repeating the charges, because the case was prejudged,
and all feared Don Rafael and his parasite to such a degree that it
was impossible to treat him with justice. "Yet, look ye, senores, if I
can't talk, I can fight. If Don Rafael is ready to meet me, knife in
hand, in support of my cause, why, all I have to say is, that I am
ready for him and his bastard to boot!"

In a moment, Rafael's knife was out of his belt, and the two sprang
forward in a death-struggle, which would doubtless have been a short
affair, had not the whole party interposed between the combatants and
forbidden the fight. In the hurly-burly, Gallego took to his heels and
departed.

The scoundrel's escape caused some alarm in the camp, as it was feared
he might leave the island, and, turning king's evidence, make the
waters of Cuba too hot for the band. Accordingly, all the canoes and
boats that night were drawn up on the beach and kept under double
watch.

When order was restored in the _rancho_, I asked Don Rafael to explain
the "three accusations" that had been made against my fair fame; when
I learned that I was charged by Gallego with having felled him in the
boat, with having shipped voluntarily in the privateer, and with
returning in the Cara-bobo's boats _to rob the rancho of its
valuables_!

The first of the allegations I admitted to be true; the second had
been disproved by the privateer's boatmen; and, as to the third, I at
once insisted upon the party's taking torches and accompanying me to
the graveyard, where, I told them, they would find--as, in truth, they
did--the valuables this villain had charged me with stealing. On our
way thither, I recounted the manner in which I detected his infamy.

Nest morning we divided into two parties, and taking the dogs,
proceeded in chase of the dastard Galician. He was quickly tracked by
the hounds and caught asleep, with two empty flasks beside him.

A drum-head court-martial at once convened for his trial, and it was
unanimously resolved to chain him to a tree, where he was to be left
exposed to the elements until he starved to death. The passive and
silent fit had again come over Gallego. I implored that the sentence
might be softened, but I was laughed at for my childish pity, and
ordered home to the _rancho_. The command to chain him having been
executed, the Spanish outcast was left to his terrible fate. One of
the men, out of compassion, as he said, secretly conveyed a case of
gin to t