Louis concluded that he was to make a great deal of money out of his share of the present venture, and that the thought of it was the solution of his cheerfulness. According to the statement of Diego, the want of a breeze was likely to ruin all their prospects, subject the cargo of the schooner to confiscation, and her ship's company to proper punishment. The capture of the Salihé could hardly fail to make them happy. Gray passed them all into the cabin, and locked the door upon them. Then he ordered a Spaniard to bring them a couple of bottles of the excellent wine of which he had spoken before; but Louis assured him that none of them ever drank wine under any circumstances. Then he reminded them that he was treating them as well as though Captain Belgrave had accepted his liberal offer, speaking to them through the blinds in the door. When he had thus delivered himself, he walked forward, for the prisoners could hear his footsteps on the deck. "Here we are!" exclaimed Louis, as he seated himself on the divan which surrounded the apartment. "Just where we ought not to be," added Felix. "I obeyed the order of the captain; but I could hardly help putting a ball from my revolver through the head of that gray blackguard of a Scotchman, bad luck to him!" "What better off should we have been, Flix, if you had killed or wounded him?" asked Louis quietly. "We should have had one less to fight, and we might have shot some more of them," argued the Milesian. "Diego had a wicked-looking knife in his belt, and I have no doubt the rest of them were similarly armed," replied Louis. "I might have shot Diego when he took the helm from me," added Morris. "I am glad you did not, my boy. If you had failed to disable him with the first barrel, he would have stabbed you before you could have fired the second. If Flix had fired his revolver at Gray, the other four in the boat would have leaped on board, and used their knives freely," continued Louis, who still believed he had adopted the wisest course. "I guess you are right, Captain Belgrave," added Scott, who was the hero of the occasion, for he had done all the fighting. "We are comfortable enough here in this cabin, and not one of us has got hurt. I had a rap on the arm from the spare tiller in the hands of Gray, and it may be black and blue; but that is nothing, and I am glad no other fellow is damaged, as some of you would have been if you had used your revolvers. I did not have any, so I had to content myself with the saw." "And you did good work with it, Scott," said Louis. "I did not hit him as hard as I might, for I did not want to kill him, and I was afraid I might overdo the business. As I said, this is a very comfortable cabin, and some of us are no strangers here. It is quite cool here, and"-- "It ought to be cool, for all the windows are open," suggested Felix. "So they are," added Scott, rising and examining each one separately, for the curtains were drawn over them.