"Now, what have you to say that I do not denounce you to your fine friends in the cabin, eh?--particularly to that girl with the dark eyes. Santos! what shoulders she has, such a bust and ankles! and then, there is that pretty little mina-bird, her sister, with the red cheeks and plump arms. It makes a fellow's mouth water to see them here upon the open ocean, so far from land--and help, eh, mates?--one would admire a coal-black negress here. And so you love the oldest one, capitano, eh?" Hawkshaw drew back with indignant disgust at the idea of Ethel being referred to by such lips. "Hah, did I sting you there?" resumed Barradas; "well, beware that you do not feel all the bitterness of losing her." "Losing her?" "Yes--before our ground-tackle is rove and ready. Take care," continued the mocking ruffian, "that you do not experience the bitterness of seeing a happiness that shall never be yours, _ours_. Harkee, _hombre_, can your fair ones swim?" "Why?" asked Hawkshaw, mechanically. "We meant to have had some fun with them when we crossed the Line, and shall have it yet. In their dainty white English skins--nothing else, remember--they will look uncommonly pretty floundering alongside, in the belly of a top-gallant studding-sail, won't they--eh?" "You cannot mean--you dare not!" gasped Hawkshaw. "Oh, don't be shocked, _companero_, before that comes to pass, you and some others shall have walked the plank, or been shot endlong, foot foremost, off a grating to leeward. Do you remember the Gulf of Florida, and what we did there to the mate of the _Polacca_?" "Will you keep silent?" groaned Hawkshaw. "Yes--if I am paid for it," grinned the other. "Of course." "But how am I to answer for Zuares, unless he is paid, too?" "Of course," replied Hawkshaw, utterly bewildered. The storm so long dreaded had burst upon him at last; and this was all he reaped by the cruel manner in which he had supplanted Morley Ashton. "Well, the _duros_?" resumed Pedro, with a scowl, placing his hooked nose instantly within an inch of Hawkshaw's. "I have no money." "_Maldita!_" replied the South American, with a frown, "have you nothing?" "Absolutely nothing--but this watch." "Let us see it--presto!" said the impatient Pedro, with an oath that made even Hawkshaw shudder. Turning his back to the quarter-deck, the latter drew from his vest pocket, with a sullen, humiliated, and hang-dog aspect, a handsome gold watch. "_Muchos gratias_," said the mocking Barradas, with a grin, as he snatched it away with such force as to snap the guard; and then he thrust it into one of the pockets of his tarry trowsers, adding, "Now be off to your quarter-deck, and take care how you come forward again, _until you are wanted--vaya usted al demonio!_ and the devil go with you!" Barradas spat at Hawkshaw, with a scowl in his face, and turning away, walked to the forecastle, laughing.