l it's best to be on the safe side." He chose a cigar, lighted it
and puffed for a minute, and then took it out of his mouth and grinned
at the glowing end. "Look here. The fellow doesn't know me from Adam.
I'll slip ashore, and see if I can't find snug quarters for him where
he'll be out of the way of doing mischief."

"What piece of devilry are you up to now?" I inquired a bit anxiously;
for Haigh's vagaries, from what I had seen and heard of them, ranged
between wild and mad, and having got so near the Recipe, I didn't want
to get in any mess that would baulk us at the finish. "You aren't going
to shoot the man, are you?"

"Haven't got anything to shoot him with. No, I'm not going to lay hands
on him at all. But I think I can get some one else to do it for me.
It's no use asking my scheme, because I haven't got one. It's only a
vague idea that has occurred to me, but there's no harm in giving it a
trial. Only I must be off now, or the passengers will be landed before
I get to the quay."

He took my hat and went on deck. I heard him hail some one in a passing
boat, and presently he was taken off the cutter. I stood up and looked
cautiously through the main skylight, so as not to be viewed by any
chance from without. The steamer was being brought up alongside the
quay with true Spanish caution and slowness, warps being sent in all
directions, boats flying about, a couple of anchors down, windlass and
steam-winches thundering. An English launch was lying-to close by, her
crew highly amused at the display. And the quay was black with people
enjoying their bi-weekly sensation.

Slowly the _Antiguo Mahones_ swung parallel to the quay wall, and
then a derrick chain was hauled out and I heard the scrape of the big
gangway as it drew along the gravel, and the thud of its iron-shod heel
as it fell on deck and bridged the intervening two fathoms of water.
But the black hull of the steamer blotted out all view of the people
beyond it, and on the cutter I could learn nothing more of what was
going on till Haigh came back.

The last glow of sunset had died away. The white walls and red roofs of
the town up there on the cliff were already beginning to be hazed out
by darkness, and the soft yellow splashes of lamplight were growing in
number.

I sat down, and cut up a cigar for my pipe.

The situation did not please me at all. The more I thought it over, the
more I remembered how uncertain Haigh was, and how likely he was to