you, I was in no mood to show mercy to any one just then, for you and
your pestilent, meddlesome crew fought like fiends, and cost me several
good men that I could ill spare. Your gratitude, therefore," and I
thought I detected an echo of something very like scorn in his voice,
"is due solely to my boy Pedro, whose whim of saving you I did not even
then care to thwart. But enough of this; you are my guest, and may, if
you will, become my friend. I hope your accommodation is to your
liking?"

"Excellent, indeed," answered I, glad enough to get away from a topic
that seemed to be somewhat distasteful to my host. "Excellent, indeed,
and far more luxurious than anything to which I have been accustomed on
board my own ship."

"Yes," he smiled; "the English are clearly anxious that their officers
shall not become enervated through overmuch luxury. I have been on
board several of your ships, and saw but little to admire in the
accommodation provided for and the arrangements made for the comfort of
their officers. How long have you been on the West African station,
senor?"

I told him, and the conversation gradually took a more agreeable turn,
my host proving himself, not only a thorough man of the world, but also
surprisingly well educated and well read for a Spaniard. He was well
acquainted with several of our best English writers, and professed an
admiration for our literature as great and thorough as was his evident
hatred of ourselves and our institutions as a nation. He had very
considerably thawed out of his original coldness of manner, and was
discussing with much animation and in well-chosen language the British
drama, and especially Shakspeare, when we were summoned to breakfast and
found Pedro waiting for us in the cabin. The lad was very demonstrative
in his delight at finding me so much better, and I could see that he was
also greatly pleased--and I thought relieved--at the prospect of
amicable if not cordial relations becoming established between his
father and myself.

I have said that the morning was brilliantly fine, and so it was; but I
had noticed even when I first went on deck, that there was a certain
pallor and haziness in the blue of the sky, the appearance of which I
did not altogether like; and when after breakfast we went on deck--
Mendouca with his sextant in his hand, for the purpose of finding the
ship's longitude--our first glance aloft showed us that a large halo had
gathered round