."

"Very well," said the captain at last. "By sunset, if the ransom is not
brought on board, we shall have a fine bonfire out there," and he
pointed to the town.

"Arra' now, captain, you may as well cook and eat us at once, for sorrow
a dollar have ye left us, and all the crucifixes, and candlesticks, and
beautiful images, which we might have pledged for the money, stowed away
in your hold!" exclaimed the fat friar, betraying his Hibernian origin,
and that he had understood every word which had been spoken.

"Are you an Irishman, and living among these foreigners, and pretending
to be one of them?" cried the captain. "If I had known that, I would
have clapped on another thousand dollars to your ransom."

"Sure, captain, dear, it would have been more charitable to have taken
them off," observed the jovial friar. "However, just be after giving me
four days, and ye shall resave the dollars all bright and beautiful,
though not a quarter of one could all the blessed saints together
collect in the whole of our unfortunate town and the circumjacent
country."

The friar's eye twinkled as he spoke. At last he proposed paying even a
larger sum, provided that the captain would prolong the time to five
days for its collection. Captain Podgers, eager to get more money, and
not suspecting treachery, agreed to the proposal, and Fra Patricio,
chuckling in his sleeve, prepared to take his departure.

"Captain, dear," he said, turning round with a comical look as he
reached the gangway, "ye haven't got a bottle of potheen, the raal
cratur, have ye? It would just be after comforting me in my trouble."

A bottle of Irish whiskey being handed to the friar, he tucked it away
in his sleeve, and his boat pulled off towards the shore.

Mr Falconer, who understood Spanish, shortly after this informed the
captain that he had discovered, from the prisoners' conversation, that
the object of Friar Patrick in asking for more time to collect the
ransom, was that troops might be sent for to protect the town. The
captain replied that he would hang his prisoners if any such trick was
played.

We remained two days longer, and no news came from the Irish friar.

Our prisoners were well supplied with eatables and drinkables and
tobacco, and appeared perfectly happy, talking freely among themselves,
as they sat at table and smoked their cigarettes. Mr Falconer, though
unwilling to be an eavesdropper, could not help hearing what they said