lad sat staring open-eyed at them, Alvaros glanced in his
direction, and Jack saw the light of recognition leap into his eyes.

"See, my friends," exclaimed the Spaniard, "there is a vacant table,
next to the one at which that young beast of an Englishman is sitting.
Let us take it."

And therewith the trio stalked down the room, and, with a vast amount of
clatter, seated themselves at the table next to the one occupied by
Singleton.

"That beggar means mischief; I can see it in his eye!" thought Jack.
"Well," continued he mentally, "let him do his worst; I mean mischief
too, and we will see who is the better player at the game. But I must
keep cool if I am to come out on top; and, who knows? the skunk may say
something which will afford me a useful tip."

For a few minutes the three officers sat chatting together, and then
Jack noticed that it was Alvaros and the youngest of the trio--an
ensign, apparently--who did most of the talking; the third man, who was
evidently a cavalryman, merely put in a word or two here and there, and
seemed to be slightly disgusted at the boisterousness of his companions.
Then Alvaros, who had feigned not to have recognised Jack, exclaimed:

"By the by, I must not forget to tell you a most interesting item of
news. Do either of you fellows happen to know, or to have heard of, a
certain Don Hermoso Montijo, who owns a large tobacco plantation in the
direction of Pinar del Rio? But of course you have; everybody knows or
has heard of Montijo, the richest man in Cuba--or who was until very
recently; but I am afraid that his riches will never be of much use to
him again. Why? Simply because the old scoundrel turns out to be hand
in glove with the insurgents! He has been helping them most lavishly
with money, and it is more than suspected that it is he who is
responsible for the importations of arms and supplies of all sorts that
have entered the island and reached the hands of the insurgents within
the last six months. He even went to Europe, taking his cub of a son
with him, for the purpose of procuring the most modern weapons. Every
Spaniard, therefore, who falls during the operations for the suppression
of the present rising will be indebted to Don Hermoso Montijo for his
death. But the Government is going to give him ample time in which to
repent of his sins, for he and his family sail for Fernando Po on Sunday
next on board the convict steamer _El Maranon_, in the company of
s