me to cut my throat. This he seemed to
divine. "Senor," said he, doffing his cap, "I have come to do you no
harm." And a smile, the faintest in the world, but still a smile,
played on his face, which seemed not unkind when he spoke. "I have
come to do you no harm. I have sailed free," he said, "but was never
worse than a _contrabandista_. I am one of Columbus's crew," he
continued. "I am the pilot of the Pinta come to aid you. Lie quiet,
senor captain," he added, "and I will guide your ship to-night. You
have a _calentura_, but you will be all right tomorrow." I thought
what a very devil he was to carry sail. Again, as if he read my mind,
he exclaimed: "Yonder is the _Pinta_ ahead; we must overtake her. Give
her sail; give her sail! _Vale, vale, muy vale!_" Biting off a large
quid of black twist, he said: "You did wrong, captain, to mix cheese
with plums. White cheese is never safe unless you know whence it
comes. _Quien sabe_, it may have been from _leche de Capra_ and
becoming capricious--"

[Illustration: The apparition at the wheel.]

"Avast, there!" I cried. "I have no mind for moralizing."

I made shift to spread a mattress and lie on that instead of the hard
floor, my eyes all the while fastened on my strange guest, who,
remarking again that I would have "only pains and calentura," chuckled
as he chanted a wild song:

High are the waves, fierce, gleaming,
High is the tempest roar!
High the sea-bird screaming!
High the Azore!

I suppose I was now on the mend, for I was peevish, and complained: "I
detest your jingle. Your Azore should be at roost, and would have been
were it a respectable bird!" I begged he would tie a rope-yarn on the
rest of the song, if there was any more of it. I was still in agony.
Great seas were boarding the _Spray_, but in my fevered brain I
thought they were boats falling on deck, that careless draymen were
throwing from wagons on the pier to which I imagined the _Spray_ was
now moored, and without fenders to breast her off. "You'll smash your
boats!" I called out again and again, as the seas crashed on the cabin
over my head. "You'll smash your boats, but you can't hurt the
_Spray_. She is strong!" I cried.

I found, when my pains and calentura had gone, that the deck, now as
white as a shark's tooth from seas washing over it, had been swept of
everything movable. To my astonishment, I saw now at broad day that
the _Spray_ was still heading as I had left her, and was