g about two and two, with small
figures of saints on money boxes. The figures they literally thrust
into the faces of the passers-by to be kissed. We saw no one refuse to
drop a coin into the box.

"These must be a very religiously disposed people," I observed to
Dennis.

"If you knew what I do you wouldn't say that," he answered. "They're
fond of sinning, and they are ready to pay for it. The reason that all
these priests and monks flourish is this--they have succeeded in
teaching the people that they can buy pardon for all the sins they
commit. The only scrap of real religion the poor people are allowed to
possess is the knowledge that sin must be punished if not forgiven.
Instead, however, of showing them how forgiveness can alone be obtained,
they make them believe that money can buy it through the prayers of the
saints; but when they've got the money in their own pockets, it's very
little trouble they give the saints about the matter at all."

"How did you learn all this, Mr O'Carroll?" I asked.

"Just because I believed it all myself," he answered quickly. "I'll
tell you some day how I came to find out that I had been sailing on a
wrong tack; but you think me now a harum-scarum Irishman, and I'm afraid
to talk about the matter."

On our way we passed through the dockyard, where a fifty-gun ship was
building, and several smaller vessels of war. We were looking at one
repairing alongside the quay, when I saw O'Carroll start, and look
eagerly at the people on board.

"That's her, I'm certain of it!" he exclaimed. "She has got into
trouble since she parted from you, or you may have done her more harm
than you thought for, and she has put in here with false papers and
under false colours to repair damages."

"What vessel do you mean?" I asked.

"Why, the _Mignonne_ to be sure, or by what other name she may go," he
answered. "Probably she is now the _San Domingo_, or some other saint
under Spanish colours, and hailing from some port on the other side of
the Horn. Our friend, Captain Brown, of the whaler, had better make
haste, or she will be after him and his prize."

"Why not after us then?" I asked.

"Because Captain La Roche has had enough of your quality, I suspect," he
replied. "He is a fellow who only fights when he is sure of booty, and
though I daresay that he would like to send you to the bottom, he would
not go out of his way either for revenge or glory."

To satisfy ourselves we ex