ainted
Benedine! was ever one of our Order so basely treated before? Get
away, I tell you! 'Tis a disgrace to the true faith, and just as I was
about to bring the Chevalier to his knees in confession of his sins!"

Gonzales was fairly doubled up with laughter at the ludicrous incident,
choking so that speech had become an utter impossibility. By this time
the aroused guards began hurrying forward on a run down the passageway
to rescue their imperilled comrade, yet, before the foremost succeeded
in laying hands upon me, a newcomer, resplendent in glittering uniform,
with an inflamed, almost purple face, leaped madly forth from the
opposite side of the mast and began laying about him vigorously with an
iron pin, making use meanwhile of a vocabulary of choice Spanish
epithets such as I never heard equalled.

"By the shrine of Saint Gracia!" shouted this new arrival hoarsely,
glaring about in the dim light as if half awakened from a bad dream.
"What meaneth this aboard my ship? _Caramba_! is this a travelling
show--a place for mountebanks and gypsies? Shut the door, you
shrieking gray-back of a monk, or I 'll have you cat-o'-nine-tailed by
the guard, in spite of your robe. Get up, you drunken brute!"

The crestfallen soldier to whom these last affectionate words were
addressed limped painfully away, and then the justly irate commander of
His Christian Majesty's flag-ship "Santa Maria" glowered down on me
with an astonishment that for the moment held him dumb.

"Where did this dirty nigger come from?" he roared at last, applying
one of his heavy sea-boots to me with vehemence. "Who is the villain
who dared bring such cattle on board my ship?"

Gonzales, now thoroughly sobered by the seriousness of the situation,
attempted to account for my presence, but before he had fairly begun
his story, the Captain, who by this time was beyond all reason, burst
roaring forth again:

"Oh, so you brought him! You did, hey? Well, did n't I tell you to
let no lazy, loafing bumboat-man set foot on board? Do you laugh at my
orders, you good-for-nothing scum of the sea? And above all things why
did you ever drag such a creature as this down between decks to
disgrace the whole of His Majesty's navy? Get up, you bundle of rags!"

I scrambled to my feet, seeking to shuffle to one side out of his
immediate sight, but a heavy hand closed instantly on my ragged collar
and held me fronting him. For a moment I thought he meant to st