rike
me, but I appeared such a miserable, dejected specimen of humanity that
the fierce anger died slowly out of his eyes.

"Francisco," he called sternly, "heave this thing overboard, and be
lively about it! Saints of Mercy! he smells like a butcher-boat in the
tropics."

Hustled, dragged, cuffed, mercilessly kicked, the fellows got me out
upon the open deck at last; I caught one fleeting glimpse of the great
masts, the white, gleaming planks under foot, the horrified, upturned,
face of Alphonse in the little boat beneath, and then, with a heave and
a curse, over I went, sprawling down from rail to river, as terrified a
darky as ever made hasty departure from a man-of-war.

CHAPTER IV

WE HOLD A COUNCIL OF WAR

The last object I remember seeing was the white face of the Capuchin
monk peering at me over the rail, and my earliest thought as I arose to
the surface, was that as the water had probably cleansed my skin it
would be wise to keep well out of sight from the deck. Fortunately the
boat floated close at hand. Laying hasty grasp upon it, but remaining
well immersed in the river, I bade the thoroughly frightened black
paddle with diligence out of that neighborhood. This was a task he was
not slow in accomplishing, fear lending strength to trained muscles,
and we soon had the good fortune to discover a safe landing-place
beneath the lee of a long molasses shed, where our plight was
unobserved by any one.

Remaining hidden here myself, feeling reasonably secure from prying
eyes, I despatched Alphonse after dry clothing, meanwhile tramping back
and forth across the packed earthen floor to keep chilled blood in
circulation, seeking eagerly to evolve out of the confused events of
the afternoon some programme for future guidance. This task was no
light one. The closer I faced the desperate work remaining
unaccomplished the less I enjoyed the outlook, the more improbable
appeared success. Getting aboard the "Santa Maria" was now, to my
mind, the simplest part of the adventure, but beyond the accomplishment
of that feat I could perceive little to encourage me. What must
necessarily follow my safe gaining of that guarded deck, during the
dark hours of the night, depended so largely upon the occurrence of
helpful circumstances, any definite plan of action arranged beforehand
became simply an impossibility. Still, striving to make allowances for
the unexpected, I managed to put together a chain of details