At this the poor fellow, understanding the device, looked up pitifully in my face— ‘I have a wife,’ quoth he, ‘and she will also think——’ Here his voice failed him, and the honest creature began to whimper. ‘Come—come,’ I broke in: ‘you may go back to your wife, Quashy, if you like, after we have the galleon, but till then you are one of us.’ I think the negro had sense to see, that whining would not make his case any the better, for he dried up his eyes, and pointing ahead, told us, that the ship riding nearest the shore was the galleon. Slowly and cautiously we rowed, describing a great circle round to seaward, so as to keep out of the way of the outermost ships. Their lights fell in long rays across the water, and we could hear the voices of the men aboard as they talked. Once we were hailed, and I ordered Pedro to reply—saying we were fishermen returning from catching pisareros, to have them ready for the early market—but no one offered to interrupt us, until the shallop floated in the shadow of the great carved quarter galleries of the galleon. The ship appeared well nigh deserted. The lap of the water against her sides, and the cheep of the rudder, as it moved a little way to and fro in the calm, were all the sounds about her. Had there been but a slight puff of wind from the shore we might have cut her cable, boarded her, and fairly carried her away; but in a calm such an enterprise was out of the question. So, we were preparing to push off, well satisfied with our reconnoitring, when a light suddenly fell upon the carved figure of a saint, which formed one of the stern ornaments, and at the same time I could hear, though faintly, men’s voices in conversation. It would appear that some one had entered the great cabin with a light, and one of the windows being open, advertised us of the circumstance. All at once it occurred to me that, if I heard somewhat of the conversation, it was just possible that I might pick up some information as to the exact time the ship would sail, and the exact track she would follow; or perhaps the vision of a rope left carelessly dangling from the quarter into the water, had something to do with the notion. Catching the cord, I found it firmly attached above, and so, communicating in a whisper to the crew of the shallop my intention, I swung myself up, and presently gained footing amid the great masses of carved work, being wreaths and coronals of flowers, and graven figures and symbols of war and peace, with which the Spaniards overload the sterns of their ships, going to great cost for little utility; and then a slight further exertion brought me into a gallery running round the great cabin, and fenced in with a sort of massive and curiously wrought and fretted railing. Then, crouching down, I crept to the window from whence came the voices and the light. There was a carved saint very handy, close by the casement, and favoured by his wooden holiness, I looked securely into the cabin.