; and I am
glad of it. It was my finger that pulled the trigger that sent the
bullet through his heart; and my only regret is that you did not stay
long enough to enable me to send a few more of you after him."

Carlos, my captor, actually released my arm and stepped a pace away, the
better to gaze upon me, so astounded was he at the unimaginable rashness
of my speech. And, to speak truth, I was astounded at myself; I knew
perfectly well that I was in all probability only adding fuel to the
flame which would ultimately consume me, yet some perverse influence
altogether beyond my control seemed to urge me to speak as I did,
whether I would or no. And, strangest circumstance of all, my words,
instead of evoking from my questioner the white-hot explosion of wrath
that I fully expected, seemed to gratify the man rather than otherwise,
for he grinned appreciation as he gazed into my flashing eyes. Then a
thought seemed to suddenly strike him.

"You were picked up floating upon a piece of wreckage, you say?" he
remarked. "Now, I wonder whether, by any chance, that piece of wreckage
happened to belong to the British man-o'-war schooner that engaged a
pirate schooner a few miles in the offing, about a month or two ago?"

"It did," I answered. "It belonged to His Britannic Majesty's schooner
_Wasp_, which foundered in the gale that sprang up immediately after the
engagement; and I, her commander, was, so far as I know, the only person
saved."

"You her commander!" he reiterated incredulously. "Why, you are only a
boy!"

"Nevertheless, what I have told you is the truth," I answered.

The fellow sat considering this statement for so long a time that I
began to wonder whether perchance it was destined to affect my fate in
any way. At length, however, he appeared to have arrived at a decision,
for, drawing a greasy notebook from one pocket and a stub of pencil from
another, he proceeded with much labour to indite a communication of some
kind upon it, which, when completed, he folded in a peculiar way and
handed to Carlos, at the same time giving him, in a tongue with which I
had no acquaintance, what I took to be certain instructions. Whatever
the nature of the communication may have been it appeared to meet with
Carlos' emphatic disapproval, for he began to argue strenuously with the
other, the argument lasting some ten minutes and rapidly growing more
heated, until finally something was said that apparently convince