forehead. At the
same moment I whipped a loaded pistol from my pocket, aimed straight at
his left eye, and, as he stared at me in amazement, said--

"You are a dead man, Captain Lenoir, if you move so much as a muscle.
You are my prisoner, senor. No,"--as I saw by the expression of his eye
that he had it in his mind to suddenly spring upon and disarm me--"not a
movement, I pray you. To attempt what you are thinking of would be
fatal, for upon your slightest motion I will pull the trigger and blow
your brains out; I will, as surely as that you are sitting there."
Then, slightly raising my voice, I called--

"Collins, bring your party into this room; and do not forget to bring
along that length of ratline that I told you to have ready."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered Collins; and the reply was followed by the
shuffling sound of several pairs of feet, the owners of which came
shambling into the room the next moment, with naked cutlasses in their
hands, while one of them carried, in addition, a length of some three or
four fathoms of ratline.

Meanwhile, I had never for the smallest fraction of a second withdrawn
my gaze from Captain Lenoir's eyes, or allowed the barrel of my pistol
to waver a hair's-breadth from his larboard optic, for I knew that if I
did he would be upon me like lightning. But although he dared not move
his limbs he was not afraid to use his tongue, angrily demanding what I
meant by perpetrating such an outrage upon one of Senor Morillo's best
customers, and vowing that he would not be satisfied until he had seen
me flogged within an inch of my life for my insolence. Then, when I
explained to him the actual state of affairs--while Collins and another
man securely lashed his hands together behind his back--his temper
completely got the better of him, and he raved, and shrieked curses at
us until we were perforce compelled to gag him lest his cries should
reach the men in the boat and give them the alarm. However, we very
soon secured and silenced him; and then, having marched him out at the
back of the house and secured him in a remote hut by himself, I gave
Collins fresh instructions, after which I sauntered across the open
space of blistering sunshine to the edge of the wharf, and looked down
into the boat. The four men had already made fast her painter to a ring
in the wharf wall, and were now lolling over the gunwale, staring down
into the deep, clear water at the fish playing about beneath them,