This process they followed up as they slowly shifted the boat round from place to place; and each time that Dutch looked up to answer some question from the deck it was to encounter the sinister face of the mulatto, with the scar plainly marked in the sunlight, gazing intently down. For the matter of that so was the face of 'Pollo, the other black, and the rest of the crew; but the countenance of the mulatto alone seemed to strike him, for the peculiarity of its looks, and the eagerness with which, in a partial way, its owner seemed to watch his every action. "Well, gentlemen," said John Studwick, in a half-mocking way, "can you see the El Dorado through that piece of brass pipe?" "Not yet," said Dutch, quietly. And he went on with his research, seeing fish as brilliant as any he had before noticed, rocks covered with olive green and scarlet weed, that floated out and played in the water, many yards in length; great stones covered with shells and acorn barnacles; sea anemones, whose petals were more delicately beautiful than any flowers he had beheld; but no trace of old ship timber, in the shape of ribs, stern-post, keel, or stem. Nothing but sand, rock, and seaweed; and at last the two sat up in the boat and looked at one another. "What's the good o' you humbugging?" said Rasp, on deck, to self-satisfied Oakum, who stood leaning his back against the bulwark, and staring at the landmarks by which he had found the spot. "Who's humbugging?" said Oakum, roughly. "Why, you. It's all sham. There ain't no wreck below there." "Bah! How do you know?" growled Oakum. "I know there is, but don't say as there ain't been no one near and cleaned it out." Hester was standing close by, and heard all this. Her face flushed with anxiety, and her heart rose and fell, as she eagerly listened to the opinions expressed, and thought of the bitter disappointment Dutch would feel if the search was without success. Just then her husband said something hastily, which drew the attention of all on board; and taking hold of a rope, she leaned forward to try and catch a glimpse of what was going forward, when she started back with a faint cry of alarm, for a pair of burning lips were placed upon her hand, and as she snatched it away, and faced round it was to meet the glittering eyes of the mulatto fixed upon her, with so fiercely intense a gaze that she shrank away trembling, but not before he had whispered to her-- "Silence, if you value your life!" She felt sick with horror as the man glided away, for the tones of his voice seemed familiar, and her very first impulse was to call her husband; but the mulatto's words had such an effect upon her, weakened as she was with long illness, that she dared not speak even to Bessy, to whose side she crept as an eager buzz of conversation went on.