I soon had to exercise my new office of interpreter, for the man began shouting again on seeing Mr Jellaby and the coxswain near him. "Ah del buque!" he screamed out, holding up, as if to signal with it, one of his emaciated hands, the bony fingers of which looked like those of a skeleton. "Como se llama el buque?" "He says `ship ahoy!' sir," I explained to the doctor. "`What ship is that?'" "Tell him who we are, then," replied Dr Nettleby. "He is probably out of his mind, but it may quiet him." "Somos marineros Inglesas--we are English sailors," I therefore cried in as shrill a key as I could to reach his ear, raking up the almost forgotten memories of my early years, and, I'm afraid, speaking very bad Spanish. "Del buque de guerra el Candahar de la regna Ingleterra--we belong to Her Majesty's ship, _Candahar_!" Bad Spanish or not, however, the poor fellow understood me. "Gracias a Dios!" he said, his wild eyes brightening with a gleam of intelligence, as Mr Jellaby and Bill Bates, having unloosed him from the ropes by which he was seized up to the rigging, brought him across the deck to the doctor, who at once put a small quantity of brandy between his lips. "Habran llegado a tiempo." "What is that, eh?" "`Thanks be to God,'" I replied, translating what he had said. "`You've just come in time.'" "He never made a truer statement," observed the doctor, significantly, as he plied him gently from time to time with the spirit, keeping his hand on his pulse the while. "In another half-hour he would have been a dead man; for, his circulation is down to nothing!" Presently, the effects of the brandy told upon the poor fellow and he sprang suddenly to his feet by a sort of spasmodic effort, knocking Corporal Macan backwards into the water which was washing about the deck around us as he stood up. "Ah los marineros cobardes!" he cried. "Vamos printo, hascia abajo!" "Hullo, Vernon," said Mr Jellaby. "What's he talking about now, eh?" "I believe he's referring to the crew who deserted the ship and left him behind to his fate, sir," I answered, "for he has spoken of the `cowardly sailors,' as he calls them. I think they must have been curs, sir, to have left him to die tied up like that, sir!" "Anything else, eh?" "He also says, `be quick and look below.' I suppose he means for us to examine the vessel's hold." "Si si--yes, yes," exclaimed the rescued man as I said this, seeming to understand what I suggested. "Abajo--abajo--go below! go below!" He nodded his head also as he spoke, looking towards the after part of the wreck and pointing downwards with his finger; while a shudder of horror passed over his corpse-like face, the dark hair surrounding which made it look all the paler.