her away a little, senor, if you please; let
her go off a point. I do not want to pass too close to that object if
it be what I imagine."

"And pray what do you imagine it to be, senor, if one may be permitted
to ask the question?" inquired I, as I gave a pull upon the tiller rope
and kept the felucca away, as requested.

"A turtle! a sleeping turtle, and an unusually fine one, too!" answered
Dominguez, in a low voice, as he stood staring out away over the weather
bow, with one hand shading his eyes while the other held his smouldering
cigar.

As Dominguez spoke a little thrill of sudden excitement swept over me,
for I thought, "Just so; I know what he means. He intends to make an
effort to capture that turtle,--probably by means of the boat,--and, if
he does, my chance will have come!" But I steadied myself instantly,
and returned, in a perfectly nonchalant tone of voice--

"And supposing that it be, as you imagine, a sleeping turtle, what then,
senor?"

"Hush, senor, I pray you!" replied Dominguez, in a low, excited whisper.
"Keep silence; you will soon see!"

Presently the object lifted into view again, only some ten or a dozen
fathoms away; and as it went drifting quietly past, we got so distinct
and prolonged a view of it as to render its identity unquestionable. It
was, as Dominguez had imagined, a sleeping turtle of enormous size.

"Holy Virgin, what a magnificent fellow!" ejaculated Dominguez, as the
creature vanished in the trough on our weather quarter, "we _must_ have
him! Senor, if we lower the sail, so that the felucca cannot drift far,
will you have any objection to being left by yourself for a few minutes,
while Miguel and I and the boy go after that turtle with the boat?" he
demanded eagerly.

So my chance _had_ come, if I could but so demean myself for a _few_
minutes as not to arouse the suspicions of this man by any ill-timed
exhibition of eagerness or too earnest assent to his proposal. I took a
second or two to steady my nerves, and then asked--

"Cannot we _all_ go in the boat together? I have never yet seen a
turtle captured, and should greatly like to witness the operation."

"No, senor; I am sorry, but it is out of the question," answered
Dominguez hastily. "The boat is but small, and I am very doubtful
whether she will be capable of carrying three of us and that great
brute--if we are so fortunate as to catch him. I would send Miguel and
Luis only, but that I know they woul