t. Should I be justified in actually carrying
my threat into execution? For, after all, the fellow really might _not_
know anything about Morillo; his remarks to Black Peter on the previous
night might be nothing more than boastful lies. And if they were, all
the flogging I might give him could not make him tell that of which he
had no knowledge. But somehow I had a conviction that he _could_ tell
me a great deal that I should be glad to know, if he only chose; so I
finally decided that if he continued contumacious I would risk giving
him a stroke or two, being guided in my after conduct by his behaviour
under the lash.

By the time that I had fully arrived at this resolution the five
minutes' grace had expired, and I returned to where the fellow still
stood, guarded by a Jack with drawn cutlass.

"Well," I demanded, "which is it to be? Will you speak freely, or must
I compel you?"

"I have nothing to say; and I demand to know by what authority I have
been kidnapped and brought aboard this accursed schooner?" was the
reply.

"Did I not tell you a few minutes ago that you are impressed?" I
answered. "You have been brought aboard here in order that you may
render me a service, which I am convinced you _can_ render if you will.
When that service has been faithfully performed, I will not only set you
free again but I will also handsomely reward you. You know what the
service is that I require of you. Once more, will you or will you not
render it?"

"I repeat that I have nothing to say. Put me in irons again if you
choose; you cannot make a man tell that which he does not know,"
answered Garcia; and as he spoke he turned away, seeming to consider
that the dialogue was at an end.

"Here, not so fast, my joker," interrupted the seaman who had the fellow
in charge, seizing Garcia unceremoniously by the back of the neck and
twisting him round until he faced me again, "it ain't good manners,
sonny, to turn your back upon your superiors until they tells you that
they've done with you, and that you can go."

The half-breed turned upon his custodian with a snarl, and a drawing
back of his upper lip that exposed a whole row of yellow fangs, while
his hand went, as from long habit, to his girdle, as though in quest of
a knife; but the look of contemptuous amusement with which the sailor
regarded him cowed the fellow, and he again faced me, meekly enough.

"Now," said I, "your little fit of petulance being over, let