lease. I've
marked out my pair, and mean to have their lives before yielding up my
own--hers, if I can't his. She sha'n't live to triumph over me. No; by
the Almighty God!"

While speaking, the desperado has taking out his revolver, and holding
it at half-cock, spins the cylinder round, to see that all the six
chambers are loaded, with the caps on the nipples. Assured of this, he
returns it to its holster; and then glances at his _machete_, hanging on
his left hip. All this with a cool carefulness, which shows him
determined upon his hellish purpose.

Calderon, trembling at the very thought of it, endeavours to dissuade
him; urging that, after all, they may be only made prisoners, and
leniently dealt with.

He is cut short by De Lara crying out:

"You may go to prison and rot there, if it so please you. After what's
happened, that's not the destiny for me. I prefer death, and
vengeance."

"Better life, and vengeance," cries Rocas, coming up, Diaz along with
him, both in breathless haste. "Quick, comrades!" he continues; "follow
me! I'll find a way to save the first, and maybe get the last, sooner
than you expected."

"It's no use, Rafael," argues De Lara, misunderstanding the speech of
the seal-hunter. "If we attempt flight, they'll only shoot us down the
sooner. Where could we flee too?"

"Come on; I'll show you where. _Carajo_! Don't stand hesitating; every
second counts now. If we can but get ther in time--"

"Get where?"

"_Al bote_!"

On hearing the words, De Lara utters an exclamation of joy. They
apprise him of a plan which may not only get him out of danger, but give
revenge, sweet as ever fell to the lot of mortal man.

He hesitates no longer, but hastens after the seal-hunter; who, with the
other two, has already started towards the brow of the cliff.

But not to stay there; for in a few seconds after the four are
descending it; not through the gorge by which they came up, but
another--also debouching into the bay.

Little dream the English officers, or the brave men who have landed with
them, of the peril impending. If the scheme of the seal-hunter succeed,
theirs will be a pitiful fate: the tables will be turned upon them!

CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN.

ALMOST A MURDER.

At the cliff's base, the action, simultaneous, is even more exciting.

Having left their boat behind, with a man to take care of it, the
rescuers advance towards the inner end of the cove.

At first wit