worst of it all was that
not a word had been said, not a thing had been done, to which he could
openly take the slightest exception.

But how was this pestilent young cub of an Englishman to be got rid of?
That was the question that worried Alvaros during the greater part of
that night and the whole of the next day. The first impulse of the
Spaniard was to deprive the Montijo family of his (Alvaros') countenance
and society until, alarmed at the loss, they should dismiss the cause of
it: but upon further reflection he came to the conclusion that it might
be unwise to adopt so very drastic a step, for two very good and
sufficient reasons, the first of which was that, being impecunious
himself, he had fully made up his mind to marry Dona Isolda and thus
acquire a substantial interest in the Montijo property and estates, and
was therefore unwilling to do anything which might possibly jeopardise
the position which he had worked so hard to gain as a friend of the
family; while the second reason was that he was by no means sure that
his abstention would be regarded by the Montijos as a matter of very
great moment. Then it was most unfortunate that Jack was not only an
Englishman, but a young man doubtless of position and substance, or he
would not be the owner of so costly a plaything as a steam-yacht. Had
he been anything but an Englishman, or an American, it would have been
comparatively easy to have had him arrested upon a charge of complicity
with the insurgents; but these nations had a most awkward and
inconvenient habit of looking after their people, and whenever one of
them chanced to get into trouble their Governments always insisted upon
instituting the most exhaustive enquiries into the matter, and were wont
to make it understood, with almost brutal distinctness of manner, that
they would not tolerate anything that bore the slightest suspicion of
irregularity. He had heard it whispered that the authorities had
received a hint from their spies on the other side to look out for a
yacht which was suspected of having on board contraband for the use of
the insurgents; but he argued that the vessel in question could scarcely
be the craft owned by this young man, for the simple reason that there
appeared to be nothing of a surreptitious or secret nature in his
movements, or in those of his yacht, which, as he understood, was, or
would very shortly be, in Havana harbour. No, the more he thought about
it, the more prof