PTAIN CARERA IMPARTS SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION.

Not a word was said by either of us until the unknown one had emerged
from the companion and removed himself well out of ear-shot. Then, as
Courtenay pushed the cigar-box across the table to me, after selecting a
weed for himself, he looked me in the face and, with a mischievous
twinkle in his eye, remarked:

"Well, Lascelles, what is your interpretation of this riddle? What is
the character of this felucca? Who and what is her skipper? And
whither are we bound?"

"Hush!" said I, "here comes the boy. We shall find ourselves in an
exceedingly awkward fix unless we keep a very bright lookout."

Here Francisco entered the cabin and began to clear away the wreck of
the breakfast.

"Why, Francisco, my lad, you look pale. You surely do not feel sea-
sick, do you?" exclaimed Courtenay.

"Sea-sick! oh, no!" said the lad. "I got over all that long ago."

"Ah, indeed!" remarked my fellow-mid in his usual off-hand manner.
"And, pray, what may `long ago' mean? Last voyage, or the voyage
before--three months ago--six months--a year?"

"More nearly two years ago, senor. I shall have been to sea two years
come next month," was the reply.

"Two years, eh! Why, you are a perfect veteran, a regular old sea-dog,
Francisco," continued Courtenay as he exhaled a wreath of pale-blue
smoke from his pursed-up lips and watched it go curling in fantastic
wreaths up through the open sky-light. "And have you been all that time
in the _Pinta_?"

"Yes, senor, all that time. Captain Carera is my uncle, you know. He
adopted me when my mother died, and has promised to make a sailor of
me."

"Ah! very good of him; very good, indeed," went on Courtenay. "A very
worthy fellow that uncle of yours, Francisco. And has the _Pinta_ been
engaged in the same trade ever since you joined her?"

"The same trade, senor? I--I--"

"There, don't be alarmed at my question, my lad," interrupted Courtenay.
"You need not answer it unless you choose, you know; but there is no
occasion for secrecy with _us_. You understand that, do you not?"

"Well, I don't know, I am sure, excellency. I suppose it is all right,
however, or you would not be here, so I do not mind answering. We
_have_ been engaged in the same trade--for the most part--ever since I
joined the _Pinta_."

"And a pretty profitable business your uncle must have found it,"
remarked Courtenay.

"I don't know so much about that