o raise
an alarm, or effect your escape, I think I may safely make you a little
more comfortable. You look terribly distressed, amigo; and my orders
are imperative that you are to be delivered safe and sound. There!" as
he removed the gag and cast off the lashings, "that ought to be more to
your liking."

"For pity's sake," I ejaculated, "give me something to drink! That
horrible gag has all but suffocated me!"

"Something to drink? With pleasure, senor. What shall it be--plain
water or `grog,' as you English call it? I think it had better be grog,
for I cannot recommend the water we carry in our scuttle-butt."

So saying, he went to a little cupboard alongside the companion ladder,
and produced therefrom a water monkey, two tin pannikins, and a bottle
of rum, all of which he placed on the cabin table.

"There, senor, help yourself freely; the little _Josefa_ and all that
she contains is yours!"

"Thanks, senor," I replied, as I poured out with a shaking hand and
benumbed fingers a generous modicum of rum, filling up the pannikin with
evil-smelling water, "I drink to our better acquaintance."

So saying, I emptied the pannikin at a gulp, and set it down upon the
table. "And now, senor," I continued, as my companion, in turn,
proceeded to help himself and to pledge me, "perhaps you will kindly
inform me, first, whom I have the honour to address; secondly, why I
have been brought aboard this felucca; and, thirdly, to what place you
propose to convey me?"

"Assuredly, senor," answered the Spaniard; "it will afford me much
happiness to gratify so very natural and reasonable a request. In the
first place, senor, I am your Excellency's most humble servant, Juan
Dominguez, captain of this felucca. In the next place, you are here by
order of my excellent friend and patron, Don Pedro Morillo, captain of
the brigantine _Guerrilla_; and, in the third place, I am conveying
you--also by Don Pedro's orders--to Cariacou, an island which I
understand you have already visited, under certain memorable
circumstances."

So that was it, was it? I was kidnapped, not in accordance with some
wild scheme of the Spaniards to cripple our too active navy by robbing
it of every officer that they could lay hands upon, but in order that a
cowardly, bloodthirsty pirate might at leisure, and in safety, wreak his
revenge upon me for the injury that I, in the exercise of my duty, had
done him. Speaking in all frankness, I do not beli