his splendid watch, the present from the Captain
General of Cuba. "But bear in mind that we must break up at midnight,
for our _compadre_ here has a multitude of articles to get on board his
felucca to-night, and I must be astir at daylight."

Did Captain Brand think, while he turned the key of that gold repeater,
of the bloodstained wretch he had put to death in the morning, who was
lying stark and still in his narrow, damp resting-place, or of the poor
little sufferer who had been torn from his heart-broken mother sleeping
near him? Oh no, certainly not. Captain Brand was thinking of a little
game of monte.

The padre lugged out a small store of dollars, and a gold ounce or two,
and other stray bits of gold, down to quartitos or eighths of
doubloons--all of it donations made him for remission of sins and
absolutions, presented at one time and another from the pirates of his
flock, such donations falling in pretty rapidly after a successful
cruise, but dwindling away to most contemptible gifts long before his
flock took to sea again.

Captain Brand was very liberal to his crew, dividing a great deal of
money with them, but, since he rarely visited any foreign ports, they
had little chance of squandering it; and in the end it served merely as
a gaming currency to play with, and eventually coming back to him as
contributions for stores, ammunition, rigging, and so forth. The
captain, therefore, was a large gainer by the operation, as most of the
articles in eating and drinking, and the vessel