No! That shake of your head
convinces me--not if they roast you alive?"

The hideous sign of understanding that the woman expressed in her dumb
way would have convinced any body without the trouble of uttering a
word.

"_Bueno!_" said Captain Brand; "that will do for to-day."

Rising as he spoke, he stepped to a cabinet, slipped a large handful of
doubloons in his trowsers pocket, put on his hat, and walked out.

The sea-breeze swept over the island with its full strength, making the
lofty cocoa-nuts bow their tufted tops, the palm-trees rustle their
broad flat leaves and clash the stems together. The mangroves bent, too,
before the wind, and the sand eddied up in tiny whirls amid the great
expanse of cactus, while the vessels swung with taut cables to their
anchors. Even Captain Brand's hat nearly was blown off his dry light
hair as he joined his _compadre_, Don Ignacio, at the landing; and the
sandy dust blinded--though only for a moment--that one-eyed individual's
optic, and put out his cigarette as they struggled against the influence
of the breeze. But yet they walked on in the direction of the sheds, and
as they passed through the court-yard, where the men were lounging about
in yawning groups or sitting under the piazza, playing cards--getting up
and touching their hats as their chief passed--Senor Pedillo accosted
him thus:

"_Capitano_, the people are thirsty, and desire a barrel of wine."

"Not a drop, Senor Pedillo--not so much as would wet the bill of a
musquito! To-morrow at daylight let all hands be called, for we have
work to do, and we must be quick to do it."

Pedillo slunk away, abashed by the positive tone of his commander; and
Captain Brand, with his companion, passed on to the domicile of the
padre and doctor. Pausing at the open door of the shed, they looked in.
The padre was lying flat on his back on his narrow bed, with his mouth
wide open, and snoring like a key-bugle with leaky stops; while his
beads and crucifix--misplaced emblems in contact with drunkenness and
debauchery--were reposing on his ample chest. The doctor was sitting
beside his own couch, whispering words of childish comfort to the little
boy, whose pale cheeks and brown curls reposed on the pillow of the bed.
The poor child's thin, limp fingers rested like the petals of a drooping
lily in the dark, bony hand of his friend, and his dim hazel eyes were
turned sadly toward him.

"Holloa, _amigos_!" shouted Captain Brand, i