the golden west,
each man eager for the first sight of a sail that might prove to be a
richly-laden galleon, or even the pirate Jose Leirya. Later in the
evening the moon rose in all her tropic glory, and the sea in her wake
gleamed like one huge speckless sheet of silver.

Behind them, in the bush on the island, by the evening camp-fire,
Alvarez, with certain other choice spirits of his own stamp, was
plotting grim and deadly evil by the light of the same moon which lit
the English adventurers on their way.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

ROGER GOES ASHORE TO RESCUE A MAROONED MAN, AND IS HIMSELF LEFT IN THE
LURCH.

The days now slipped by uneventfully, and morning after morning broke
without either land or ship making its appearance to break the monotony
of a perfectly clear horizon.

Slipping down the Windward Channel, and sailing on a South-South-West
course, they had left Morant Point, at the eastern end of Jamaica, on
their starboard beam; and after keeping to their South-South-West course
for the five succeeding days, they had turned the vessels' heads to the
East-South-East, intending to sail as far in that direction as La
Guayra, where they hoped to find a plate galleon in the harbour, and
make an attempt to cut her out. Thence they planned to change their
course once more, standing westward along the coast of Venezuela,
crossing the Gulf of Darien, the Mosquito Gulf, and the Bay of Honduras,
and so up through the Yucatan Channel, leaving the western end of the
island of Cuba on their starboard hand, and into the Gulf of Mexico,
where they intended to cruise for some time, feeling tolerably certain
of picking up a treasure-ship there at any rate, even if they were not
fortunate enough to snap one up whilst cruising on their way.

They could, of course, have reached the Gulf of Mexico much more quickly
by sailing down the Windward Channel and along the southern coast of
Cuba, and by the Yucatan Channel into the gulf; but they had heard of
the treasure-ships that made La Guayra their port of departure, and were
anxious not to miss any of them. Also, they believed that, by taking
the longer course, there would be more likelihood of their falling in
with that most ferocious and bloody pirate, Jose Leirya, as he was
called, or Jose de Leirya, as he loved to call himself--for he was said
to claim descent from a grandee of Spain, although those who knew the
man were well aware that his birth and parentage were obscure.