at work all day, too full of the business of planning,
cutting, testing, and contriving, to find leisure to dwell upon what he
had said at breakfast, and now that I lay alone in darkness it was the
only subject I could settle my thoughts to.

However, next morning I found myself less gloomy, thanks to several
hours of solid sleep. I thought, what is the good of anticipating?
Suppose the schooner is crushed by the ice or jammed by the explosion?
Until we are under way, nay, until the treasure is buried, I have
nothing to fear, for the rogue cannot do without me. And, reassuring
myself in this fashion, I went to the cook-room and lighted the fire; my
companion presently arrived, and we sat down to our morning meal.

"I dreamt last night," said he, "that the devil sat on my breast and
told me that we should break clear of the ice and come off safe with
the treasure--there is loyalty in the Fiend. He seldom betrays his
friends."

"You have a better opinion of him than I," said I; "and I do not know
that you have much claim upon his loyalty either, seeing that you will
cross yourself and call upon the Madonna and saints when the occasion
arises."

"Pooh, mere habit," cried he, sarcastically. "I have seen Barros praying
to a little wooden saint in a gale of wind and then knock its head off
and throw it overboard because the storm increased." And here he fell to
talking very impiously, professing such an outrageous contempt for every
form of religion, and affirming so ardent a belief in the goodwill of
Satan and the like, that I quitted my bench at last in a passion, and
told him that he must be the devil himself to talk so, and that for my
part his sentiments awoke in me nothing but the utmost scorn, loathing,
and horror of him.

His face fell, and he looked at me with the eye of one who takes measure
of another and does not feel sure.

"Tut!" cried he, with a feigned peevishness; "what are my sentiments to
you, or yours to me? you may be a Quaker for all I care. Come, fill your
pannikin and let us drink a health to our own souls!"

But though he said this grinning, he shot a savage look of malice at me,
and when he put his pannikin down his face was very clouded and sulky.

We finished our meal in silence, and then I rose, saying, "Let us now
see what the gunpowder is going to do for us."

My rising and saying this worked a change in him. He exclaimed briskly,
"Ay, now for the great experiment," and made for the c