ly. He had been so
completely under Kidd's influence as to have no will of his own.

"Good! but there is something else. I must have those diamonds he stole
from my house at Alta Vista. Where are they?"

"Stitched inside his jersey, under the arm-hole."

I went to Kidd's body, cut open his jersey, and found the diamonds in two
small canvas bags. They were among the largest I had and (as I
subsequently found) worth fifty thousand pounds. After we had thrown the
body overboard, I ordered Yawl to put the sloop on the starboard tack, and
myself taking the helm changed the course to due north. Then I asked him
who he and Kidd were, whence they came, and why they had so shamefully
deceived me as to the course we were steering.

On this Yawl answered in a dry, matter-of-fact manner, as if it were all
in the way of business, that Kidd had been captain and he boatswain and
carpenter of a "free-trader," known as the Sky Scraper, Sulky Sail, and by
several other aliases; that the captain and crew fell out over a division
of plunder, of which Kidd wanted the lion's share, the upshot being that
he and Yawl, who had taken sides with him, were shoved into the dinghy and
sent adrift. In these circumstances they naturally made for the nearest
land, which proved to be Quipai, and deeming it inexpedient to confess
that they were pirates, pretended to be castaways. They built the sloop
with the idea of stealing away by themselves, and but for my discovery of
the theft of the diamonds and the bursting of the crater would have done
so. As I suspected, Kidd allowed us to go with them, solely with a view to
cutting our throats and appropriating the remainder of the diamonds. This
design being frustrated by our watchfulness, he next conceived the notion
of putting in at Arica or Islay, charging me with robbing him, and, in
collusion with the authorities, whom he intended to bribe, depriving me of
all I possessed. This plan likewise failing, and having a decided
objection to Callao, where he was known and where there might be a British
cruiser as well as a British consul, Kidd hit on the brilliant idea of
doctoring the compass and making me think we were going north by west,
while our true course was almost due west, his object being to reach San
Ambrosio, a group of rocky islets some three hundred miles from the coast,
and a pirate stronghold and trysting-place. If they did not find any old
comrades there, they would at least find provisions,