ng afloat. But, in any case, I am anxious to return and report
to the Admiral the unfortunate result of my encounter with the pirates,
and undergo my trial by court-martial for the loss of the _Wasp_."

"Your trial by court-martial?" he gasped. "Surely you do not mean to
say that your countrymen will be so cruel as to treat you as a criminal,
simply because you were inadequately equipped to cope with an
overwhelmingly superior force, and because, after beating off that
force, a storm happened to arise ere you had time to make suitable
preparation for it? The idea is monstrous, absolutely monstrous!"

I was about to explain to Don Luis that it is a custom of the British
Navy to try the officers who are unfortunate enough to lose their ship,
no matter what the circumstances may be, but he would not let me speak;
he was so full of indignation at what he evidently considered the rank
injustice of the thing, and so eager to avail himself of the lever which
it seemed to afford for pressing home upon me a certain proposition
which he now sprang upon me, that he would not suffer me to utter a
single word by way of explanation.

"Wait, my dear fellow, wait!" he exclaimed. "What you have just told me
affords me the opportunity to mention what Dona Inez and I have
discussed together more than once, without any real hope, however, of
being able to bring it to pass. Now, however, I find that if you go
back you must surrender yourself a prisoner, and be tried as a criminal
for what was certainly no fault of yours, I will speak what is in my
mind. Why go back at all? Why not give up the sea, remain here, and be
my trusted friend and right-hand man in the management of the estate? I
very badly need some one like yourself, some one in whom I can place the
most absolute trust; for the estate is altogether too big for me to
manage single-handed; and my overseers, while they are good enough men
in their way, and no doubt understand their business, are scarcely the
kind of men whom I could put upon an equality with myself, or admit to
the house and to intimacy with Dona Inez. You, however, are different;
you are a gentleman, and although an Englishman--"

"Thanks, Don Luis; a thousand thanks for your extraordinarily friendly
and generous proposal," I interrupted; "but what you suggest is
impossible. I must return to Port Royal, at all costs; my honour
demands it. And, as to your exceedingly kind offer, all I can say is
that no