you--and no mistake!

"At sunrise we got into a creek, to lie hidden in case the treasure hunt
party had a mind to take a spell hunting for us. And dash me if they
didn't! We saw the schooner away out, running to leeward, with ten pairs
of binoculars sweeping the sea, no doubt on all sides. I advised the
governor to give her time to beat back again before we made a start. So
we stayed up that creek something like ten days, as snug as can be. On
the seventh day we had to kill a man, though--the brother of this Pedro
here. They were alligator-hunters, right enough. We got our lodgings in
their hut. Neither the boss nor I could habla Espanol--speak Spanish,
you know--much then. Dry bank, nice shade, jolly hammocks, fresh fish,
good game, everything lovely. The governor chucked them a few dollars to
begin with; but it was like boarding with a pair of savage apes, anyhow.
By and by we noticed them talking a lot together. They had twigged
the cash-box, and the leather portmanteaus, and my bag--a jolly lot of
plunder to look at. They must have been saying to each other:

"'No one's ever likely to come looking for these two fellows, who seem
to have fallen from the moon. Let's cut their throats.'

"Why, of course! Clear as daylight. I didn't need to spy one of them
sharpening a devilish long knife behind some bushes, while glancing
right and left with his wild eyes, to know what was in the wind. Pedro
was standing by, trying the edge of another long knife. They thought we
were away on our lookout at the mouth of the river, as was usual with us
during the day. Not that we expected to see much of the schooner, but
it was just as well to make certain, if possible; and then it was cooler
out of the woods, in the breeze. Well, the governor was there right
enough, lying comfortable on a rug, where he could watch the offing, but
I had gone back to the hut to get a chew of tobacco out of my bag. I had
not broken myself of the habit then, and I couldn't be happy unless I
had a lump as big as a baby's fist in my cheek."

At the cannibalistic comparison, Schomberg muttered a faint, sickly
"don't." Ricardo hitched himself up in his seat and glanced down his
outstretched legs complacently.

"I am tolerably light on my feet, as a general thing," he went on. "Dash
me if I don't think I could drop a pinch of salt on a sparrow's tail,
if I tried. Anyhow, they didn't hear me. I watched them two brown, hairy
brutes not ten yards off. All the