I was convinced that the villain had manufactured this answer to enable him to return speedily to his own bed. But I was helpless. When the lady went below I told Antonio to send one of the men out of my watch to relieve Jorge at the wheel, and I then descended into the cabin to make a report to Greaves and to hear how he did. Jimmy was clearing up for the night. I inquired after the captain, and the youth told me he was asleep. “Has he complained of pain?” “No, master.” “Where’s Galloon?” “Along with the captain, master.” “Has the dog been fed to-day?” “Oh, yes. He had a copper-fastened buster at noon--a heart o’ oak blow-out.” “What did you give him?” said I, not doubting the lad’s affection for the dog, but fearing that the poor brute might have been overlooked in the hurry and excitement of the day. “As much beefsteak as he could swallow, master.” “There are no beefsteaks on board this ship,” said I. “If the captain and Galloon were here we should have a concert. But I believe you when you tell me you have fed the dog.” “More’n he wanted, master.” I bade him put a spare mattress into my bunk--we carried a stock of spare bedding, a slop lot of Amsterdam stuff--and I then returned on deck. Two hours of watch lay before me, and my heart went in a gallop and my brain in a waltz through the earlier part of that time. I found leisure for thought now; the hush of the ocean night was upon the brig; no sound reached me from the forecastle. The stars shone brightly in the dark sky, and many meteors of crystal white fires ran and broke over our mastheads, bursting like rockets immeasurably distant, and leaving glowing trails, which palpitated for some minutes. The hope of the voyage was realized. Underfoot lay half a million of dollars, and six thousand pounds of it were to be mine! Is it wonderful that my spirits should have sang, that heart and brain should have danced? But with this noble fulfillment of the half-hearted hope of many weeks was mixed the romance of the presence of a handsome Spanish woman in the ship. One thought of her as coming on board with the dollars--as the princess of the island pining for civilization and shipping herself and the treasure of her little dominion for the life and delights of a great and populous city of the Old World. She it was, I think, that set my brain a-waltzing, if it were the dollars which made my heart gallop and my spirit shout within me.