the last-mentioned
alone gave out any sound; and Lantejas, after a time, ceased watching
the two former, and involuntarily bent his regards upon the sea.

Costal was also turning his eyes upon the great deep, in which
everything might also have appeared asleep, but that at intervals a
narrow line of light might be seen gleaming along the black surface of
the water.

"There's a storm in the air," muttered Costal to his companion in a
solemn tone of voice. "See, how the sharks are shining in the roadway!"

As Costal spoke, half-a-dozen of these voracious creatures, in search of
prey, were seen quartering the waters of the bay--crossing each other's
course, and circling around, like fireflies over the surface of a
savanna.

"What think you," continued the _ci-devant tigrero_, "would become of
the man who should chance to fall overboard among those silent swimmers?
Many a time, for all that, have I braved that same danger--in the days
when I followed pearl-diving for my profession."

Don Cornelio made no reply, but the thought of being among the sharks at
that moment sent a shivering through his frame.

"I was in no danger whatever," continued the Indian. "Neither the
sharks nor the tigers--which I afterwards also hunted as a profession--
could prevail against one destined to live as long as the ravens. Soon
I shall be half-a-century old; and then _quien sabe_? At present,
perhaps, no one here except myself could swim in the midst of those
carnivorous creatures without the danger of certain death. _I_ could do
it without the slightest risk."

"Is that the secret of your courage, Costal--of which you give so many
proofs?"

"Yes, and no," replied the Indian. "Danger attracts me, as your body
would attract the sharks. It is an instinct which I follow--not a
bravado. Another reason, perhaps, gives me courage. I seek to avenge
in Spanish blood the assassination of my forefathers. What care I for
the political emancipation of you Creoles? But it is not of this I wish
to speak now. Look yonder! Do you see anything down there?"

A strange object just then came under the eyes of Lantejas, which caused
him to make a movement of superstitious terror. Costal only smiled,
while gazing calmly upon the object.

A dark human-like form, with a sort of tufted hair hanging loosely over
its head, had emerged from the water, and was supporting itself by his
two arms upon the beach--as if resting there like some bather