oined the ship ere now. That he has not done
so is evidence conclusive and convincing to us all that something
untoward has happened to him, for which we shall hold the entire
population of your city, individually and collectively, responsible.

"Now," he continued, turning and addressing his companions on the deck,
"that is speaking plainly enough for even a Spaniard to understand,
isn't it? But since Captain Marshall's safety and well-being must be
our first consideration, I think we ought not to make our conditions so
hard as to be impossible of fulfilment; I therefore propose that we
allow them a little more time in which to find him, before we proceed to
extremities. Let us make it clear to them that he must be found and
delivered up to us, safe and sound, within a certain time, say noon
to-day; and that failure to comply with this demand will be followed by
the bombardment and sack of the town. What say you, gentles?"

"Agreed!" came the answer, as with one voice, from all present.

"Very well, then," concluded Bascomb; and turning toward the boat, he
hailed:

"Now, listen to me, Senor Interpreter, and mark well my words. It has
come to the ears of us English that the Spaniards of the New World, in
their selfish determination to retain in their own hands the whole of
the trade of this rich country, are making a practice of seizing every
Englishman upon whom they can lay hands, and delivering him over to your
so-called Holy Inquisition in order that, while salving your own
consciences with the plea of religious zeal, my countrymen may be
subjected to fiendish tortures, and so be discouraged from attempting to
secure a share of the immeasurable wealth which you enjoy. Now the time
has come when your minds must be disabused of this notion. No amount of
torture which you can possibly inflict upon solitary, helpless
Englishmen will deter their fellow countrymen from striving, by fair
means or foul, to secure a share of what they are as much entitled to as
yourselves; and they will never rest until they have obtained it! Mark
you that. And, further, remember this--that henceforward, for every
Englishman who is lost on these shores, and is found to have perished
under the hands of your Inquisitors, the English will take a terrible
vengeance, exacting the lives of ten of the most distinguished Spaniards
upon whom they can lay hands.

"Now, our Captain is somewhere in your city at this moment, and for your
ow