driac seemed some way to have taken it as a malicious reflection
upon his confessed inability thus far to break down, at least, on a
verbal summons, the entrenched will of the slave. Deploring this
supposed misconception, yet despairing of correcting it, Captain Delano
shifted the subject; but finding his companion more than ever withdrawn,
as if still sourly digesting the lees of the presumed affront
above-mentioned, by-and-by Captain Delano likewise became less
talkative, oppressed, against his own will, by what seemed the secret
vindictiveness of the morbidly sensitive Spaniard. But the good sailor,
himself of a quite contrary disposition, refrained, on his part, alike
from the appearance as from the feeling of resentment, and if silent,
was only so from contagion.

Presently the Spaniard, assisted by his servant somewhat discourteously
crossed over from his guest; a procedure which, sensibly enough, might
have been allowed to pass for idle caprice of ill-humor, had not master
and man, lingering round the corner of the elevated skylight, began
whispering together in low voices. This was unpleasing. And more; the
moody air of the Spaniard, which at times had not been without a sort of
valetudinarian stateliness, now seemed anything but dignified; while the
menial familiarity of the servant lost its original charm of
simple-hearted attachment.

In his embarrassment, the visitor turned his face to the other side of
the ship. By so doing, his glance accidentally fell on a young Spanish
sailor, a coil of rope in his hand, just stepped from the deck to the
first round of the mizzen-rigging. Perhaps the man would not have been
particularly noticed, were it not that, during his ascent to one of the
yards, he, with a sort of covert intentness, kept his eye fixed on
Captain Delano, from whom, presently, it passed, as if by a natural
sequence, to the two whisperers.

His own attention thus redirected to that quarter, Captain Delano gave a
slight start. From something in Don Benito's manner just then, it seemed
as if the visitor had, at least partly, been the subject of the
withdrawn consultation going on--a conjecture as little agreeable to the
guest as it was little flattering to the host.

The singular alternations of courtesy and ill-breeding in the Spanish
captain were unaccountable, except on one of two suppositions--innocent
lunacy, or wicked imposture.

But the first idea, though it might naturally have occurred to