hat little scrap took it out of me something awful. The
governor hadn't turned a hair. That's where a gentleman has the pull
of you. He don't get excited. No gentleman does--or hardly ever. I fell
asleep all of a sudden and left him smoking by the fire I had made
up, his railway rug round his legs, as calm as if he were sitting in a
first-class carriage. We hardly spoke ten words to each other after
it was over, and from that day to this we have never talked of the
business. I wouldn't have known he remembered it if he hadn't alluded to
it when talking with you the other day--you know, with regard to Pedro."

"It surprised you, didn't it? That's why I am giving you this yarn of
how he came to be with us, like a sort of dog--dashed sight more useful,
though. You know how he can trot around with trays? Well, he could bring
down an ox with his fist, at a word from the boss, just as cleverly. And
fond of the governor! Oh, my word! More than any dog is of any man."

Schomberg squared his chest.

"Oh, and that's one of the things I wanted to mention to Mr. Jones," he
said. "It's unpleasant to have that fellow round the house so early. He
sits on the stairs at the back for hours before he is needed here, and
frightens people so that the service suffers. The Chinamen--"

Ricardo nodded and raised his hand.

"When I first saw him he was fit to frighten a grizzly bear, let alone
a Chinaman. He's become civilized now to what he once was. Well, that
morning, first thing on opening my eyes, I saw him sitting there, tied
up by the neck to the tree. He was blinking. We spent the day watching
the sea, and we actually made out the schooner working to windward,
which showed that she had given us up. Good! When the sun rose again, I
took a squint at our Pedro. He wasn't blinking. He was rolling his eyes,
all white one minute and black the next, and his tongue was hanging out
a yard. Being tied up short by the neck like this would daunt the arch
devil himself--in time--in time, mind! I don't know but that even a
real gentleman would find it difficult to keep a stiff lip to the end.
Presently we went to work getting our boat ready. I was busying myself
setting up the mast, when the governor passes the remark:

"'I think he wants to say something.'

"I had heard a sort of croaking going on for some time, only I wouldn't
take any notice; but then I got out of the boat and went up to him, with
some water. His eyes were red--red and black