thout further loss, which I greatly
doubt--so I am going back to the coast for more--unless I can pick them
up without going so far," he added, after a momentary pause, and with a
peculiar look which I could not at the moment fathom. "And all this
loss of life, and money, and time, and all this extra risk are forced
upon me by the meddlesome policy of Great Britain. _Great_! Faugh!
Could she but see herself as others see her she would, for very shame,
strike out that vaunting prefix, and take that obscure place among the
nations which properly befits her. Senor Dugdale, do you value your
life?"

"Well, yes, to a certain extent I do," I replied. "It is the only one I
have, you see; and were I to lose it the loss would occasion a
considerable amount of distress to my friends. For that reason,
therefore, if for no other, I attach a certain amount of value to it,
and feel bound to take care of it so far as I may, with honour."

"Very well, then," remarked Mendouca, with a sneer, "so far as you can
_with honour_, refrain, I pray you, from thrusting your nationality into
my face; for I may as well tell you that I have the utmost hatred and
contempt for the English; I would sweep every one of them off the face
of the earth if I could; and some day, when this feeling is particularly
strong upon me, I may blow your brains out if I happen to remember that
you are an Englishman."

"I hope it will not come to that, Don Fernando, for many reasons," I
remarked, with a rather forced laugh, "and among them I may just mention
the base cowardice of murdering an unarmed man. I rather regret that
you should be so completely as you appear to be under the dominion of
this feeling of hatred for my nation; it must be as unpleasant for you
as it is for me that we are thus forcibly thrown together; but it need
not last long; you can put me out of the ship at the first land that we
touch, and I must take my chance of making my way to a place of safety.
It will be unpleasant for me, of course, but it will remove from you a
constant source of temptation to commit murder."

Mendouca laughed--it was rather a harsh and jarring laugh, certainly--
and said--

"Upon my honour as a Spanish gentleman, you appear to be mightily
concerned to preserve me from the crime of bloodshed, young gentleman.
But do you suppose it would not be murder to put you ashore, as you
suggest, at the first land that we reach? Why, boy, were I to do so,
within six