esumed for the occasion. The sun was just dipping beneath the
western horizon, and the shadow of the island of Tierra Bomba had
enshrouded the waters of the harbour in a soft dusk, when the boat
entered a shallow lagoon at the north-eastern extremity of the island,
and grounded on the low, swampy shore. I saw Hoard disembark and stand
talking with his companions for a few minutes, and then the boat shoved
off again and made her way to about mid-channel, when her crew doused
her sail and proceeded to shoot their nets. Meanwhile I had lost sight
of Hoard behind a hill that lay between me and the lagoon where he had
landed, and I saw no more of him until he suddenly appeared against the
star-lit sky only a few paces from me.

"Well, sir," said he, as he ranged up alongside, "I've got some news for
you, and no mistake; but I greatly doubt whether it'll be very
acceptable."

"How so?" I exclaimed; "has anything gone wrong?"

"Well, I don't exactly know about `gone wrong'," was his reply; "but the
way of it is this: The galleon is finished loadin', and her hatches is
on. The gold is expected to arrive in the town to-morrow evening, and
if it does, it'll be got aboard the day after to-morrow; and next day
three hundred sojers is to be marched aboard of her, and she'll then
sail for Europe!"

"Three hundred soldiers!" exclaimed I incredulously. "No wonder that
they consider the vessel capable of making her way home without a
convoy!"

"Ay, you may well say so, sir," was the reply. "It seems that the whole
thing have been planned out for a long time. These three hundred sojers
is to go home as invalids, so I hear; and the relief has arrived to-day
in the Injieman that, mayhap, you saw come into the harbour this
a'ternoon. She's been expected this three weeks, so my friend Panza
tells me."

"Well," said I, "that is, as you say, news indeed; and it was a most
fortunate thing that we came ashore, as we did. Had we simply dodged
off and on, waiting for the galleon to come out, those three hundred
soldiers would have done for us. You say that the gold train is
expected to arrive to-morrow. Is this expectation pure conjecture, or
have they reason for it?"

"Oh, they've reason enough for it, sir; so I understand," answered
Hoard. "You see, the shippin' off of this here gold is the talk of the
town; nobody's thinkin' of anything else; and everything that happens
concernin' it is knowed at once all over the place.