"So it may,--I 'll keep it," said I, beating the deck with my foot, with the dogged determination of one not to be turned from his purpose. "Kill in cold blood a man you never saw before?" "Just so; I am not going to think of him, when I set so little store by myself; I only wish the fellow were here now, and I'd show you whether I'd falter or not." "Poor Chico,--I could weep for him!" said he, blubbering. "Keep your pity for _me_," said I,--"I, that am bound by this terrible oath, and must either stamp myself a coward or a murderer. As for Chico, I believe a more worthless wretch never existed,--a poor, mean-spirited creature, whose trade is to be a spy, and by whose cursed machinations many a fine fellow has been ruined." "You are all wrong, sir," said the Padre, warmly. "I know the man myself; he is an amiable, kind-hearted being, that never harmed any one." "He's the fellow to die, then!" said I, roughly. "He has a small family, unprovided for." "They have the inheritance of his virtues," said I, scoffingly. "Can you have the heart for such cruelty?" cried he, almost sobbing. "Come with me when I land at Houston, and see,--that's all!" said I. "A few minutes back, I was hesitating whether I would not land at this island and abandon my purpose. The weakness is now over; I feel a kind of fiendish spirit growing up within me already; I cannot think of the fellow without a sense of loathing and hatred!" "Lie down, my son, and compose yourself for an hour or two; sleep and rest will calm your agitated brain, and you will then listen to my counsels with profit: your present excitement overmasters your reason, and my words would be of no effect." "I know it--I feel it here, across my temples--that it is a kind of paroxysm; but I never close my eyes that I do not fancy I see the fellow, now in one shape, now in another, for he can assume a thousand disguises; while in my ears his accursed name is always ringing." "I pity you from my heart!" said the other; and certainly a sadder expression I never saw in any human face before. "But go down below; go down, I beseech you." "I have only taken a deck-passage," said I, doggedly; "I determined that I would see no one, speak to no one." "Nor need you, my son," said he, coaxingly. "They are all sound asleep in the after-cabin; take _my_ berth,--I do not want it; I am always better upon deck." "If you will have it so," said I, yielding; "but, for your life, not a word of what I have said to you! Do not deceive yourself by any false idea of humanity. Were you to shoot me where I stand, you could not save him,--_his_ doom is spoken. If _I_ fail, there is Broughton, and, after him, a score of others, sworn to do the work." "Lie down and calm yourself," said he, leading me to the companion-ladder; "we must speak of this to-morrow."