nd
mate.

"Give the poor devils a chance for their lives."

"How?" promptly asks Padilla.

"Why; if we set the barque's head out to sea, as the wind's off-shore,
she'd soon carry them beyond sight o' land, and we'd niver hear another
word o' 'em."

"No, no! that won't do," protest several in the same breath. "They
might get picked up, and then we'd be sure of hearing of them--may be
something more than words."

"_Carrai_!" exclaims Padilla scornfully; "that _would_ be a wise way.
Just the one to get our throats in the _garrota_. You forget that Don
Gregorio Montijo is a man of the big grandee kind. And should he ever
set foot ashore, after what we'd done to him, he'd have influence enough
to make most places--ay, the whole of the habitable globe--a trifle too
hot for us. There's an old saw, about dead men telling no tales. No
doubt most of you have heard it, and some have reason to know it true.
Take my advice, _camarados_, and let us act up to it. What's your
opinion, Senor Gomez?"

"Since you ask for it," responds Gomez, speaking for the first time on
this special matter, "my opinion is, that there's no need for any
difference among us. Mr Blew's against the spilling of blood, and so
would I, if it could be avoided. But it can't, with safety to
ourselves; at least not in the way he has suggested. To act as he
advises would be madness on our part--nay more, it might be suicide.
Still, there don't seem any necessity for a cold cutting of throats,
which has an ugly sound about it. The same with knocking on the head;
they're both too brutal. I think I know a way that will save us from
resorting to either, and, at the same time, ensure our own safety."

"What way?" demanded several voices. "Tell us!"

"One simple enough; so simple, I wonder you haven't all thought of it,
same as myself. Of course, we intend sending this craft to the bottom
of the sea. But she's not likely to go down all of a sudden; nor till
we're a good way off out of sight. We can leave the gentlemen aboard,
and let them slip quietly down along with her!"

"Why, that's just what Blew proposes," say several.

"True," returns Gomez; "but not exactly as I mean it. He'd leave them
free to go about the ship--perhaps get out of her before she sinks, on a
sofa, or hencoop, or something."

"How would _you_ do with them?" asks one, impatiently.

"Tie, before taking leave of them."

"Bah!" exclaims Padilla, a monster to whom spilli