CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XI.THE CRUISE IN THE FELUCCA.Raimundowas very much disgusted when he found that Bill Stout and Bark Lingall were to be the companions of his flight. Thus far he had felt that his conduct was justifiable. His uncle Manuel had taught him to believe that his guardian intended to “put him out of the way.” Don Alejandro had not actually attempted to do any thing of this kind, so far as was known; and no case could be made out against him. Don Manuel did not mean that he should have an opportunity to attempt any thing of the kind. Certainly it was safer to keep out of his way, than to tempt him to do a deed which his own brother believed he was capable of doing. Raimundo thought Don Manuel was right: indeed, he could remember enough of Don Alejandro’s treatment of him before he left Barcelona, to convince him of his guardian’s intentions.But when he found himself in the boat, escaping from the Tritonia with two of the worst “scalliwags” of the crew, the case seemed to present a different aspect to him. He realized that he was in bad company; and he felt contaminated by their presence, Yet he did not see how he could help himself. The onlyway he could get out of the scrape was to surrender to the chief steward, and in due time be handed over to the agent of his guardian. Whether he was correct or not in his estimate of his uncle’s character, he was sincere in his belief that Don Alejandro intended to do him harm, even to the sacrificing of his life. Independently of his personal fears, he did not think it would be right to give himself up to one who might be tempted to do an evil deed. He concluded to make the best of the situation, and as soon as possible to get rid of his disagreeable companions.“Where shall we go, Raimundo?” asked Bill Stout, as confidentially as though he had been a part of the enterprise from the beginning.“We must go on shore, of course,” replied the young Spaniard, who was not yet sufficiently reconciled to the situation to be very cordial.More than this, he had not yet considered what his course should be when he had left the vessel; but it occurred to him, as Bill asked the question, that thealguacil, whose action had been fully reported to him by Hugo, might be watching the vessel from the shore. Raimundo looked about him to get a better idea of the situation. The wind was from the north-west, which swung the Prince so that she lay between the Tritonia and the landing-place, and hid her hull from the view of any one on the city side.“I think we had better not land at any of the usual places,” suggested Bark. “Marline, Rimmer, and all the rest of the forward officers, are in charge of the boats at the principal landing.”“I had no idea of going to the city. It would notbe safe for me to show my face there,” answered Raimundo; and he directed the boatman to pull to the Barceloneta side of the port, and in such a direction as to keep in the shadow of the vessels of the fleet.The man offered to land them at a more convenient place; but Raimundo insisted upon going to the point indicated. Very likely the boatman suspected that his passengers were not leaving the vessel to which they belonged in a perfectly regular manner; but probably this would not make any difference to him, as long as he was well paid for his services. Presently the boat grounded on some rocks at the foot of the sea-wall, which rose high above them. As usual the boatman was anxious to obtain another job; and he offered to take them to any point they wished to go to.“I will take you back to your ship when you are ready to go,” continued the man with a smile, and a twinkle of the eye, which was enough to show that he did not believe they intended to return.Raimundo replied that they had no further use for the boat that day.“I have a big boat like that,” persisted the man, pointing to a felucca which was sailing down the bay.The craft indicated was about thirty feet long, and carried a large lateen sail.“Where is she?” asked Raimundo, with interest.The man pointed up the harbor, and said he could have her ready in a few minutes.“Do you go out to sea in her?”“Oh, yes! go to Majorca in her,” replied the boatman, quite excited at the prospect of a large job.“Can you take us to Tarragona in her?” continuedthe young Spaniard, to whom the felucca suggested the best means of getting away from Barcelona.“Certainly I can: there is no trouble about it.”“How much shall you charge to take us there?”“It is fifteen leagues to Tarragona,” replied the boatman, who proceeded to magnify the difficulties of the enterprise as soon as the price was demanded.“Very well: we can go by the railroad,” added Raimundo, who fully comprehended the object of the man.“Your officers will see you if you go into the city,” said the boatman, with a cunning smile.There was no longer any doubt that the fellow fully comprehended the situation, but the fugitive saw that he would not betray them; for, if he did, he would lose the job, which he evidently intended should be a profitable one.“Name your price,” he added; and he was willing to pay liberally for the service he desired.“Five hundredreales,” answered the man.“Do you think we have so much money?” laughed the fugitive. “We can’t make a bargain with you.”“What will you give?” asked the boatman.“Two hundredreales.”After considerable haggling, the bargain was struck at three hundredreales, or fifteen dollars; and this was less than the fugitive had expected to pay. The rest of the arrangements were readily made. Filipe, for this was the name he gave, was afraid his passengers would be captured while he went for his felucca; and, keeping in the shadow of the sea-wall, he pulled them around the point on which the old light-house stands, and landed them on some rocks under the wall.In this position they could not be seen from the vessels of the fleet, or from the landing-place on the other side, while the high wall concealed them from any person on the shore who did not take the trouble to look over at them.“We shall want something to eat,” said Raimundo, as the boatman was about to leave them. “Take this, and buy as much bread and cold meat as you can with it.”Raimundo handed him three dollars in Spanish silver, which Hugo had obtained for him. The large sum of money he had was in Spanish gold, obtained in Genoa. He had a few dollars in silver left for small expenses.“What are we here for?” asked Bill Stout, who, of course, had not understood a word of the conversation of his companion and the boatman.Both he and Bark had asked half a dozen times what they were talking about; but Raimundo had not answered them.“What has been going on between you and that fellow all this time?” asked Bill, in a tone so imperative that the young officer did not like it at all.“I have made a bargain with him to take us to Tarragona,” replied Raimundo coldly.“And did not say a word to Bark and me about it!” exclaimed Bill.“If you don’t like it you need not go. I did not invite you to come with me.”“Did not invite me!” sneered Bill. “I know you didn’t; but we are in the party, and want you to understand that we are no longer under your orders. You needn’t take it upon yourself to make arrangements for me.”“I made the arrangement for myself, and I don’t ask you to go with me,” answered Raimundo with dignity.“Come, come! Bill, dry up!” interposed Bark. “Do you want to make a row now before we are fairly out of the vessel?”“I got out of the vessel to get clear of those snobs of officers, and I am not going to have one of them lording it over me here.”“Nonsense! He hasn’t done any thing that you can find fault with,” added Bark.“He has made a trade with that boatman to take us somewhere without saying a word to us about it,” blustered Bill. “I want to put a check on that sort of thing in the beginning.”“He has done just the right thing. If we had been alone we could not have managed the matter at all.”“I could have managed it well enough myself.”“You can’t speak a word of Spanish, nor I either.”“I don’t even know where that place is—Dragona—or whatever it is,” growled Bill.“I am not to blame for your ignorance,” said Raimundo. “You heard every thing that was said; and, if you don’t like it, I am willing to get along without you.”“Come, Bill; we must not get up a row. Raimundo has done the right thing, and for one I am very much obliged to him,” continued Bark.“He might have told us what he was about,” added Bill, somewhat appeased by the words of his fellow-conspirator.“We had no time to spare; and he could not stop to tell the whole story twice over.”“Where is the place we are going to?” demanded Bill in the same sulky tone.“Tarragona, a seaport town, south of here. How far is it, Mr. Raimundo?”“About fifty miles.”“Will you tell us now, if you please, what arrangements you made with the boatman?” continued Bark, doing his best to smooth the ruffled feelings of the young Spaniard.“Certainly I will; but I want to say in the first place that I had rather return to the Tritonia at once than be bullied by Stout or by anybody else. I don’t put on any airs, and I mean to treat everybody like a gentleman. I am a Spaniard, and I will not be insulted by any one,” said Raimundo, with as much dignity as an hidalgo in Castile.“I didn’t mean to insult you,” said Bill mildly.“Let it pass; but, if it is repeated, we part company at once, whatever the consequences,” added Raimundo, who then proceeded to explain what had passed between Filipe and himself.The plan was entirely satisfactory to Bark; and so it was to Bill, though he had not the grace to say so. The villain had an itching to be the leader of whatever was going on himself; and he was very much afraid that the late second master of the Tritonia would usurp this office if he did not make himself felt in the beginning. He was rather cowed by the lofty stand Raimundo had taken; and he had come to the conclusion that he had better wait till the expedition was a little farther along before he attempted to assert himself again.“Have you any money?” asked Raimundo, when he had finished his explanation.“Yes. Both of us have money; and we will pay our share of the cost of the boat,” replied Bark, who was ten times more of a man than his companion in mischief.“Is it Spanish money?”“No, not any of it. I have seven English sovereigns in gold, and some silver. Bill has twelve sovereigns. I can draw over eighty pounds on my letter of credit; and Bill can get fifty on his.”“I only wanted to know what ready money you had,” added Raimundo. “You must not say a word about money when we get into the felucca.”“Why not?” asked Bill, in his surly way, as though he was disposed to make another issue on this point.“I don’t know the boatman; and it is very likely he may have another man with him. There he comes, and there is another man with him,” replied Raimundo, as the felucca appeared off the light-house. “If you should show them any large sum of money, or let them know you had it, they might be tempted to throw us overboard for the sake of getting it. Of course, I don’t know that they would do any thing of the kind; but it is best to be on the safe side.”“Some of these Spaniards would cut a man’s throat for half a dollar,” added Bill.“So would some Americans; and they do it in New York sometimes,” replied Raimundo warmly. “I repeat it: don’t say a word about money.”“The men in the boat cannot understand us if we do,” suggested Bark.“They may speak English, for aught I know.”“The one you talked with could not.”“I don’t know about that. I did not try him in English. We must all pretend that we have very little money, whether we do it in English or in Spanish. When Filipe—that’s his name—asked me five hundredrealesfor taking us to Tarragona, I said that I had not so much money.”“And that was a lie; wasn’t it?” sneered Bill.“If it was, it is on my conscience, and not yours; and it may be a lie that will save your life and mine,” answered Raimundo sharply.“I don’t object to the lie; but I thought you, one of the parson’s lambs, did object to such things,” chuckled Bill.“I hate a lie: I think falsehood is mean and ungentlemanly; but I believe there is a wide difference between a lie told to a sick man, or to prevent a boatman from being tempted to cut your throat, and a lie told to save you from the consequences of your own misconduct.”“Well, you needn’t preach: we are not chaplain’s lambs,” growled Bill.“Neither am I,” added Raimundo. “I am what they call a Christian in Spain, and that is a Roman Catholic. But here is the felucca. Now mind what I have said, for your own safety.”Filipe ran the bow of his craft up to the rocks on which the fugitives were standing, and they leaped on board of her. The boatman’s assistant shoved her off, and in a moment more she was driving down the harbor before the fresh breeze. The second man in the boatwas not more than twenty years old, while Filipe was apparently about forty-five. He introduced his companion as his son, and said his name was John (Juan).At the suggestion of Raimundo, the fugitives coiled themselves away in the bottom of the felucca, so that no inquisitive glass on board of the vessels or on the shore should reveal their presence to any one that wanted them. In this position they had an opportunity to examine the craft that was to convey them out of the reach of danger, as they hoped and believed. She was not so large as the craft that Filipe had pointed out as the model of his own; but she carried two sails, and was decked over forward so as to form quite a roomy cuddy. She was pointed at both ends, and sailed like a yacht. It was about one o’clock when the party went on board of her, and at her present rate of speed she would reach her destination in six or seven hours. She had the wind on her beam, and the indications were that she would have it fair all the way. There was not a cloud in the sky, and there was every promise of fair weather for the rest of the day. When the felucca had passed Monjuich, the party ventured to move about the craft, as they were no longer in danger of being seen from the city or the fleet; but they took the precaution to keep out of sight when they passed any other craft which might report them to their anxious friends in Barcelona.“What have you got to eat, Filipe?” asked Raimundo, when the felucca was clear of the city.“Plenty to eat and drink,” replied the skipper.“Let me see what you have, for I am beginning to have an appetite.”“Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down.”Page172.Juan was directed to bring out the hamper of provisions his father had purchased. Certainly there were enough of them; but the quality was any thing but satisfactory. Coarse black bread, sausages that looked like Bolognas, and half a dozen bottles of cheap wine, were the principal articles in the hamper. The whole could not have cost half the money given to the boatman. But Filipe insisted that he had paid apesetamore than the sum handed him.Raimundo inquired into this matter more because he was anxious to know about the character of the man than because he cared for the sum expended. He felt that he was, in a measure, in this man’s power; and he desired to ascertain what sort of a person he had to deal with. If he was not wicked enough to cut the throats of his passengers, or to throw them overboard for their money, he might betray them when there was no more money to be made out of them. The inquiry was not at all satisfactory in its results. Filipe had cheated him on the provisions; and Raimundo was confident that he would do so in other matters to the extent of his opportunities.The food tasted better than it looked; and Raimundo made a hearty meal, as did all the others on board, including the boatmen. Raimundo would not drink any of the wine; but his companions did so quite freely, in spite of his caution. He noticed that Filipe urged them to drink, and seemed to be vexed when he could not induce him to taste the wine.“Where are you going when you get to Tarragona?” asked the boatman, when the collation was disposed of.“I think I shall go to Cadiz, and join my ship when she arrives there,” replied Raimundo.“To Cadiz!” exclaimed Filipe. “How can you go to Cadiz when you have no money?”Raimundo saw that he had said too much, and that the skipper wished to inquire into his finances.“I shall get some money in Tarragona,” he replied; but he did not deem it prudent to mention his letter of credit.Filipe continued to ply him with questions, which he evaded answering as well as he could. He did his best to produce the impression on his mind that he had no money. The boatman asked him about his companions, whether they could not let him have all the money he wanted to enable him to reach Cadiz. Why did they leave their ship if they had no money? How did he expect to get money in Tarragona?“How do I know that you will pay me if you are so poor?” demanded Filipe, evidently much vexed at the result of his inquiry.“I have money enough to pay you, and a few dollars more,” replied Raimundo.“I don’t know: I think you had better pay me now, before I go any farther.”“No, I will not pay you till we get to Tarragona,” replied the young Spaniard.“I don’t know that you have money enough to pay me,” persisted the boatman.Raimundo took from his pocket the three isabelinos he had reserved for the purpose of paying for the boat, with the silver he had left, and showed them to the rapacious skipper.“That will convince you that I have the money,” said he, as he returned the gold and silver to his pocket.He resolutely refused to pay for the boat till her work was done. By this time Bill and Bark, overcome by the wine they had drunk, were fast asleep in the cuddy where they had gone at the invitation of the boatman. Raimundo was inclined to join them; but the skipper was a treacherous fellow, and it was not prudent to do so. After all the man’s efforts to ascertain what money he had, he was actually afraid the fellow would attack him, and attempt to search his pockets. There were brigands in Spain,—at least, a party had been recently robbed by some in the south; and there might be pirates as well. So confident was the passenger of the evil intentions of Filipe, that he believed, if he was not robbed, it would be because the man supposed he had no more money than he had shown him. He kept his eye on a spare tiller in the boat, which he meant to use in self-defence if the occasion should require.Just before dark Bill and Bark, having slept off the effect of the wine, awoke, and came out of the cuddy. Filipe proposed that they should have supper before dark, and ordered Juan to bring out the hamper. Raimundo did not want any supper, and refused to eat or drink. Bark and Bill were not hungry, and also declined. Then the skipper urged them to drink.“Don’t taste another drop,” said Raimundo earnestly. “That man means mischief.”“Do you mean to insult me?” demanded Filipe, fixing a savage scowl upon Raimundo.It was plain enough now that the man understood English, though he had not yet spoken a word of it, and had refused to answer when spoken to in that language.At the same time he left the helm, which Juan took as though he was beside his father for that purpose. Raimundo leaped from his seat, with the tiller in his hand; for he had kept his place where he could lay his hand upon it.“Stand by me!” shouted he to his companions.Filipe rushed upon Raimundo, and attempted to seize him by the throat. The young officer struck at him with the tiller, but did not hit him. He dodged the blow; but it fanned his wrath to the highest pitch. Raimundo saw him thrust his hand into his breast-pocket; and he was sure there was a knife there. He raised his club again; but at this instant Bark Lingall threw his arms around the boatman’s throat, and, jamming his knees into his back, brought him down on his face in the bottom of the boat.“Hold him down! don’t let him up!” cried Raimundo.Bark was a stout fellow; and he held on, in spite of the struggles of the Spaniard. At this moment Juan left the tiller, and rushed forward to take a hand in the conflict, now that his father had got the worst of it. He had a knife in his hand, and Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down with the heavy tiller; and he lay senseless in the bottom of the felucca. The young officer then went to the assistance of Bark Lingall; and, in a few minutes more, they had bound the skipper hand and foot, and lashed him down to the floor.CHAPTER XII.SIGHTS IN MADRID.Afteran early breakfast—early for Spain—the students were assembled in a large hall provided by the landlord; and Professor Mapps gave the usual lesson relating to the city they were visiting:—“The population of Madrid has fallen off from about four hundred thousand to the neighborhood of three hundred thousand. The city was in existence in the tenth century, but was not of much account till the sixteenth, when Charles V. took up his residence here. Toledo was at that time the capital, as about every prominent city of Spain had been before. In 1560 Philip III. made Madrid the sole capital of the country; and it has held this distinction down to this day, though Philip II. tried to move it to Valladolid. It is twenty-two hundred feet above the level of the sea; and the cutting off of all the trees in the vicinity—and I may add in all Spain—has injuriously affected the climate. This region has been said to have but two seasons,—‘nine months of winter, and three months of hell.’ If it is very cold in winter, it is probably by comparison with the southern part of the peninsula. Like many other cities of Spain, Madrid has been captured by the English and the French.”Though the professor had much more to say, we shall report only these few sentences. The students hastened out to see the city; and the surgeon took the captain and the first lieutenant under his wing, as usual. They went into thePuerta del Sol,—the Gate of the Sun. Most of the city in early days lay west of this point, so that its eastern gate was where the centre now is. As the sun first shone on this gate, it was called the gate of the sun. Though the gate is gone, the place where it was located still retains the name. It is nearly in the shape of an ellipse; and most of the principal streets radiate from it. It usually presents a very lively scene, by day or by night. It is always full of peddlers of matches, newspapers, lottery-tickets, and other merchandise.“Where shall we go?” said the doctor.“We will leave that to you,” replied Sheridan. “You know the ropes in this ship, and we don’t.”“I think we will go first to the royal palace; and we had better take aberlina, as they call it here.”“Aberlina? Is it a pill?” asked Murray.“No; it is a carriage,” laughed the doctor. “Do you see that one with a tin sign on the corner, with ‘se alquila’ painted on it? That means that the vehicle is not engaged.”Theberlinawas called, and the party were driven down theCalla del Arenalto the palace. It is a magnificent building, one of the finest in Europe, towering far above every thing else in the city. It is the most sightly structure in Madrid. In front of it is thePlaza del Oriente, and in the rear are extensive gardens, reaching down to the Manzanares. On the right of it arethe royal stables, and on the left is the royal armory.“When I was in Madrid, in the time of the late queen, no one was admitted to the palace because some vandal tourists had damaged the frescos and marbles,” said Dr. Winstock. “But for the last year it has been opened. Your uniform and my passport will open the doors to us.”“What has the uniform to do with it?” asked Murray.“A uniform is generally respected in Europe; for it indicates that those who wear it hold some naval or military office.”“We don’t hold any such office,” added Sheridan.“But you are officers of a very respectable institution.”As the doctor anticipated, admission was readily obtained; and the trio were conducted all over the palace, not excepting the apartments of the late queen. There is nothing especially noteworthy about it, for it was not unlike a score of other palaces the party had visited.In the stables, the party saw the state coaches; but, as they had seen so many royal carriages, they were more interested in an American buggy because it looked like home. The doctor pointed out the old coach in which Crazy Jane carried about with her the body of her dead husband. The provisional government had sold off most of the horses and mules. In the yard is a bath for horses.From the stables the trio went to the armory, which contains many objects of interest. The suits of armorare kept as clean and nice as they were when in use. Those worn by Charles V. and Philip II. were examined with much care; but there seemed to be no marks of any hard knocks on them. At the head of the room stands a figure of St. Ferdinand, dressed in regal robes, with a golden crown on the head and a sword in the hand, which is borne in solemn procession to the royal chapel by priests, on the 29th of May, and is kept there two weeks to receive the homage of the people.In another room is a great variety of articles of historic interest, among which may be mentioned the steel writing-desk of Charles V., the armor he wore when he entered Tunis, his camp-stool and bed, and, above all, the steel armor, ornamented with gold, that was worn by Columbus. In the collection of swords were those of the principal kings, the great captain, and other heroes.“There is the armor of Isabella, which she wore at the siege of Granada,” said the doctor.“Did she fight?” asked Murray.“No more than her husband. Both were sovereigns in their own right; and it was the fashion to wear these things.”“Very likely she had this on when Columbus called to see her at Granada,” suggested Sheridan.“I don’t know about that. I fancy she did not wear it in the house, but only when she presented herself before the army,” replied the doctor.The party spent a long time in this building, so interested were the young men in viewing these memorials of the past grandeur of Spain. After dinner they went to the naval museum, which is near the armory.It contains a great number of naval relics, models of historic vessels, captured flags, and similar mementos of the past. The chart of Columbus was particularly interesting to the students from the New World. There are several historical paintings, representing scenes in the lives of Cortes, Pizarro, and De Soto. A portrait of Columbus is flanked on each side by those of the sovereigns who patronized him.“This is a beautiful day,” said Dr. Winstock, as they left the museum. “They call it very cold here, when the mercury falls below the freezing point. It does not often get below twenty-four, and seldom so low as that. I think the glass to-day is as high as fifty-five.”“I call it a warm day for winter,” added Sheridan.“But the air of this city is very subtle. It will kill a man, the Spaniards say, when it will not blow out a candle. I think we had better take aberlina, and ride over to thePrado. The day is so fine that we may possibly see some of the summer glories of the place.”“What are they?” asked Murray.“To me they are the people who walk there; but of course the place is the pleasantest when the trees and shrubs are in foliage.”Aberlinawas called, and the party drove through theCalle Mayor, thePuerta del Sol, and theCalle de Alcala, which form a continuous street, the broadest and finest in Madrid, from the palace to the Prado, which are on opposite sides of the city. A continuation of this street forms one end of thePrado; and another of theCalle de Atocha, a broad avenue reaching from thePlaza Mayor, near the palace, forms the other end.These are the two widest streets of Madrid. TheCalle de Alcalais wide enough to be called a boulevard, and contains some of the finest buildings in the city.“That must be the bull-ring,” said Sheridan, as the party came in sight of an immense circular building. “I have read that it will hold twelve thousand people.”“Some say sixteen thousand; but I think it would not take long to count all it would hold above ten thousand. Philip V. did not like bull-fights, and he tried to do away with them; but the spectacle is the national sport, and the king made himself very unpopular by attempting to abolish it. As a stroke of policy, to regain his popularity, he built thisPlaza de Toros. It is what you see; but it is open to the weather in the middle; and all bull-fights are held, ‘Si el tiempo no lo impide’ (if the weather does not prevent it). This is thePuerta de Alcala,” continued the doctor, pointing to a triumphal arch about seventy feet high, built by Charles III. “The gardens on the right are the ‘Buen Retiro,’ pleasant retreat. Now we will turn, and go through thePrado, though all this open space is often called by this name.”“But what is the ‘pleasant retreat’?”“It is a sort of park and garden, not very attractive at that, with a pond, a menagerie, and an observatory. It is not worth the trouble of a visit,” added the doctor, as he directed the driver to turn theberlina.“I have often seen a picture of that statue,” said Sheridan, as they passed a piece of sculpture representing a female seated on a chariot drawn by lions.“That is the Cybele.”“Who is she?”“Wife of Saturn, and mother of the gods,” replied Sheridan.“This is theSalon del Prado” continued the doctor, as the carriage turned to the left into an avenue two hundred feet wide. “There are plenty of people here, and I think we had better get out and walk, if you are not too tired; for you want to see the people.”Theberlinawas dismissed, and the party joined the throng ofMadrileños. Dr. Winstock called the attention of his young friends to three ladies who were approaching them. They wore the mantilla, which is a long black lace veil, worn as a head-dress, but falling in graceful folds below the hips. The ladies—except the high class, fashionable people—wear no bonnets. The mantilla is a national costume, and the fan is a national institution among them. They manage the latter, as well as the former, with peculiar grace; and it has even been said that they flirt with it, being able to express their sentiments by its aid.“But these ladies are not half so pretty as I supposed the Spanish women were,” said Murray.“That only proves that you supposed they were handsomer than they are,” laughed Sheridan.“They are not so handsome here as in Cadiz and Seville, I grant,” added the doctor; “but still I think they are not bad looking.”“I will agree to that,” replied Murray. “They are good-looking women, and that’s all you can say of them.”“Probably you have got some extravagant ideas about Spanish girls from the novels you have read,” laughed the doctor; “and it is not likely that yourideal beauty will be realized, even in Cadiz and Seville. Here is theDos de Mayo.”“Who’s she?” asked Murray, looking rather vacantly at a granite obelisk in the middle of an enclosed garden.“It is not a woman,” replied the doctor.“Excuse me; I think you said a dose of something,” added Murray.“That monument has the name of ‘El Dos de Mayo,’ which means ‘the second of May.’ It commemorates a battle fought on this spot in 1808 by the peasants, headed by three artillerymen, and the French. The ground enclosed is called ‘The Field of Loyalty.’”“What is this long building ahead?” inquired Sheridan.“That’s the Royal Museum, which contains the richest collection of paintings in Europe.”“Isn’t that putting it pretty strong, after what we have seen in Italy and Germany?” asked Sheridan.“I don’t say the largest or the best-arranged collection in Europe, but the richest. It has more of the old masters, of the best and most valuable pictures in the world, than any other museum. We will go there to-morrow, and you can judge for yourselves.”“Of course we are competent to do that,” added Murray with a laugh.“We haven’t been to any churches yet, doctor,” said Sheridan.“There are many churches in Madrid, but none of any great interest. The city has no cathedral.”“I am thankful for that!” exclaimed Murray. “I have seen churches enough, though of course I shall go to the great cathedrals when we come to them.”“You will be spared in Madrid. Philip II. was asked to erect one; but he would appropriate only a small sum for the purpose, because he did not wish any church to rival that of the Escurial.”“I am grateful to him,” added Murray.“The Atocha church contains an image which is among the most venerated in Spain. It works miracles, and was carved by St. Luke.”“Another job by St. Luke!” exclaimed Murray.“That is hardly respectful to an image whose magnificent dress and rich jewels would build half a score of cheap churches.”“Are there any theatres in Madrid, doctor?” asked Murray.“Of course there are; half a dozen of them. The principal is the Royal Theatre, near the palace, where the performance is Italian opera. It is large enough to hold two thousand; but there is nothing Spanish about it. If you want to see the Spanish theatre you must go to some of the smaller ones. As you don’t understand Spanish, I think you will not enjoy it.”“I want to see the customs of the country.”“The only custom you will see will be smoking; and you can see that anywhere, except in the churches, where alone, I believe, it is not permitted. Everybody smokes, even the women and children. I have seen a youngster not more than five years old struggling with acigarillo; and I suppose it made him sick before he got through with it; at least, I hope it did, for the nausea is nature’s protest against the practice.”“But do the ladies smoke?”“Not in public; but in private many of them do. I have seen some very pretty girls smoking in Spain.”“I don’t remember that I have seen a man drunk in Spain,” said Sheridan.“Probably you have not; I never did. The Spaniards are very temperate.”This long talk brought the party back to the hotel just at dark. The next day was Sunday; but many of the students visited the churches, though most of them were willing to make it a day of rest, in the strictest sense of the word. On Monday morning, as the museum did not open till one o’clock, the doctor and hisprotégéstook aberlina, and rode out to the palace of the Marquis of Salamanca, where they were permitted to explore this elegant residence without restraint. In one of the apartments they saw a large picture of the Landing of the Pilgrims, by a Spanish artist; and it was certainly a strange subject. Connected with the palace is a museum of antiquities quite extensive for a private individual to own. The Pompeian rooms contain a vast quantity of articles from the buried city.“Who is this Marquis of Salamanca?” asked Sheridan, as they started on their return.“He is a Spanish nobleman, a grandee of Spain I suppose, who is somewhat noted as a financier. He has invested some money in railroads in the United States. The town of Salamanca, at the junction of the Erie and Great Western, in Western New York, was named after him,” replied Dr. Winstock.“I have been through the place,” added Sheridan.“This is not a very luxurious neighborhood,” said Murray, when they came to one of those villages of poor people, of which there were several just outside of the city.“Generally in Europe the rich are very rich, and the poor are very poor. Though the rich are not as rich in Spain as in some other countries, there is no exception to the rule in its application to the poor. These hovels are even worse than the homes of the poor in Russia. Wouldn’t you like to look into one of them?”“Would it be considered rude for us to do so?” asked Sheridan.“Not at all. These people are not so sensitive as poor folks in America; but, if they are hurt by our curiosity, a couple ofrealeswill repair all the damages.”“Is this achâteau en Espagne?” said Murray. “I have read about such things, but I never saw one before.”“Châteaux en Espagneare castles in the air,—things unreal and unsubstantial; and, so far as the idea of comfort is concerned, this is achâteau en Espagne. When we were in Ireland, an old woman ran out of a far worse shanty than this, and, calling it an Irish castle, begged for money. In the same sense we may call this a Spanish castle.”The carriage was stopped, and the party alighted.“You see, the people live out-doors, even in the winter,” said the doctor. “The door of this house is wide open, and you can look in.”The proprietor of the establishment stood near the door. He wore his cloak with as much style as though he had been an hidalgo. Under this garment his clothes were ragged and dirty; and he wore a pair of spatterdashes, most of the buttons of which were wanting, and it was only at a pinch that they staid on his ankles. His wife and four children stopped their work, or theirplay, as the case was, and gazed at the unwonted visitors.“Buenos dias, caballero,” said the doctor, as politely as though he had been saluting a grandee.The man replied no less politely.“May we look into your house?” asked the doctor.“Esta muy a la disposicion de usted,” replied thecaballero(it is entirely at your disposal).This is acosa de España. If you speak of any thing a Spaniard has, he makes you a present of it, be it his house or his horse, or any thing else; but you are not expected to avail yourself of his generosity. It would be as impolite to take him at his word as it would be for him not to place it “at your disposal.”The house was of one story, and had but one door and one window, the latter very small indeed. The floor was of cobble-stones bedded in the mud. The little window was nothing but a hole; there was no glass in it; and the doctor said, that, when the weather was bad, the occupants had to close the door, and put a shutter over the window, so that they had no light. The interior was divided into two rooms, one containing a bed. Every thing was as simple as possible. The roof of the shanty was covered with tile which looked like broken flower-pots. In front, for use in the summer, was an attempt at a veranda, with vines running up the posts.The doctor gave the smallest of the children apeseta, and bade the man a stately adieu, which was answered with dignity enough for an ambassador. The party drove off, glad to have seen the interior of a Spanish house.“Why did you give the money to the child instead of the father?” asked Sheridan.“I suppose your experience in other parts of Europe would not help you to believe it, but the average Spaniard who is not a professional beggar is too proud to receive money for any small favor,” replied the doctor. “I have had apesetaindignantly refused by a man who had rendered me a small service. This is as strange as it is true, though, when you come to ride on adiligencia, you will find that driver, postilion, andzagalwill do their best to get a gratuity out of you. I speak only of the Spaniard who does you a favor, and not those with whom you deal; but, as a general rule, the people are too proud to cheat you.”“They are very odd sort of people,” added Murray. “There is one shovelling with his cloak on.”“Not an unusual sight. I have seen a man ploughing in the field with his cloak on, and that on a rather warm day. You notice here that the houses are not scattered as they are with us; but even these shanties are built in villages,” continued the doctor.“I noticed that the houses were all in villages in all the country we have come through since we left Barcelona,” said Murray.“Can you explain the reason?”“I do not see any reason except that is the fashion of the country.”“There is a better reason than that. In early days the people had to live in villages in order to be able to defend themselves from enemies. In Spain the custom never changes, if isolated houses are even safe at the present time.”“What is that sheet of paper hanging on the balcony for?” asked Murray. “There is another; and now I can see half a dozen of them.” Theberlinawas within a short distance of thePuerta del Sol.“A sheet of white paper in the middle of the balcony signifies that the people have rooms to let; if at the corner, they take boarders.”The party arrived at the hotel in season for dinner; and, when it was over, they hastened to theMuseo, or picture-gallery. The building is very long, and of no particular architectural effect. It has ten apartments on the principal floor, in which are placed the gems of the collection. In the centre of the edifice is a very long room which contains the burden of the paintings. There are over two thousand of them, and they are the property of the Crown. Among them are sixty-two by Rubens, fifty-three by Teniers, ten by Raphael, forty-six by Murillo, sixty-four by Velasquez, twenty-two by Van Dyck, forty-three by Titian, thirty-four by Tintoretto, twenty-five by Paul Veronese, and hundreds by other masters hardly less celebrated.The doctor’s party spent three hours among these pictures, and they went to the museum for the same time the next day; for they could better appreciate these gems than most of the students, many of whom were not willing to use a single hour in looking at them. Our party visited the public buildings, and took many rides and walks in the city and its vicinity, which we have not the space to report. On Wednesday morning the ship’s company started for Toledo.CHAPTER XIII.AFTER THE BATTLE IN THE FELUCCA.Weleft the second master of the Tritonia and the two runaway seamen in a rather critical situation on board of the felucca. We regret the necessity of jumping about all over Spain to keep the run of our characters; but we are obliged to conform to the arrangement of the principal,—who was absolute in his sway,—and follow the young gentlemen wherever he sends them. Though Mr. Lowington was informed, before his departure with the ship’s company of the Prince, of the escape of Raimundo and the two “marines,” he was content to leave the steps for the recovery of the runaways to the good judgment of the vice-principal in charge of the Tritonia.Raimundo had managed his case so well that the departure of the three students from the vessel was not discovered by any one on board or on shore. If thealguacilwas on the lookout for his prisoner, he had failed to find him, or to obtain any information in regard to him. The circumstances had certainly favored the escape in the highest degree. The distance across the harbor, the concealment afforded by the hulls of the vessels of the fleet, and the shadow of the sea-wallunder which the fugitives had placed themselves, had prevented them from being seen. Indeed, no one could have seen them, except from the deck of the Tritonia or the Josephine; and probably those on board of the latter were below, as they were on the former.Of course Mr. Salter, the chief steward of the Tritonia, was very much astonished when he found that the prisoners had escaped from the brig. Doubtless he made as much of an excitement as was possible with only one of his assistants to help him. He had no boat; and he was unable to find one from the shore till the felucca was well out of the harbor. Probably Hugo was as zealous as the occasion required in the investigation of the means by which the fugitives had escaped; but he was as much astonished as his chief when told that Bill Stout and Bark Lingall were gone. The brig was in its usual condition, with the door locked; but the unfastened scuttle soon disclosed the mode of egress selected by the rogues. Mr. Pelham, assisted by Mr. Fluxion, vice-principal of the Josephine, did all they could to find the two “marines,” without any success whatever; but they had no suspicion that the second master, who had disappeared the night before, was one of the party.The next morning all hands from the two consorts were sent on board of the American Prince. Mr. Fluxion was the senior vice-principal, and had the command of the vessel. The ship’s company of the Josephine formed the starboard, and that of the Tritonia the port watch. The officers took rank in each grade according to seniority. Mr. Fluxion was unwilling tosail until he had drilled this miscellaneous ship’s company in their new duties. He had a superabundance of officers, and it was necessary for them to know their places. In the morning he had telegraphed to the principal at Saragossa, in regard to the fugitives; and the order came back for him to sail without them. Mr. Lowington was not disposed to waste much of his time in looking for runaways: they were pretty sure to come back without much assistance. At noon the Prince sailed for Lisbon; and all on board of her were delighted with the novelty of the new situation. As it is not necessary to follow the steamer, which safely arrived at Lisbon on the following Sunday morning, we will return to Raimundo and his companions.Filipe, struggling, and swearing the heaviest oaths, was bound hand and foot in the bottom of the felucca, and lashed to the heel of the mainmast. Juan lay insensible in the space between the cuddy and the mainmast, where he had fallen when the young Spaniard hit him with the spare tiller. The boat had broached to when the helm was abandoned by the boatman’s son, to go to the assistance of his father. Of course Raimundo and Bark were very much excited by this sudden encounter; and it had required the united strength of both of them to overcome the boatman, though he was not a large man. Bill Stout had done nothing. He had not the pluck to help secure Filipe after he had been thrown down, or rather dragged down, by Bark.As soon as the victory was accomplished, Raimundo sprang to the helm, and brought the felucca up to her course again. His chest heaved, and his breathing wasso violent as to be audible. Bark was in no better condition; and, if Juan had come to his senses at that moment, he might have conquered both of them.“Pick up that knife, Lingall,” said Raimundo, as soon as he was able to speak.He pointed to the knife which the boatman had dropped during the struggle; and Bark picked it up.“Now throw it overboard,” added the second master. “We can handle these men, I think, if there are no knives in the case.”“No; don’t do that!” interposed Bill Stout. “Give it to me.”“Give it to you, you coward!” replied Raimundo. “What do you want of it?”“I will use it if we get into another fight. I don’t like to tackle a man with a knife in his hand, when I have no weapon of any kind,” answered Bill, who, when the danger was over, began to assume his usual bullying tone and manner.“Over with it, Lingall!” repeated Raimundo sharply. “You are good for nothing, Stout: you had not pluck enough to touch the man after your friend had him down.”Bark waited for no more, but tossed the knife into the sea. He never “took any stock” in Bill Stout’s bluster; but he had not suspected that the fellow was such an arrant coward. As compared with Raimundo, who had risen vastly in his estimation within the last few hours, he thoroughly despised his fellow-conspirator. If he did not believe it before, he was satisfied now, that the gentlest and most correct students could also be the best fellows. However it hadbeen before, Bill no longer had any influence over him; while he was ready to obey the slightest wish of the second master, whom he had hated only the day before.“See if you can find the other knife,—the one the young man had,” continued Raimundo.“I see it,” replied Bark; and he picked up the ugly weapon.“Send it after the other. The less knives we have on board, the better off we shall be,” added the second master. “I don’t like the habit of my countrymen in carrying thecuchillaany better than I do that of yours in the use of revolvers.”“I think it was stupid to throw away those knives, when you have to fight such fellows as these,” said Bill Stout, as he glanced at the prostrate form of the older boatman, who was writhing to break away from his bonds.“Your opinion on that subject is of no value just now,” added Raimundo contemptuously.“What do you say, Bark?” continued Bill, appealing to his confederate.“I agree with Raimundo,” answered Bark. “I don’t want to be mixed up in any fight where knives are used.”“And I object just as much to knifing a man as I do to being knifed,” said Raimundo. “Though I am a Spaniard, I don’t think I would use a knife to save my own life.”“I would,” blustered Bill.“No, you wouldn’t: you haven’t pluck enough to do any thing,” retorted Bark. “I advise you not to say any thing more on this subject, Stout.”At this moment Filipe made a desperate attempt to free himself; and Bill retreated to the forecastle, evidently determined not to be in the way if another battle took place. Bark picked up the spare tiller the second master had dropped, and prepared to defend himself. Another club was found, and each of those who had the pluck to use was well prepared for another attack.“Lie still, or I will hit you over the head!” said Bark to the struggling skipper, as he flourished the tiller over him.But the ropes with which he was secured were strong and well knotted. Bark was a good sailor, and he had done this part of the work. He looked over the fastenings, and made sure that they were all right.“He can’t get loose, Mr. Raimundo,” said he.“But Juan is beginning to come to his senses,” added the second master. “He has just turned half over.”“I hope he is not much hurt: we may get into a scrape if he is.”“I was just thinking of that. But I don’t believe he is very badly damaged,” added Raimundo. “If the old man can’t get away, suppose you look him over, and see what his condition is.”Bark complied with this request. Filipe seemed to be interested in this inquiry; and he lay quite still while the examination was in progress. The young sailor found a wound and a considerable swelling on the side of Juan’s head; but it was now so dark that he could not distinctly see the nature of the injury.“Have you a match, Mr. Raimundo?” he asked.“I have not. We were not allowed to have matches on board the Tritonia,” replied the second master.“Tengo pajuelas,” said Filipe. “Una linterna en el camarote de proa.”“What does he say?” inquired Bark, glad to find that the skipper was no longer pugnacious.“He says he has matches, and that there is a lantern in the cuddy,” replied Raimundo. “Here, Stout, look in the cuddy, and see if you can find a lantern there.”Bill had the grace to obey the order, though he was tempted to refuse to do so. He found the lantern, for he had seen it while he lay in the cuddy. He brought it to Bark, and took the lamp out of the globe.“You will find some matches in Filipe’s pockets,” added Raimundo.“I have matches enough,” answered Bill.“I forgot that you used matches,” said the second master; “but I am glad you have a chance to make a better use of them than you did on board of the Tritonia.”“You needn’t say any thing! You are the first officer that ever run away from that vessel,” growled Bill, as he lighted a match, and communicated the blaze to the wick of the lamp.It was a kerosene-lamp, just such as is used at home, and probably came from the United States. Bark proceeded to examine the wound of Juan, and found it was not a severe one. The young man was rapidly coming to himself, and in a few minutes more he would be able to take care of himself.“I think we had better move him into the cuddy,” suggested Bark. “We can make him comfortable there, and fasten him in at the same time.”“That’s a capital idea, Lingall; and if Stout will take the helm I will help you move him,” answered Raimundo.“I will help move him,” volunteered Bill.“I supposed you were afraid of him,” added the second master. “He has about come to himself.”Juan spoke then, and complained of his head. Bark and Bill lifted him up, and carried him to the cuddy, where they placed him on the bed of old garments upon which they had slept themselves during the afternoon. Bark had some little reputation among his companions as a surgeon, probably because he always carried a sheet of court-plaster in his pocket, and sometimes had occasion to attend to the wounds of his friends. Perhaps he had also a taste for this sort of thing; for he was generally called upon in all cases of broken heads, before the chief steward, who was the amateur surgeon of the Tritonia, was summoned. At any rate, Bark, either from genuine kindness, or the love of amateur surgical dressing, was not content to let the wounded Spaniard rest till he had done something more for him. He washed the injury in fresh water, closed the ugly cut with a piece of court-plaster, and then bound up the head of the patient with his own handkerchief.The wounded man tried to talk to him; but he could not understand a word he said. If his father spoke English, it was certain that the son did not. When he had done all this, Bark relieved Raimundo at the helm, and the latter went forward to talk with the patient,who was so quiet that Bark had not thought of fastening the door of the cuddy.“I am well now,” said Juan, “and I want to go out.”“You must not go out of this place; if you do, we shall hit you over the head again,” replied the second master sternly.“Where is my father?” asked the patient.“He is tied hand and foot; and we shall tie you in the same way if you don’t keep still and obey orders,” added Raimundo. “Lie still where you are, and no harm shall be done to you.”Raimundo, taking the lantern with him, left the cuddy, and fastened it behind him with the padlock he found in the staple. Putting the key in his pocket, he made an examination into the condition of Filipe, with the aid of the lantern. He found him still securely bound, and, better than that, as quiet as a lamb.“How is my son?” asked he.“He is doing very well. We have dressed his wound, and he will be as well as ever in a day or two,” replied Raimundo.“Gracias, muchos gracias!” exclaimed the prisoner.“If we had been armed as you were, he might have lost his life,” added Raimundo, moving aft to the helm. “I think we are all right, Lingall.”“I am very glad of it. We came very near getting into a bad scrape,” replied Bark.“It is bad enough as it is. I have been afraid of something of this kind ever since we got well out of the port of Barcelona,” continued the second master. “The villain asked me so many questions about my money that my suspicions were excited, and I was onthe watch for him. Then he was so anxious that we should drink wine, I was almost sure he meant mischief.”“I am very sorry I drank any wine. It only makes my head ache,” replied Bark penitently.“I have heard my uncle speak of these men; and I know something about them.”“The wine did not make my head ache,” said Bill.“That’s because there is nothing in it,” answered Raimundo, who could not restrain his contempt for the incendiary.“But I do not understand exactly how the fight was begun,” said Bark. “The first I knew, the boatman sprang at you.”“That’s the first I knew, though I was on the lookout for him, as I had been all the afternoon. He understood what I meant when I told you this man means mischief.”“But he told you he could not speak English.”“Most of the boatmen speak more or less English: they learn it from the passengers they carry. He wanted to know whether we had money before he did any thing. He was probably satisfied that we had some before he attempted to assault us.”“I know you have money,” cried Filipe, in English; and he seemed to be more anxious to prove the correctness of his conclusion than to disprove his wicked intentions.“You have not got any of it yet,” replied Raimundo.“But I will have it!” protested the villain.“You tempt me to throw you and your son overboard,” said Raimundo sternly, in Spanish.“Not my son,” answered the villain, suddenly changing his tone. “He is his mother’s only boy.”“You should have thought of that before you brought him with you on such business.”The boatman, for such a villain as he was, seemed to have a strange affection for his son; and Raimundo was almost willing to believe he had not intended till some time after they left the port to rob his passengers. Perhaps, with the aid of the wine, he had expected an easy victory; for, though the students were all stout fellows, they were but boys.“I will not harm you if you do not injure my boy,” pleaded Filipe.“It is not in your power to harm us now; for we have all the power,” replied the second master.“But you are deserters from your ship. I can tell where you are,” added Filipe, with something like triumph in his tones.“We expect you to tell all you know as soon as you return.”“I can do it in Tarragona: they will arrest you there if I tell them.”“We are not afraid of that: if we were, we should throw you and your son overboard.”Filipe did not like this side of the argument, and he was silent for some time. It must be confessed that Raimundo did not like his side any better. The fellow could inform the police in Tarragona that the party were deserters, and cause them to be sent back to Barcelona. Though this was better than throwing the boatman and his son overboard, which was only an idle threat, it would spoil all his calculations, and defeatall his plans. He studied the case for some time, after he had explained to Bark what had passed between himself and Filipe in Spanish.“You want more money than you were to receive for the boat; do you, Filipe?” asked he.“I have to pay five hundredrealeson this boat in three days, or lose it and my small one too,” replied the boatman; and the passenger was not sure he did not invent the story as he went along. “I am not a bad man; but I want two hundredrealesmore than you are to pay me.”“Then you expect me to pay what I agreed, after what has happened, do you?”“You promised to pay it.”“And you promised to take me to Tarragona; and you have been trying to murder me on the way,” exclaimed Raimundo indignantly.“Oh, no! I did not mean to kill you, or to hurt you; only to take two hundredrealesfrom you,” pleaded the boatman, with the most refreshing candor.“That’s all; is it?”The villain protested, by the Virgin and all the saints in the Spanish calendar, that he had not intended any thing more than this; and Raimundo translated what he said to his companion.“There are a lot of lights on a high hill ahead,” said Bill Stout, who had been looking at the shore, which was only a short distance from them.“That must be Tarragona,” replied the second master, looking at his watch by the light of the lantern. “It is ten minutes of seven; and we have been six hours on the trip. I thought it would take about thistime. That must be Tarragona; it is on a hill eight hundred feet high.”“We have been sailing very fast, the last three hours,” added Bark. “But how are we to get out of this scrape?”“I will see. Keep a sharp lookout on the starboard, Lingall; and, when you see a place where you think we can make a landing, let me know.—Can you steer, Stout, and keep her as she is?”“Of course I can steer. I don’t give up to any fellow in handling a boat,” growled Bill.Raimundo gave him the tiller; but he watched him for a time, to see that he made good his word. The bully did very well, and kept the felucca parallel with the shore, as she had been all the afternoon.“There is a mole makes out from the shore,” continued the active skipper to Bark, who had gone forward of the foremast to do the duty assigned to him.“Ay, ay! I can see it,” replied Bark.“I think we need not quarrel, Filipe,” said Raimundo, bending over the prisoner, and unloosing the rope that bound his hands to the mast; but they were still tied behind him. “We are almost into Tarragona, and what we do must be done quickly.”“Don’t harm Juan,” pleaded Filipe.“That will depend on yourself, whether we do or not,” replied Raimundo, as fiercely as he could speak. “We are not to be trifled with; and Americans carry pistols sometimes.”“I will do what you wish,” answered Filipe.“I will give you what I agreed, and two hundredrealesbesides, if you will keep still about our being deserters; and that is all the money we have.”“Gracias!I will do it!” exclaimed the boatman. “Release me, and I will land you outside of the mole, and not go near the town to speak to any person.”“I am afraid to trust you.”“You can trust a Catalan when he promises;” and Filipe proceeded to call upon the Virgin and the saints to witness what he said.“Where can we land?” asked the second master.The boatman looked over the rail of the felucca; and, when he had got his bearings, he indicated a point where a safe landing might be made. It was not a quarter of a mile distant; and Filipe said the mainsail ought to be furled. Raimundo picked up the spare tiller,—for, in spite of the Catalan’s oath and promise, he was determined to be on the safe side,—and then unfastened the ropes that bound the prisoner.“If you play me false, I will brain you with this club, and pitch your son into the sea!” said Raimundo, as tragically as he could do the business.“I will be true to my promise,” he replied, as he brailed up the mainsail.“You see that your money is ready for you as soon as you land us,” continued Raimundo, as he showed the villain fiveIsabelinoshe held in one hand, while he grasped the spare tiller with the other.“Gracias!” replied Filipe, who was possibly satisfied when he found that he was to make the full sum he had first named as his price; and it may be that he was tempted by the urgency of his creditor to rob his passengers.“Have your pistol ready, Lingall!” added Raimundo, as the boatman, who had taken the helm from Bill, threw the felucca up into the wind, and her keel began to grate on the rocks.“Ay, ay!” shouted Bark.The boat ran her long bow up to the dry land, and hung there by her bottom. Raimundo gave the five hundredrealesto Filipe, and sprang ashore with the tiller in his hand. Calling to Bark, they shoved off the felucca, and then ran for the town.

CHAPTER XI.THE CRUISE IN THE FELUCCA.Raimundowas very much disgusted when he found that Bill Stout and Bark Lingall were to be the companions of his flight. Thus far he had felt that his conduct was justifiable. His uncle Manuel had taught him to believe that his guardian intended to “put him out of the way.” Don Alejandro had not actually attempted to do any thing of this kind, so far as was known; and no case could be made out against him. Don Manuel did not mean that he should have an opportunity to attempt any thing of the kind. Certainly it was safer to keep out of his way, than to tempt him to do a deed which his own brother believed he was capable of doing. Raimundo thought Don Manuel was right: indeed, he could remember enough of Don Alejandro’s treatment of him before he left Barcelona, to convince him of his guardian’s intentions.But when he found himself in the boat, escaping from the Tritonia with two of the worst “scalliwags” of the crew, the case seemed to present a different aspect to him. He realized that he was in bad company; and he felt contaminated by their presence, Yet he did not see how he could help himself. The onlyway he could get out of the scrape was to surrender to the chief steward, and in due time be handed over to the agent of his guardian. Whether he was correct or not in his estimate of his uncle’s character, he was sincere in his belief that Don Alejandro intended to do him harm, even to the sacrificing of his life. Independently of his personal fears, he did not think it would be right to give himself up to one who might be tempted to do an evil deed. He concluded to make the best of the situation, and as soon as possible to get rid of his disagreeable companions.“Where shall we go, Raimundo?” asked Bill Stout, as confidentially as though he had been a part of the enterprise from the beginning.“We must go on shore, of course,” replied the young Spaniard, who was not yet sufficiently reconciled to the situation to be very cordial.More than this, he had not yet considered what his course should be when he had left the vessel; but it occurred to him, as Bill asked the question, that thealguacil, whose action had been fully reported to him by Hugo, might be watching the vessel from the shore. Raimundo looked about him to get a better idea of the situation. The wind was from the north-west, which swung the Prince so that she lay between the Tritonia and the landing-place, and hid her hull from the view of any one on the city side.“I think we had better not land at any of the usual places,” suggested Bark. “Marline, Rimmer, and all the rest of the forward officers, are in charge of the boats at the principal landing.”“I had no idea of going to the city. It would notbe safe for me to show my face there,” answered Raimundo; and he directed the boatman to pull to the Barceloneta side of the port, and in such a direction as to keep in the shadow of the vessels of the fleet.The man offered to land them at a more convenient place; but Raimundo insisted upon going to the point indicated. Very likely the boatman suspected that his passengers were not leaving the vessel to which they belonged in a perfectly regular manner; but probably this would not make any difference to him, as long as he was well paid for his services. Presently the boat grounded on some rocks at the foot of the sea-wall, which rose high above them. As usual the boatman was anxious to obtain another job; and he offered to take them to any point they wished to go to.“I will take you back to your ship when you are ready to go,” continued the man with a smile, and a twinkle of the eye, which was enough to show that he did not believe they intended to return.Raimundo replied that they had no further use for the boat that day.“I have a big boat like that,” persisted the man, pointing to a felucca which was sailing down the bay.The craft indicated was about thirty feet long, and carried a large lateen sail.“Where is she?” asked Raimundo, with interest.The man pointed up the harbor, and said he could have her ready in a few minutes.“Do you go out to sea in her?”“Oh, yes! go to Majorca in her,” replied the boatman, quite excited at the prospect of a large job.“Can you take us to Tarragona in her?” continuedthe young Spaniard, to whom the felucca suggested the best means of getting away from Barcelona.“Certainly I can: there is no trouble about it.”“How much shall you charge to take us there?”“It is fifteen leagues to Tarragona,” replied the boatman, who proceeded to magnify the difficulties of the enterprise as soon as the price was demanded.“Very well: we can go by the railroad,” added Raimundo, who fully comprehended the object of the man.“Your officers will see you if you go into the city,” said the boatman, with a cunning smile.There was no longer any doubt that the fellow fully comprehended the situation, but the fugitive saw that he would not betray them; for, if he did, he would lose the job, which he evidently intended should be a profitable one.“Name your price,” he added; and he was willing to pay liberally for the service he desired.“Five hundredreales,” answered the man.“Do you think we have so much money?” laughed the fugitive. “We can’t make a bargain with you.”“What will you give?” asked the boatman.“Two hundredreales.”After considerable haggling, the bargain was struck at three hundredreales, or fifteen dollars; and this was less than the fugitive had expected to pay. The rest of the arrangements were readily made. Filipe, for this was the name he gave, was afraid his passengers would be captured while he went for his felucca; and, keeping in the shadow of the sea-wall, he pulled them around the point on which the old light-house stands, and landed them on some rocks under the wall.In this position they could not be seen from the vessels of the fleet, or from the landing-place on the other side, while the high wall concealed them from any person on the shore who did not take the trouble to look over at them.“We shall want something to eat,” said Raimundo, as the boatman was about to leave them. “Take this, and buy as much bread and cold meat as you can with it.”Raimundo handed him three dollars in Spanish silver, which Hugo had obtained for him. The large sum of money he had was in Spanish gold, obtained in Genoa. He had a few dollars in silver left for small expenses.“What are we here for?” asked Bill Stout, who, of course, had not understood a word of the conversation of his companion and the boatman.Both he and Bark had asked half a dozen times what they were talking about; but Raimundo had not answered them.“What has been going on between you and that fellow all this time?” asked Bill, in a tone so imperative that the young officer did not like it at all.“I have made a bargain with him to take us to Tarragona,” replied Raimundo coldly.“And did not say a word to Bark and me about it!” exclaimed Bill.“If you don’t like it you need not go. I did not invite you to come with me.”“Did not invite me!” sneered Bill. “I know you didn’t; but we are in the party, and want you to understand that we are no longer under your orders. You needn’t take it upon yourself to make arrangements for me.”“I made the arrangement for myself, and I don’t ask you to go with me,” answered Raimundo with dignity.“Come, come! Bill, dry up!” interposed Bark. “Do you want to make a row now before we are fairly out of the vessel?”“I got out of the vessel to get clear of those snobs of officers, and I am not going to have one of them lording it over me here.”“Nonsense! He hasn’t done any thing that you can find fault with,” added Bark.“He has made a trade with that boatman to take us somewhere without saying a word to us about it,” blustered Bill. “I want to put a check on that sort of thing in the beginning.”“He has done just the right thing. If we had been alone we could not have managed the matter at all.”“I could have managed it well enough myself.”“You can’t speak a word of Spanish, nor I either.”“I don’t even know where that place is—Dragona—or whatever it is,” growled Bill.“I am not to blame for your ignorance,” said Raimundo. “You heard every thing that was said; and, if you don’t like it, I am willing to get along without you.”“Come, Bill; we must not get up a row. Raimundo has done the right thing, and for one I am very much obliged to him,” continued Bark.“He might have told us what he was about,” added Bill, somewhat appeased by the words of his fellow-conspirator.“We had no time to spare; and he could not stop to tell the whole story twice over.”“Where is the place we are going to?” demanded Bill in the same sulky tone.“Tarragona, a seaport town, south of here. How far is it, Mr. Raimundo?”“About fifty miles.”“Will you tell us now, if you please, what arrangements you made with the boatman?” continued Bark, doing his best to smooth the ruffled feelings of the young Spaniard.“Certainly I will; but I want to say in the first place that I had rather return to the Tritonia at once than be bullied by Stout or by anybody else. I don’t put on any airs, and I mean to treat everybody like a gentleman. I am a Spaniard, and I will not be insulted by any one,” said Raimundo, with as much dignity as an hidalgo in Castile.“I didn’t mean to insult you,” said Bill mildly.“Let it pass; but, if it is repeated, we part company at once, whatever the consequences,” added Raimundo, who then proceeded to explain what had passed between Filipe and himself.The plan was entirely satisfactory to Bark; and so it was to Bill, though he had not the grace to say so. The villain had an itching to be the leader of whatever was going on himself; and he was very much afraid that the late second master of the Tritonia would usurp this office if he did not make himself felt in the beginning. He was rather cowed by the lofty stand Raimundo had taken; and he had come to the conclusion that he had better wait till the expedition was a little farther along before he attempted to assert himself again.“Have you any money?” asked Raimundo, when he had finished his explanation.“Yes. Both of us have money; and we will pay our share of the cost of the boat,” replied Bark, who was ten times more of a man than his companion in mischief.“Is it Spanish money?”“No, not any of it. I have seven English sovereigns in gold, and some silver. Bill has twelve sovereigns. I can draw over eighty pounds on my letter of credit; and Bill can get fifty on his.”“I only wanted to know what ready money you had,” added Raimundo. “You must not say a word about money when we get into the felucca.”“Why not?” asked Bill, in his surly way, as though he was disposed to make another issue on this point.“I don’t know the boatman; and it is very likely he may have another man with him. There he comes, and there is another man with him,” replied Raimundo, as the felucca appeared off the light-house. “If you should show them any large sum of money, or let them know you had it, they might be tempted to throw us overboard for the sake of getting it. Of course, I don’t know that they would do any thing of the kind; but it is best to be on the safe side.”“Some of these Spaniards would cut a man’s throat for half a dollar,” added Bill.“So would some Americans; and they do it in New York sometimes,” replied Raimundo warmly. “I repeat it: don’t say a word about money.”“The men in the boat cannot understand us if we do,” suggested Bark.“They may speak English, for aught I know.”“The one you talked with could not.”“I don’t know about that. I did not try him in English. We must all pretend that we have very little money, whether we do it in English or in Spanish. When Filipe—that’s his name—asked me five hundredrealesfor taking us to Tarragona, I said that I had not so much money.”“And that was a lie; wasn’t it?” sneered Bill.“If it was, it is on my conscience, and not yours; and it may be a lie that will save your life and mine,” answered Raimundo sharply.“I don’t object to the lie; but I thought you, one of the parson’s lambs, did object to such things,” chuckled Bill.“I hate a lie: I think falsehood is mean and ungentlemanly; but I believe there is a wide difference between a lie told to a sick man, or to prevent a boatman from being tempted to cut your throat, and a lie told to save you from the consequences of your own misconduct.”“Well, you needn’t preach: we are not chaplain’s lambs,” growled Bill.“Neither am I,” added Raimundo. “I am what they call a Christian in Spain, and that is a Roman Catholic. But here is the felucca. Now mind what I have said, for your own safety.”Filipe ran the bow of his craft up to the rocks on which the fugitives were standing, and they leaped on board of her. The boatman’s assistant shoved her off, and in a moment more she was driving down the harbor before the fresh breeze. The second man in the boatwas not more than twenty years old, while Filipe was apparently about forty-five. He introduced his companion as his son, and said his name was John (Juan).At the suggestion of Raimundo, the fugitives coiled themselves away in the bottom of the felucca, so that no inquisitive glass on board of the vessels or on the shore should reveal their presence to any one that wanted them. In this position they had an opportunity to examine the craft that was to convey them out of the reach of danger, as they hoped and believed. She was not so large as the craft that Filipe had pointed out as the model of his own; but she carried two sails, and was decked over forward so as to form quite a roomy cuddy. She was pointed at both ends, and sailed like a yacht. It was about one o’clock when the party went on board of her, and at her present rate of speed she would reach her destination in six or seven hours. She had the wind on her beam, and the indications were that she would have it fair all the way. There was not a cloud in the sky, and there was every promise of fair weather for the rest of the day. When the felucca had passed Monjuich, the party ventured to move about the craft, as they were no longer in danger of being seen from the city or the fleet; but they took the precaution to keep out of sight when they passed any other craft which might report them to their anxious friends in Barcelona.“What have you got to eat, Filipe?” asked Raimundo, when the felucca was clear of the city.“Plenty to eat and drink,” replied the skipper.“Let me see what you have, for I am beginning to have an appetite.”“Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down.”Page172.Juan was directed to bring out the hamper of provisions his father had purchased. Certainly there were enough of them; but the quality was any thing but satisfactory. Coarse black bread, sausages that looked like Bolognas, and half a dozen bottles of cheap wine, were the principal articles in the hamper. The whole could not have cost half the money given to the boatman. But Filipe insisted that he had paid apesetamore than the sum handed him.Raimundo inquired into this matter more because he was anxious to know about the character of the man than because he cared for the sum expended. He felt that he was, in a measure, in this man’s power; and he desired to ascertain what sort of a person he had to deal with. If he was not wicked enough to cut the throats of his passengers, or to throw them overboard for their money, he might betray them when there was no more money to be made out of them. The inquiry was not at all satisfactory in its results. Filipe had cheated him on the provisions; and Raimundo was confident that he would do so in other matters to the extent of his opportunities.The food tasted better than it looked; and Raimundo made a hearty meal, as did all the others on board, including the boatmen. Raimundo would not drink any of the wine; but his companions did so quite freely, in spite of his caution. He noticed that Filipe urged them to drink, and seemed to be vexed when he could not induce him to taste the wine.“Where are you going when you get to Tarragona?” asked the boatman, when the collation was disposed of.“I think I shall go to Cadiz, and join my ship when she arrives there,” replied Raimundo.“To Cadiz!” exclaimed Filipe. “How can you go to Cadiz when you have no money?”Raimundo saw that he had said too much, and that the skipper wished to inquire into his finances.“I shall get some money in Tarragona,” he replied; but he did not deem it prudent to mention his letter of credit.Filipe continued to ply him with questions, which he evaded answering as well as he could. He did his best to produce the impression on his mind that he had no money. The boatman asked him about his companions, whether they could not let him have all the money he wanted to enable him to reach Cadiz. Why did they leave their ship if they had no money? How did he expect to get money in Tarragona?“How do I know that you will pay me if you are so poor?” demanded Filipe, evidently much vexed at the result of his inquiry.“I have money enough to pay you, and a few dollars more,” replied Raimundo.“I don’t know: I think you had better pay me now, before I go any farther.”“No, I will not pay you till we get to Tarragona,” replied the young Spaniard.“I don’t know that you have money enough to pay me,” persisted the boatman.Raimundo took from his pocket the three isabelinos he had reserved for the purpose of paying for the boat, with the silver he had left, and showed them to the rapacious skipper.“That will convince you that I have the money,” said he, as he returned the gold and silver to his pocket.He resolutely refused to pay for the boat till her work was done. By this time Bill and Bark, overcome by the wine they had drunk, were fast asleep in the cuddy where they had gone at the invitation of the boatman. Raimundo was inclined to join them; but the skipper was a treacherous fellow, and it was not prudent to do so. After all the man’s efforts to ascertain what money he had, he was actually afraid the fellow would attack him, and attempt to search his pockets. There were brigands in Spain,—at least, a party had been recently robbed by some in the south; and there might be pirates as well. So confident was the passenger of the evil intentions of Filipe, that he believed, if he was not robbed, it would be because the man supposed he had no more money than he had shown him. He kept his eye on a spare tiller in the boat, which he meant to use in self-defence if the occasion should require.Just before dark Bill and Bark, having slept off the effect of the wine, awoke, and came out of the cuddy. Filipe proposed that they should have supper before dark, and ordered Juan to bring out the hamper. Raimundo did not want any supper, and refused to eat or drink. Bark and Bill were not hungry, and also declined. Then the skipper urged them to drink.“Don’t taste another drop,” said Raimundo earnestly. “That man means mischief.”“Do you mean to insult me?” demanded Filipe, fixing a savage scowl upon Raimundo.It was plain enough now that the man understood English, though he had not yet spoken a word of it, and had refused to answer when spoken to in that language.At the same time he left the helm, which Juan took as though he was beside his father for that purpose. Raimundo leaped from his seat, with the tiller in his hand; for he had kept his place where he could lay his hand upon it.“Stand by me!” shouted he to his companions.Filipe rushed upon Raimundo, and attempted to seize him by the throat. The young officer struck at him with the tiller, but did not hit him. He dodged the blow; but it fanned his wrath to the highest pitch. Raimundo saw him thrust his hand into his breast-pocket; and he was sure there was a knife there. He raised his club again; but at this instant Bark Lingall threw his arms around the boatman’s throat, and, jamming his knees into his back, brought him down on his face in the bottom of the boat.“Hold him down! don’t let him up!” cried Raimundo.Bark was a stout fellow; and he held on, in spite of the struggles of the Spaniard. At this moment Juan left the tiller, and rushed forward to take a hand in the conflict, now that his father had got the worst of it. He had a knife in his hand, and Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down with the heavy tiller; and he lay senseless in the bottom of the felucca. The young officer then went to the assistance of Bark Lingall; and, in a few minutes more, they had bound the skipper hand and foot, and lashed him down to the floor.

THE CRUISE IN THE FELUCCA.

Raimundowas very much disgusted when he found that Bill Stout and Bark Lingall were to be the companions of his flight. Thus far he had felt that his conduct was justifiable. His uncle Manuel had taught him to believe that his guardian intended to “put him out of the way.” Don Alejandro had not actually attempted to do any thing of this kind, so far as was known; and no case could be made out against him. Don Manuel did not mean that he should have an opportunity to attempt any thing of the kind. Certainly it was safer to keep out of his way, than to tempt him to do a deed which his own brother believed he was capable of doing. Raimundo thought Don Manuel was right: indeed, he could remember enough of Don Alejandro’s treatment of him before he left Barcelona, to convince him of his guardian’s intentions.

But when he found himself in the boat, escaping from the Tritonia with two of the worst “scalliwags” of the crew, the case seemed to present a different aspect to him. He realized that he was in bad company; and he felt contaminated by their presence, Yet he did not see how he could help himself. The onlyway he could get out of the scrape was to surrender to the chief steward, and in due time be handed over to the agent of his guardian. Whether he was correct or not in his estimate of his uncle’s character, he was sincere in his belief that Don Alejandro intended to do him harm, even to the sacrificing of his life. Independently of his personal fears, he did not think it would be right to give himself up to one who might be tempted to do an evil deed. He concluded to make the best of the situation, and as soon as possible to get rid of his disagreeable companions.

“Where shall we go, Raimundo?” asked Bill Stout, as confidentially as though he had been a part of the enterprise from the beginning.

“We must go on shore, of course,” replied the young Spaniard, who was not yet sufficiently reconciled to the situation to be very cordial.

More than this, he had not yet considered what his course should be when he had left the vessel; but it occurred to him, as Bill asked the question, that thealguacil, whose action had been fully reported to him by Hugo, might be watching the vessel from the shore. Raimundo looked about him to get a better idea of the situation. The wind was from the north-west, which swung the Prince so that she lay between the Tritonia and the landing-place, and hid her hull from the view of any one on the city side.

“I think we had better not land at any of the usual places,” suggested Bark. “Marline, Rimmer, and all the rest of the forward officers, are in charge of the boats at the principal landing.”

“I had no idea of going to the city. It would notbe safe for me to show my face there,” answered Raimundo; and he directed the boatman to pull to the Barceloneta side of the port, and in such a direction as to keep in the shadow of the vessels of the fleet.

The man offered to land them at a more convenient place; but Raimundo insisted upon going to the point indicated. Very likely the boatman suspected that his passengers were not leaving the vessel to which they belonged in a perfectly regular manner; but probably this would not make any difference to him, as long as he was well paid for his services. Presently the boat grounded on some rocks at the foot of the sea-wall, which rose high above them. As usual the boatman was anxious to obtain another job; and he offered to take them to any point they wished to go to.

“I will take you back to your ship when you are ready to go,” continued the man with a smile, and a twinkle of the eye, which was enough to show that he did not believe they intended to return.

Raimundo replied that they had no further use for the boat that day.

“I have a big boat like that,” persisted the man, pointing to a felucca which was sailing down the bay.

The craft indicated was about thirty feet long, and carried a large lateen sail.

“Where is she?” asked Raimundo, with interest.

The man pointed up the harbor, and said he could have her ready in a few minutes.

“Do you go out to sea in her?”

“Oh, yes! go to Majorca in her,” replied the boatman, quite excited at the prospect of a large job.

“Can you take us to Tarragona in her?” continuedthe young Spaniard, to whom the felucca suggested the best means of getting away from Barcelona.

“Certainly I can: there is no trouble about it.”

“How much shall you charge to take us there?”

“It is fifteen leagues to Tarragona,” replied the boatman, who proceeded to magnify the difficulties of the enterprise as soon as the price was demanded.

“Very well: we can go by the railroad,” added Raimundo, who fully comprehended the object of the man.

“Your officers will see you if you go into the city,” said the boatman, with a cunning smile.

There was no longer any doubt that the fellow fully comprehended the situation, but the fugitive saw that he would not betray them; for, if he did, he would lose the job, which he evidently intended should be a profitable one.

“Name your price,” he added; and he was willing to pay liberally for the service he desired.

“Five hundredreales,” answered the man.

“Do you think we have so much money?” laughed the fugitive. “We can’t make a bargain with you.”

“What will you give?” asked the boatman.

“Two hundredreales.”

After considerable haggling, the bargain was struck at three hundredreales, or fifteen dollars; and this was less than the fugitive had expected to pay. The rest of the arrangements were readily made. Filipe, for this was the name he gave, was afraid his passengers would be captured while he went for his felucca; and, keeping in the shadow of the sea-wall, he pulled them around the point on which the old light-house stands, and landed them on some rocks under the wall.In this position they could not be seen from the vessels of the fleet, or from the landing-place on the other side, while the high wall concealed them from any person on the shore who did not take the trouble to look over at them.

“We shall want something to eat,” said Raimundo, as the boatman was about to leave them. “Take this, and buy as much bread and cold meat as you can with it.”

Raimundo handed him three dollars in Spanish silver, which Hugo had obtained for him. The large sum of money he had was in Spanish gold, obtained in Genoa. He had a few dollars in silver left for small expenses.

“What are we here for?” asked Bill Stout, who, of course, had not understood a word of the conversation of his companion and the boatman.

Both he and Bark had asked half a dozen times what they were talking about; but Raimundo had not answered them.

“What has been going on between you and that fellow all this time?” asked Bill, in a tone so imperative that the young officer did not like it at all.

“I have made a bargain with him to take us to Tarragona,” replied Raimundo coldly.

“And did not say a word to Bark and me about it!” exclaimed Bill.

“If you don’t like it you need not go. I did not invite you to come with me.”

“Did not invite me!” sneered Bill. “I know you didn’t; but we are in the party, and want you to understand that we are no longer under your orders. You needn’t take it upon yourself to make arrangements for me.”

“I made the arrangement for myself, and I don’t ask you to go with me,” answered Raimundo with dignity.

“Come, come! Bill, dry up!” interposed Bark. “Do you want to make a row now before we are fairly out of the vessel?”

“I got out of the vessel to get clear of those snobs of officers, and I am not going to have one of them lording it over me here.”

“Nonsense! He hasn’t done any thing that you can find fault with,” added Bark.

“He has made a trade with that boatman to take us somewhere without saying a word to us about it,” blustered Bill. “I want to put a check on that sort of thing in the beginning.”

“He has done just the right thing. If we had been alone we could not have managed the matter at all.”

“I could have managed it well enough myself.”

“You can’t speak a word of Spanish, nor I either.”

“I don’t even know where that place is—Dragona—or whatever it is,” growled Bill.

“I am not to blame for your ignorance,” said Raimundo. “You heard every thing that was said; and, if you don’t like it, I am willing to get along without you.”

“Come, Bill; we must not get up a row. Raimundo has done the right thing, and for one I am very much obliged to him,” continued Bark.

“He might have told us what he was about,” added Bill, somewhat appeased by the words of his fellow-conspirator.

“We had no time to spare; and he could not stop to tell the whole story twice over.”

“Where is the place we are going to?” demanded Bill in the same sulky tone.

“Tarragona, a seaport town, south of here. How far is it, Mr. Raimundo?”

“About fifty miles.”

“Will you tell us now, if you please, what arrangements you made with the boatman?” continued Bark, doing his best to smooth the ruffled feelings of the young Spaniard.

“Certainly I will; but I want to say in the first place that I had rather return to the Tritonia at once than be bullied by Stout or by anybody else. I don’t put on any airs, and I mean to treat everybody like a gentleman. I am a Spaniard, and I will not be insulted by any one,” said Raimundo, with as much dignity as an hidalgo in Castile.

“I didn’t mean to insult you,” said Bill mildly.

“Let it pass; but, if it is repeated, we part company at once, whatever the consequences,” added Raimundo, who then proceeded to explain what had passed between Filipe and himself.

The plan was entirely satisfactory to Bark; and so it was to Bill, though he had not the grace to say so. The villain had an itching to be the leader of whatever was going on himself; and he was very much afraid that the late second master of the Tritonia would usurp this office if he did not make himself felt in the beginning. He was rather cowed by the lofty stand Raimundo had taken; and he had come to the conclusion that he had better wait till the expedition was a little farther along before he attempted to assert himself again.

“Have you any money?” asked Raimundo, when he had finished his explanation.

“Yes. Both of us have money; and we will pay our share of the cost of the boat,” replied Bark, who was ten times more of a man than his companion in mischief.

“Is it Spanish money?”

“No, not any of it. I have seven English sovereigns in gold, and some silver. Bill has twelve sovereigns. I can draw over eighty pounds on my letter of credit; and Bill can get fifty on his.”

“I only wanted to know what ready money you had,” added Raimundo. “You must not say a word about money when we get into the felucca.”

“Why not?” asked Bill, in his surly way, as though he was disposed to make another issue on this point.

“I don’t know the boatman; and it is very likely he may have another man with him. There he comes, and there is another man with him,” replied Raimundo, as the felucca appeared off the light-house. “If you should show them any large sum of money, or let them know you had it, they might be tempted to throw us overboard for the sake of getting it. Of course, I don’t know that they would do any thing of the kind; but it is best to be on the safe side.”

“Some of these Spaniards would cut a man’s throat for half a dollar,” added Bill.

“So would some Americans; and they do it in New York sometimes,” replied Raimundo warmly. “I repeat it: don’t say a word about money.”

“The men in the boat cannot understand us if we do,” suggested Bark.

“They may speak English, for aught I know.”

“The one you talked with could not.”

“I don’t know about that. I did not try him in English. We must all pretend that we have very little money, whether we do it in English or in Spanish. When Filipe—that’s his name—asked me five hundredrealesfor taking us to Tarragona, I said that I had not so much money.”

“And that was a lie; wasn’t it?” sneered Bill.

“If it was, it is on my conscience, and not yours; and it may be a lie that will save your life and mine,” answered Raimundo sharply.

“I don’t object to the lie; but I thought you, one of the parson’s lambs, did object to such things,” chuckled Bill.

“I hate a lie: I think falsehood is mean and ungentlemanly; but I believe there is a wide difference between a lie told to a sick man, or to prevent a boatman from being tempted to cut your throat, and a lie told to save you from the consequences of your own misconduct.”

“Well, you needn’t preach: we are not chaplain’s lambs,” growled Bill.

“Neither am I,” added Raimundo. “I am what they call a Christian in Spain, and that is a Roman Catholic. But here is the felucca. Now mind what I have said, for your own safety.”

Filipe ran the bow of his craft up to the rocks on which the fugitives were standing, and they leaped on board of her. The boatman’s assistant shoved her off, and in a moment more she was driving down the harbor before the fresh breeze. The second man in the boatwas not more than twenty years old, while Filipe was apparently about forty-five. He introduced his companion as his son, and said his name was John (Juan).

At the suggestion of Raimundo, the fugitives coiled themselves away in the bottom of the felucca, so that no inquisitive glass on board of the vessels or on the shore should reveal their presence to any one that wanted them. In this position they had an opportunity to examine the craft that was to convey them out of the reach of danger, as they hoped and believed. She was not so large as the craft that Filipe had pointed out as the model of his own; but she carried two sails, and was decked over forward so as to form quite a roomy cuddy. She was pointed at both ends, and sailed like a yacht. It was about one o’clock when the party went on board of her, and at her present rate of speed she would reach her destination in six or seven hours. She had the wind on her beam, and the indications were that she would have it fair all the way. There was not a cloud in the sky, and there was every promise of fair weather for the rest of the day. When the felucca had passed Monjuich, the party ventured to move about the craft, as they were no longer in danger of being seen from the city or the fleet; but they took the precaution to keep out of sight when they passed any other craft which might report them to their anxious friends in Barcelona.

“What have you got to eat, Filipe?” asked Raimundo, when the felucca was clear of the city.

“Plenty to eat and drink,” replied the skipper.

“Let me see what you have, for I am beginning to have an appetite.”

“Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down.”Page172.

“Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down.”Page172.

“Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down.”Page172.

Juan was directed to bring out the hamper of provisions his father had purchased. Certainly there were enough of them; but the quality was any thing but satisfactory. Coarse black bread, sausages that looked like Bolognas, and half a dozen bottles of cheap wine, were the principal articles in the hamper. The whole could not have cost half the money given to the boatman. But Filipe insisted that he had paid apesetamore than the sum handed him.

Raimundo inquired into this matter more because he was anxious to know about the character of the man than because he cared for the sum expended. He felt that he was, in a measure, in this man’s power; and he desired to ascertain what sort of a person he had to deal with. If he was not wicked enough to cut the throats of his passengers, or to throw them overboard for their money, he might betray them when there was no more money to be made out of them. The inquiry was not at all satisfactory in its results. Filipe had cheated him on the provisions; and Raimundo was confident that he would do so in other matters to the extent of his opportunities.

The food tasted better than it looked; and Raimundo made a hearty meal, as did all the others on board, including the boatmen. Raimundo would not drink any of the wine; but his companions did so quite freely, in spite of his caution. He noticed that Filipe urged them to drink, and seemed to be vexed when he could not induce him to taste the wine.

“Where are you going when you get to Tarragona?” asked the boatman, when the collation was disposed of.

“I think I shall go to Cadiz, and join my ship when she arrives there,” replied Raimundo.

“To Cadiz!” exclaimed Filipe. “How can you go to Cadiz when you have no money?”

Raimundo saw that he had said too much, and that the skipper wished to inquire into his finances.

“I shall get some money in Tarragona,” he replied; but he did not deem it prudent to mention his letter of credit.

Filipe continued to ply him with questions, which he evaded answering as well as he could. He did his best to produce the impression on his mind that he had no money. The boatman asked him about his companions, whether they could not let him have all the money he wanted to enable him to reach Cadiz. Why did they leave their ship if they had no money? How did he expect to get money in Tarragona?

“How do I know that you will pay me if you are so poor?” demanded Filipe, evidently much vexed at the result of his inquiry.

“I have money enough to pay you, and a few dollars more,” replied Raimundo.

“I don’t know: I think you had better pay me now, before I go any farther.”

“No, I will not pay you till we get to Tarragona,” replied the young Spaniard.

“I don’t know that you have money enough to pay me,” persisted the boatman.

Raimundo took from his pocket the three isabelinos he had reserved for the purpose of paying for the boat, with the silver he had left, and showed them to the rapacious skipper.

“That will convince you that I have the money,” said he, as he returned the gold and silver to his pocket.

He resolutely refused to pay for the boat till her work was done. By this time Bill and Bark, overcome by the wine they had drunk, were fast asleep in the cuddy where they had gone at the invitation of the boatman. Raimundo was inclined to join them; but the skipper was a treacherous fellow, and it was not prudent to do so. After all the man’s efforts to ascertain what money he had, he was actually afraid the fellow would attack him, and attempt to search his pockets. There were brigands in Spain,—at least, a party had been recently robbed by some in the south; and there might be pirates as well. So confident was the passenger of the evil intentions of Filipe, that he believed, if he was not robbed, it would be because the man supposed he had no more money than he had shown him. He kept his eye on a spare tiller in the boat, which he meant to use in self-defence if the occasion should require.

Just before dark Bill and Bark, having slept off the effect of the wine, awoke, and came out of the cuddy. Filipe proposed that they should have supper before dark, and ordered Juan to bring out the hamper. Raimundo did not want any supper, and refused to eat or drink. Bark and Bill were not hungry, and also declined. Then the skipper urged them to drink.

“Don’t taste another drop,” said Raimundo earnestly. “That man means mischief.”

“Do you mean to insult me?” demanded Filipe, fixing a savage scowl upon Raimundo.

It was plain enough now that the man understood English, though he had not yet spoken a word of it, and had refused to answer when spoken to in that language.At the same time he left the helm, which Juan took as though he was beside his father for that purpose. Raimundo leaped from his seat, with the tiller in his hand; for he had kept his place where he could lay his hand upon it.

“Stand by me!” shouted he to his companions.

Filipe rushed upon Raimundo, and attempted to seize him by the throat. The young officer struck at him with the tiller, but did not hit him. He dodged the blow; but it fanned his wrath to the highest pitch. Raimundo saw him thrust his hand into his breast-pocket; and he was sure there was a knife there. He raised his club again; but at this instant Bark Lingall threw his arms around the boatman’s throat, and, jamming his knees into his back, brought him down on his face in the bottom of the boat.

“Hold him down! don’t let him up!” cried Raimundo.

Bark was a stout fellow; and he held on, in spite of the struggles of the Spaniard. At this moment Juan left the tiller, and rushed forward to take a hand in the conflict, now that his father had got the worst of it. He had a knife in his hand, and Raimundo did not hesitate to strike him down with the heavy tiller; and he lay senseless in the bottom of the felucca. The young officer then went to the assistance of Bark Lingall; and, in a few minutes more, they had bound the skipper hand and foot, and lashed him down to the floor.

CHAPTER XII.SIGHTS IN MADRID.Afteran early breakfast—early for Spain—the students were assembled in a large hall provided by the landlord; and Professor Mapps gave the usual lesson relating to the city they were visiting:—“The population of Madrid has fallen off from about four hundred thousand to the neighborhood of three hundred thousand. The city was in existence in the tenth century, but was not of much account till the sixteenth, when Charles V. took up his residence here. Toledo was at that time the capital, as about every prominent city of Spain had been before. In 1560 Philip III. made Madrid the sole capital of the country; and it has held this distinction down to this day, though Philip II. tried to move it to Valladolid. It is twenty-two hundred feet above the level of the sea; and the cutting off of all the trees in the vicinity—and I may add in all Spain—has injuriously affected the climate. This region has been said to have but two seasons,—‘nine months of winter, and three months of hell.’ If it is very cold in winter, it is probably by comparison with the southern part of the peninsula. Like many other cities of Spain, Madrid has been captured by the English and the French.”Though the professor had much more to say, we shall report only these few sentences. The students hastened out to see the city; and the surgeon took the captain and the first lieutenant under his wing, as usual. They went into thePuerta del Sol,—the Gate of the Sun. Most of the city in early days lay west of this point, so that its eastern gate was where the centre now is. As the sun first shone on this gate, it was called the gate of the sun. Though the gate is gone, the place where it was located still retains the name. It is nearly in the shape of an ellipse; and most of the principal streets radiate from it. It usually presents a very lively scene, by day or by night. It is always full of peddlers of matches, newspapers, lottery-tickets, and other merchandise.“Where shall we go?” said the doctor.“We will leave that to you,” replied Sheridan. “You know the ropes in this ship, and we don’t.”“I think we will go first to the royal palace; and we had better take aberlina, as they call it here.”“Aberlina? Is it a pill?” asked Murray.“No; it is a carriage,” laughed the doctor. “Do you see that one with a tin sign on the corner, with ‘se alquila’ painted on it? That means that the vehicle is not engaged.”Theberlinawas called, and the party were driven down theCalla del Arenalto the palace. It is a magnificent building, one of the finest in Europe, towering far above every thing else in the city. It is the most sightly structure in Madrid. In front of it is thePlaza del Oriente, and in the rear are extensive gardens, reaching down to the Manzanares. On the right of it arethe royal stables, and on the left is the royal armory.“When I was in Madrid, in the time of the late queen, no one was admitted to the palace because some vandal tourists had damaged the frescos and marbles,” said Dr. Winstock. “But for the last year it has been opened. Your uniform and my passport will open the doors to us.”“What has the uniform to do with it?” asked Murray.“A uniform is generally respected in Europe; for it indicates that those who wear it hold some naval or military office.”“We don’t hold any such office,” added Sheridan.“But you are officers of a very respectable institution.”As the doctor anticipated, admission was readily obtained; and the trio were conducted all over the palace, not excepting the apartments of the late queen. There is nothing especially noteworthy about it, for it was not unlike a score of other palaces the party had visited.In the stables, the party saw the state coaches; but, as they had seen so many royal carriages, they were more interested in an American buggy because it looked like home. The doctor pointed out the old coach in which Crazy Jane carried about with her the body of her dead husband. The provisional government had sold off most of the horses and mules. In the yard is a bath for horses.From the stables the trio went to the armory, which contains many objects of interest. The suits of armorare kept as clean and nice as they were when in use. Those worn by Charles V. and Philip II. were examined with much care; but there seemed to be no marks of any hard knocks on them. At the head of the room stands a figure of St. Ferdinand, dressed in regal robes, with a golden crown on the head and a sword in the hand, which is borne in solemn procession to the royal chapel by priests, on the 29th of May, and is kept there two weeks to receive the homage of the people.In another room is a great variety of articles of historic interest, among which may be mentioned the steel writing-desk of Charles V., the armor he wore when he entered Tunis, his camp-stool and bed, and, above all, the steel armor, ornamented with gold, that was worn by Columbus. In the collection of swords were those of the principal kings, the great captain, and other heroes.“There is the armor of Isabella, which she wore at the siege of Granada,” said the doctor.“Did she fight?” asked Murray.“No more than her husband. Both were sovereigns in their own right; and it was the fashion to wear these things.”“Very likely she had this on when Columbus called to see her at Granada,” suggested Sheridan.“I don’t know about that. I fancy she did not wear it in the house, but only when she presented herself before the army,” replied the doctor.The party spent a long time in this building, so interested were the young men in viewing these memorials of the past grandeur of Spain. After dinner they went to the naval museum, which is near the armory.It contains a great number of naval relics, models of historic vessels, captured flags, and similar mementos of the past. The chart of Columbus was particularly interesting to the students from the New World. There are several historical paintings, representing scenes in the lives of Cortes, Pizarro, and De Soto. A portrait of Columbus is flanked on each side by those of the sovereigns who patronized him.“This is a beautiful day,” said Dr. Winstock, as they left the museum. “They call it very cold here, when the mercury falls below the freezing point. It does not often get below twenty-four, and seldom so low as that. I think the glass to-day is as high as fifty-five.”“I call it a warm day for winter,” added Sheridan.“But the air of this city is very subtle. It will kill a man, the Spaniards say, when it will not blow out a candle. I think we had better take aberlina, and ride over to thePrado. The day is so fine that we may possibly see some of the summer glories of the place.”“What are they?” asked Murray.“To me they are the people who walk there; but of course the place is the pleasantest when the trees and shrubs are in foliage.”Aberlinawas called, and the party drove through theCalle Mayor, thePuerta del Sol, and theCalle de Alcala, which form a continuous street, the broadest and finest in Madrid, from the palace to the Prado, which are on opposite sides of the city. A continuation of this street forms one end of thePrado; and another of theCalle de Atocha, a broad avenue reaching from thePlaza Mayor, near the palace, forms the other end.These are the two widest streets of Madrid. TheCalle de Alcalais wide enough to be called a boulevard, and contains some of the finest buildings in the city.“That must be the bull-ring,” said Sheridan, as the party came in sight of an immense circular building. “I have read that it will hold twelve thousand people.”“Some say sixteen thousand; but I think it would not take long to count all it would hold above ten thousand. Philip V. did not like bull-fights, and he tried to do away with them; but the spectacle is the national sport, and the king made himself very unpopular by attempting to abolish it. As a stroke of policy, to regain his popularity, he built thisPlaza de Toros. It is what you see; but it is open to the weather in the middle; and all bull-fights are held, ‘Si el tiempo no lo impide’ (if the weather does not prevent it). This is thePuerta de Alcala,” continued the doctor, pointing to a triumphal arch about seventy feet high, built by Charles III. “The gardens on the right are the ‘Buen Retiro,’ pleasant retreat. Now we will turn, and go through thePrado, though all this open space is often called by this name.”“But what is the ‘pleasant retreat’?”“It is a sort of park and garden, not very attractive at that, with a pond, a menagerie, and an observatory. It is not worth the trouble of a visit,” added the doctor, as he directed the driver to turn theberlina.“I have often seen a picture of that statue,” said Sheridan, as they passed a piece of sculpture representing a female seated on a chariot drawn by lions.“That is the Cybele.”“Who is she?”“Wife of Saturn, and mother of the gods,” replied Sheridan.“This is theSalon del Prado” continued the doctor, as the carriage turned to the left into an avenue two hundred feet wide. “There are plenty of people here, and I think we had better get out and walk, if you are not too tired; for you want to see the people.”Theberlinawas dismissed, and the party joined the throng ofMadrileños. Dr. Winstock called the attention of his young friends to three ladies who were approaching them. They wore the mantilla, which is a long black lace veil, worn as a head-dress, but falling in graceful folds below the hips. The ladies—except the high class, fashionable people—wear no bonnets. The mantilla is a national costume, and the fan is a national institution among them. They manage the latter, as well as the former, with peculiar grace; and it has even been said that they flirt with it, being able to express their sentiments by its aid.“But these ladies are not half so pretty as I supposed the Spanish women were,” said Murray.“That only proves that you supposed they were handsomer than they are,” laughed Sheridan.“They are not so handsome here as in Cadiz and Seville, I grant,” added the doctor; “but still I think they are not bad looking.”“I will agree to that,” replied Murray. “They are good-looking women, and that’s all you can say of them.”“Probably you have got some extravagant ideas about Spanish girls from the novels you have read,” laughed the doctor; “and it is not likely that yourideal beauty will be realized, even in Cadiz and Seville. Here is theDos de Mayo.”“Who’s she?” asked Murray, looking rather vacantly at a granite obelisk in the middle of an enclosed garden.“It is not a woman,” replied the doctor.“Excuse me; I think you said a dose of something,” added Murray.“That monument has the name of ‘El Dos de Mayo,’ which means ‘the second of May.’ It commemorates a battle fought on this spot in 1808 by the peasants, headed by three artillerymen, and the French. The ground enclosed is called ‘The Field of Loyalty.’”“What is this long building ahead?” inquired Sheridan.“That’s the Royal Museum, which contains the richest collection of paintings in Europe.”“Isn’t that putting it pretty strong, after what we have seen in Italy and Germany?” asked Sheridan.“I don’t say the largest or the best-arranged collection in Europe, but the richest. It has more of the old masters, of the best and most valuable pictures in the world, than any other museum. We will go there to-morrow, and you can judge for yourselves.”“Of course we are competent to do that,” added Murray with a laugh.“We haven’t been to any churches yet, doctor,” said Sheridan.“There are many churches in Madrid, but none of any great interest. The city has no cathedral.”“I am thankful for that!” exclaimed Murray. “I have seen churches enough, though of course I shall go to the great cathedrals when we come to them.”“You will be spared in Madrid. Philip II. was asked to erect one; but he would appropriate only a small sum for the purpose, because he did not wish any church to rival that of the Escurial.”“I am grateful to him,” added Murray.“The Atocha church contains an image which is among the most venerated in Spain. It works miracles, and was carved by St. Luke.”“Another job by St. Luke!” exclaimed Murray.“That is hardly respectful to an image whose magnificent dress and rich jewels would build half a score of cheap churches.”“Are there any theatres in Madrid, doctor?” asked Murray.“Of course there are; half a dozen of them. The principal is the Royal Theatre, near the palace, where the performance is Italian opera. It is large enough to hold two thousand; but there is nothing Spanish about it. If you want to see the Spanish theatre you must go to some of the smaller ones. As you don’t understand Spanish, I think you will not enjoy it.”“I want to see the customs of the country.”“The only custom you will see will be smoking; and you can see that anywhere, except in the churches, where alone, I believe, it is not permitted. Everybody smokes, even the women and children. I have seen a youngster not more than five years old struggling with acigarillo; and I suppose it made him sick before he got through with it; at least, I hope it did, for the nausea is nature’s protest against the practice.”“But do the ladies smoke?”“Not in public; but in private many of them do. I have seen some very pretty girls smoking in Spain.”“I don’t remember that I have seen a man drunk in Spain,” said Sheridan.“Probably you have not; I never did. The Spaniards are very temperate.”This long talk brought the party back to the hotel just at dark. The next day was Sunday; but many of the students visited the churches, though most of them were willing to make it a day of rest, in the strictest sense of the word. On Monday morning, as the museum did not open till one o’clock, the doctor and hisprotégéstook aberlina, and rode out to the palace of the Marquis of Salamanca, where they were permitted to explore this elegant residence without restraint. In one of the apartments they saw a large picture of the Landing of the Pilgrims, by a Spanish artist; and it was certainly a strange subject. Connected with the palace is a museum of antiquities quite extensive for a private individual to own. The Pompeian rooms contain a vast quantity of articles from the buried city.“Who is this Marquis of Salamanca?” asked Sheridan, as they started on their return.“He is a Spanish nobleman, a grandee of Spain I suppose, who is somewhat noted as a financier. He has invested some money in railroads in the United States. The town of Salamanca, at the junction of the Erie and Great Western, in Western New York, was named after him,” replied Dr. Winstock.“I have been through the place,” added Sheridan.“This is not a very luxurious neighborhood,” said Murray, when they came to one of those villages of poor people, of which there were several just outside of the city.“Generally in Europe the rich are very rich, and the poor are very poor. Though the rich are not as rich in Spain as in some other countries, there is no exception to the rule in its application to the poor. These hovels are even worse than the homes of the poor in Russia. Wouldn’t you like to look into one of them?”“Would it be considered rude for us to do so?” asked Sheridan.“Not at all. These people are not so sensitive as poor folks in America; but, if they are hurt by our curiosity, a couple ofrealeswill repair all the damages.”“Is this achâteau en Espagne?” said Murray. “I have read about such things, but I never saw one before.”“Châteaux en Espagneare castles in the air,—things unreal and unsubstantial; and, so far as the idea of comfort is concerned, this is achâteau en Espagne. When we were in Ireland, an old woman ran out of a far worse shanty than this, and, calling it an Irish castle, begged for money. In the same sense we may call this a Spanish castle.”The carriage was stopped, and the party alighted.“You see, the people live out-doors, even in the winter,” said the doctor. “The door of this house is wide open, and you can look in.”The proprietor of the establishment stood near the door. He wore his cloak with as much style as though he had been an hidalgo. Under this garment his clothes were ragged and dirty; and he wore a pair of spatterdashes, most of the buttons of which were wanting, and it was only at a pinch that they staid on his ankles. His wife and four children stopped their work, or theirplay, as the case was, and gazed at the unwonted visitors.“Buenos dias, caballero,” said the doctor, as politely as though he had been saluting a grandee.The man replied no less politely.“May we look into your house?” asked the doctor.“Esta muy a la disposicion de usted,” replied thecaballero(it is entirely at your disposal).This is acosa de España. If you speak of any thing a Spaniard has, he makes you a present of it, be it his house or his horse, or any thing else; but you are not expected to avail yourself of his generosity. It would be as impolite to take him at his word as it would be for him not to place it “at your disposal.”The house was of one story, and had but one door and one window, the latter very small indeed. The floor was of cobble-stones bedded in the mud. The little window was nothing but a hole; there was no glass in it; and the doctor said, that, when the weather was bad, the occupants had to close the door, and put a shutter over the window, so that they had no light. The interior was divided into two rooms, one containing a bed. Every thing was as simple as possible. The roof of the shanty was covered with tile which looked like broken flower-pots. In front, for use in the summer, was an attempt at a veranda, with vines running up the posts.The doctor gave the smallest of the children apeseta, and bade the man a stately adieu, which was answered with dignity enough for an ambassador. The party drove off, glad to have seen the interior of a Spanish house.“Why did you give the money to the child instead of the father?” asked Sheridan.“I suppose your experience in other parts of Europe would not help you to believe it, but the average Spaniard who is not a professional beggar is too proud to receive money for any small favor,” replied the doctor. “I have had apesetaindignantly refused by a man who had rendered me a small service. This is as strange as it is true, though, when you come to ride on adiligencia, you will find that driver, postilion, andzagalwill do their best to get a gratuity out of you. I speak only of the Spaniard who does you a favor, and not those with whom you deal; but, as a general rule, the people are too proud to cheat you.”“They are very odd sort of people,” added Murray. “There is one shovelling with his cloak on.”“Not an unusual sight. I have seen a man ploughing in the field with his cloak on, and that on a rather warm day. You notice here that the houses are not scattered as they are with us; but even these shanties are built in villages,” continued the doctor.“I noticed that the houses were all in villages in all the country we have come through since we left Barcelona,” said Murray.“Can you explain the reason?”“I do not see any reason except that is the fashion of the country.”“There is a better reason than that. In early days the people had to live in villages in order to be able to defend themselves from enemies. In Spain the custom never changes, if isolated houses are even safe at the present time.”“What is that sheet of paper hanging on the balcony for?” asked Murray. “There is another; and now I can see half a dozen of them.” Theberlinawas within a short distance of thePuerta del Sol.“A sheet of white paper in the middle of the balcony signifies that the people have rooms to let; if at the corner, they take boarders.”The party arrived at the hotel in season for dinner; and, when it was over, they hastened to theMuseo, or picture-gallery. The building is very long, and of no particular architectural effect. It has ten apartments on the principal floor, in which are placed the gems of the collection. In the centre of the edifice is a very long room which contains the burden of the paintings. There are over two thousand of them, and they are the property of the Crown. Among them are sixty-two by Rubens, fifty-three by Teniers, ten by Raphael, forty-six by Murillo, sixty-four by Velasquez, twenty-two by Van Dyck, forty-three by Titian, thirty-four by Tintoretto, twenty-five by Paul Veronese, and hundreds by other masters hardly less celebrated.The doctor’s party spent three hours among these pictures, and they went to the museum for the same time the next day; for they could better appreciate these gems than most of the students, many of whom were not willing to use a single hour in looking at them. Our party visited the public buildings, and took many rides and walks in the city and its vicinity, which we have not the space to report. On Wednesday morning the ship’s company started for Toledo.

SIGHTS IN MADRID.

Afteran early breakfast—early for Spain—the students were assembled in a large hall provided by the landlord; and Professor Mapps gave the usual lesson relating to the city they were visiting:—

“The population of Madrid has fallen off from about four hundred thousand to the neighborhood of three hundred thousand. The city was in existence in the tenth century, but was not of much account till the sixteenth, when Charles V. took up his residence here. Toledo was at that time the capital, as about every prominent city of Spain had been before. In 1560 Philip III. made Madrid the sole capital of the country; and it has held this distinction down to this day, though Philip II. tried to move it to Valladolid. It is twenty-two hundred feet above the level of the sea; and the cutting off of all the trees in the vicinity—and I may add in all Spain—has injuriously affected the climate. This region has been said to have but two seasons,—‘nine months of winter, and three months of hell.’ If it is very cold in winter, it is probably by comparison with the southern part of the peninsula. Like many other cities of Spain, Madrid has been captured by the English and the French.”

Though the professor had much more to say, we shall report only these few sentences. The students hastened out to see the city; and the surgeon took the captain and the first lieutenant under his wing, as usual. They went into thePuerta del Sol,—the Gate of the Sun. Most of the city in early days lay west of this point, so that its eastern gate was where the centre now is. As the sun first shone on this gate, it was called the gate of the sun. Though the gate is gone, the place where it was located still retains the name. It is nearly in the shape of an ellipse; and most of the principal streets radiate from it. It usually presents a very lively scene, by day or by night. It is always full of peddlers of matches, newspapers, lottery-tickets, and other merchandise.

“Where shall we go?” said the doctor.

“We will leave that to you,” replied Sheridan. “You know the ropes in this ship, and we don’t.”

“I think we will go first to the royal palace; and we had better take aberlina, as they call it here.”

“Aberlina? Is it a pill?” asked Murray.

“No; it is a carriage,” laughed the doctor. “Do you see that one with a tin sign on the corner, with ‘se alquila’ painted on it? That means that the vehicle is not engaged.”

Theberlinawas called, and the party were driven down theCalla del Arenalto the palace. It is a magnificent building, one of the finest in Europe, towering far above every thing else in the city. It is the most sightly structure in Madrid. In front of it is thePlaza del Oriente, and in the rear are extensive gardens, reaching down to the Manzanares. On the right of it arethe royal stables, and on the left is the royal armory.

“When I was in Madrid, in the time of the late queen, no one was admitted to the palace because some vandal tourists had damaged the frescos and marbles,” said Dr. Winstock. “But for the last year it has been opened. Your uniform and my passport will open the doors to us.”

“What has the uniform to do with it?” asked Murray.

“A uniform is generally respected in Europe; for it indicates that those who wear it hold some naval or military office.”

“We don’t hold any such office,” added Sheridan.

“But you are officers of a very respectable institution.”

As the doctor anticipated, admission was readily obtained; and the trio were conducted all over the palace, not excepting the apartments of the late queen. There is nothing especially noteworthy about it, for it was not unlike a score of other palaces the party had visited.

In the stables, the party saw the state coaches; but, as they had seen so many royal carriages, they were more interested in an American buggy because it looked like home. The doctor pointed out the old coach in which Crazy Jane carried about with her the body of her dead husband. The provisional government had sold off most of the horses and mules. In the yard is a bath for horses.

From the stables the trio went to the armory, which contains many objects of interest. The suits of armorare kept as clean and nice as they were when in use. Those worn by Charles V. and Philip II. were examined with much care; but there seemed to be no marks of any hard knocks on them. At the head of the room stands a figure of St. Ferdinand, dressed in regal robes, with a golden crown on the head and a sword in the hand, which is borne in solemn procession to the royal chapel by priests, on the 29th of May, and is kept there two weeks to receive the homage of the people.

In another room is a great variety of articles of historic interest, among which may be mentioned the steel writing-desk of Charles V., the armor he wore when he entered Tunis, his camp-stool and bed, and, above all, the steel armor, ornamented with gold, that was worn by Columbus. In the collection of swords were those of the principal kings, the great captain, and other heroes.

“There is the armor of Isabella, which she wore at the siege of Granada,” said the doctor.

“Did she fight?” asked Murray.

“No more than her husband. Both were sovereigns in their own right; and it was the fashion to wear these things.”

“Very likely she had this on when Columbus called to see her at Granada,” suggested Sheridan.

“I don’t know about that. I fancy she did not wear it in the house, but only when she presented herself before the army,” replied the doctor.

The party spent a long time in this building, so interested were the young men in viewing these memorials of the past grandeur of Spain. After dinner they went to the naval museum, which is near the armory.It contains a great number of naval relics, models of historic vessels, captured flags, and similar mementos of the past. The chart of Columbus was particularly interesting to the students from the New World. There are several historical paintings, representing scenes in the lives of Cortes, Pizarro, and De Soto. A portrait of Columbus is flanked on each side by those of the sovereigns who patronized him.

“This is a beautiful day,” said Dr. Winstock, as they left the museum. “They call it very cold here, when the mercury falls below the freezing point. It does not often get below twenty-four, and seldom so low as that. I think the glass to-day is as high as fifty-five.”

“I call it a warm day for winter,” added Sheridan.

“But the air of this city is very subtle. It will kill a man, the Spaniards say, when it will not blow out a candle. I think we had better take aberlina, and ride over to thePrado. The day is so fine that we may possibly see some of the summer glories of the place.”

“What are they?” asked Murray.

“To me they are the people who walk there; but of course the place is the pleasantest when the trees and shrubs are in foliage.”

Aberlinawas called, and the party drove through theCalle Mayor, thePuerta del Sol, and theCalle de Alcala, which form a continuous street, the broadest and finest in Madrid, from the palace to the Prado, which are on opposite sides of the city. A continuation of this street forms one end of thePrado; and another of theCalle de Atocha, a broad avenue reaching from thePlaza Mayor, near the palace, forms the other end.These are the two widest streets of Madrid. TheCalle de Alcalais wide enough to be called a boulevard, and contains some of the finest buildings in the city.

“That must be the bull-ring,” said Sheridan, as the party came in sight of an immense circular building. “I have read that it will hold twelve thousand people.”

“Some say sixteen thousand; but I think it would not take long to count all it would hold above ten thousand. Philip V. did not like bull-fights, and he tried to do away with them; but the spectacle is the national sport, and the king made himself very unpopular by attempting to abolish it. As a stroke of policy, to regain his popularity, he built thisPlaza de Toros. It is what you see; but it is open to the weather in the middle; and all bull-fights are held, ‘Si el tiempo no lo impide’ (if the weather does not prevent it). This is thePuerta de Alcala,” continued the doctor, pointing to a triumphal arch about seventy feet high, built by Charles III. “The gardens on the right are the ‘Buen Retiro,’ pleasant retreat. Now we will turn, and go through thePrado, though all this open space is often called by this name.”

“But what is the ‘pleasant retreat’?”

“It is a sort of park and garden, not very attractive at that, with a pond, a menagerie, and an observatory. It is not worth the trouble of a visit,” added the doctor, as he directed the driver to turn theberlina.

“I have often seen a picture of that statue,” said Sheridan, as they passed a piece of sculpture representing a female seated on a chariot drawn by lions.

“That is the Cybele.”

“Who is she?”

“Wife of Saturn, and mother of the gods,” replied Sheridan.

“This is theSalon del Prado” continued the doctor, as the carriage turned to the left into an avenue two hundred feet wide. “There are plenty of people here, and I think we had better get out and walk, if you are not too tired; for you want to see the people.”

Theberlinawas dismissed, and the party joined the throng ofMadrileños. Dr. Winstock called the attention of his young friends to three ladies who were approaching them. They wore the mantilla, which is a long black lace veil, worn as a head-dress, but falling in graceful folds below the hips. The ladies—except the high class, fashionable people—wear no bonnets. The mantilla is a national costume, and the fan is a national institution among them. They manage the latter, as well as the former, with peculiar grace; and it has even been said that they flirt with it, being able to express their sentiments by its aid.

“But these ladies are not half so pretty as I supposed the Spanish women were,” said Murray.

“That only proves that you supposed they were handsomer than they are,” laughed Sheridan.

“They are not so handsome here as in Cadiz and Seville, I grant,” added the doctor; “but still I think they are not bad looking.”

“I will agree to that,” replied Murray. “They are good-looking women, and that’s all you can say of them.”

“Probably you have got some extravagant ideas about Spanish girls from the novels you have read,” laughed the doctor; “and it is not likely that yourideal beauty will be realized, even in Cadiz and Seville. Here is theDos de Mayo.”

“Who’s she?” asked Murray, looking rather vacantly at a granite obelisk in the middle of an enclosed garden.

“It is not a woman,” replied the doctor.

“Excuse me; I think you said a dose of something,” added Murray.

“That monument has the name of ‘El Dos de Mayo,’ which means ‘the second of May.’ It commemorates a battle fought on this spot in 1808 by the peasants, headed by three artillerymen, and the French. The ground enclosed is called ‘The Field of Loyalty.’”

“What is this long building ahead?” inquired Sheridan.

“That’s the Royal Museum, which contains the richest collection of paintings in Europe.”

“Isn’t that putting it pretty strong, after what we have seen in Italy and Germany?” asked Sheridan.

“I don’t say the largest or the best-arranged collection in Europe, but the richest. It has more of the old masters, of the best and most valuable pictures in the world, than any other museum. We will go there to-morrow, and you can judge for yourselves.”

“Of course we are competent to do that,” added Murray with a laugh.

“We haven’t been to any churches yet, doctor,” said Sheridan.

“There are many churches in Madrid, but none of any great interest. The city has no cathedral.”

“I am thankful for that!” exclaimed Murray. “I have seen churches enough, though of course I shall go to the great cathedrals when we come to them.”

“You will be spared in Madrid. Philip II. was asked to erect one; but he would appropriate only a small sum for the purpose, because he did not wish any church to rival that of the Escurial.”

“I am grateful to him,” added Murray.

“The Atocha church contains an image which is among the most venerated in Spain. It works miracles, and was carved by St. Luke.”

“Another job by St. Luke!” exclaimed Murray.

“That is hardly respectful to an image whose magnificent dress and rich jewels would build half a score of cheap churches.”

“Are there any theatres in Madrid, doctor?” asked Murray.

“Of course there are; half a dozen of them. The principal is the Royal Theatre, near the palace, where the performance is Italian opera. It is large enough to hold two thousand; but there is nothing Spanish about it. If you want to see the Spanish theatre you must go to some of the smaller ones. As you don’t understand Spanish, I think you will not enjoy it.”

“I want to see the customs of the country.”

“The only custom you will see will be smoking; and you can see that anywhere, except in the churches, where alone, I believe, it is not permitted. Everybody smokes, even the women and children. I have seen a youngster not more than five years old struggling with acigarillo; and I suppose it made him sick before he got through with it; at least, I hope it did, for the nausea is nature’s protest against the practice.”

“But do the ladies smoke?”

“Not in public; but in private many of them do. I have seen some very pretty girls smoking in Spain.”

“I don’t remember that I have seen a man drunk in Spain,” said Sheridan.

“Probably you have not; I never did. The Spaniards are very temperate.”

This long talk brought the party back to the hotel just at dark. The next day was Sunday; but many of the students visited the churches, though most of them were willing to make it a day of rest, in the strictest sense of the word. On Monday morning, as the museum did not open till one o’clock, the doctor and hisprotégéstook aberlina, and rode out to the palace of the Marquis of Salamanca, where they were permitted to explore this elegant residence without restraint. In one of the apartments they saw a large picture of the Landing of the Pilgrims, by a Spanish artist; and it was certainly a strange subject. Connected with the palace is a museum of antiquities quite extensive for a private individual to own. The Pompeian rooms contain a vast quantity of articles from the buried city.

“Who is this Marquis of Salamanca?” asked Sheridan, as they started on their return.

“He is a Spanish nobleman, a grandee of Spain I suppose, who is somewhat noted as a financier. He has invested some money in railroads in the United States. The town of Salamanca, at the junction of the Erie and Great Western, in Western New York, was named after him,” replied Dr. Winstock.

“I have been through the place,” added Sheridan.

“This is not a very luxurious neighborhood,” said Murray, when they came to one of those villages of poor people, of which there were several just outside of the city.

“Generally in Europe the rich are very rich, and the poor are very poor. Though the rich are not as rich in Spain as in some other countries, there is no exception to the rule in its application to the poor. These hovels are even worse than the homes of the poor in Russia. Wouldn’t you like to look into one of them?”

“Would it be considered rude for us to do so?” asked Sheridan.

“Not at all. These people are not so sensitive as poor folks in America; but, if they are hurt by our curiosity, a couple ofrealeswill repair all the damages.”

“Is this achâteau en Espagne?” said Murray. “I have read about such things, but I never saw one before.”

“Châteaux en Espagneare castles in the air,—things unreal and unsubstantial; and, so far as the idea of comfort is concerned, this is achâteau en Espagne. When we were in Ireland, an old woman ran out of a far worse shanty than this, and, calling it an Irish castle, begged for money. In the same sense we may call this a Spanish castle.”

The carriage was stopped, and the party alighted.

“You see, the people live out-doors, even in the winter,” said the doctor. “The door of this house is wide open, and you can look in.”

The proprietor of the establishment stood near the door. He wore his cloak with as much style as though he had been an hidalgo. Under this garment his clothes were ragged and dirty; and he wore a pair of spatterdashes, most of the buttons of which were wanting, and it was only at a pinch that they staid on his ankles. His wife and four children stopped their work, or theirplay, as the case was, and gazed at the unwonted visitors.

“Buenos dias, caballero,” said the doctor, as politely as though he had been saluting a grandee.

The man replied no less politely.

“May we look into your house?” asked the doctor.

“Esta muy a la disposicion de usted,” replied thecaballero(it is entirely at your disposal).

This is acosa de España. If you speak of any thing a Spaniard has, he makes you a present of it, be it his house or his horse, or any thing else; but you are not expected to avail yourself of his generosity. It would be as impolite to take him at his word as it would be for him not to place it “at your disposal.”

The house was of one story, and had but one door and one window, the latter very small indeed. The floor was of cobble-stones bedded in the mud. The little window was nothing but a hole; there was no glass in it; and the doctor said, that, when the weather was bad, the occupants had to close the door, and put a shutter over the window, so that they had no light. The interior was divided into two rooms, one containing a bed. Every thing was as simple as possible. The roof of the shanty was covered with tile which looked like broken flower-pots. In front, for use in the summer, was an attempt at a veranda, with vines running up the posts.

The doctor gave the smallest of the children apeseta, and bade the man a stately adieu, which was answered with dignity enough for an ambassador. The party drove off, glad to have seen the interior of a Spanish house.

“Why did you give the money to the child instead of the father?” asked Sheridan.

“I suppose your experience in other parts of Europe would not help you to believe it, but the average Spaniard who is not a professional beggar is too proud to receive money for any small favor,” replied the doctor. “I have had apesetaindignantly refused by a man who had rendered me a small service. This is as strange as it is true, though, when you come to ride on adiligencia, you will find that driver, postilion, andzagalwill do their best to get a gratuity out of you. I speak only of the Spaniard who does you a favor, and not those with whom you deal; but, as a general rule, the people are too proud to cheat you.”

“They are very odd sort of people,” added Murray. “There is one shovelling with his cloak on.”

“Not an unusual sight. I have seen a man ploughing in the field with his cloak on, and that on a rather warm day. You notice here that the houses are not scattered as they are with us; but even these shanties are built in villages,” continued the doctor.

“I noticed that the houses were all in villages in all the country we have come through since we left Barcelona,” said Murray.

“Can you explain the reason?”

“I do not see any reason except that is the fashion of the country.”

“There is a better reason than that. In early days the people had to live in villages in order to be able to defend themselves from enemies. In Spain the custom never changes, if isolated houses are even safe at the present time.”

“What is that sheet of paper hanging on the balcony for?” asked Murray. “There is another; and now I can see half a dozen of them.” Theberlinawas within a short distance of thePuerta del Sol.

“A sheet of white paper in the middle of the balcony signifies that the people have rooms to let; if at the corner, they take boarders.”

The party arrived at the hotel in season for dinner; and, when it was over, they hastened to theMuseo, or picture-gallery. The building is very long, and of no particular architectural effect. It has ten apartments on the principal floor, in which are placed the gems of the collection. In the centre of the edifice is a very long room which contains the burden of the paintings. There are over two thousand of them, and they are the property of the Crown. Among them are sixty-two by Rubens, fifty-three by Teniers, ten by Raphael, forty-six by Murillo, sixty-four by Velasquez, twenty-two by Van Dyck, forty-three by Titian, thirty-four by Tintoretto, twenty-five by Paul Veronese, and hundreds by other masters hardly less celebrated.

The doctor’s party spent three hours among these pictures, and they went to the museum for the same time the next day; for they could better appreciate these gems than most of the students, many of whom were not willing to use a single hour in looking at them. Our party visited the public buildings, and took many rides and walks in the city and its vicinity, which we have not the space to report. On Wednesday morning the ship’s company started for Toledo.

CHAPTER XIII.AFTER THE BATTLE IN THE FELUCCA.Weleft the second master of the Tritonia and the two runaway seamen in a rather critical situation on board of the felucca. We regret the necessity of jumping about all over Spain to keep the run of our characters; but we are obliged to conform to the arrangement of the principal,—who was absolute in his sway,—and follow the young gentlemen wherever he sends them. Though Mr. Lowington was informed, before his departure with the ship’s company of the Prince, of the escape of Raimundo and the two “marines,” he was content to leave the steps for the recovery of the runaways to the good judgment of the vice-principal in charge of the Tritonia.Raimundo had managed his case so well that the departure of the three students from the vessel was not discovered by any one on board or on shore. If thealguacilwas on the lookout for his prisoner, he had failed to find him, or to obtain any information in regard to him. The circumstances had certainly favored the escape in the highest degree. The distance across the harbor, the concealment afforded by the hulls of the vessels of the fleet, and the shadow of the sea-wallunder which the fugitives had placed themselves, had prevented them from being seen. Indeed, no one could have seen them, except from the deck of the Tritonia or the Josephine; and probably those on board of the latter were below, as they were on the former.Of course Mr. Salter, the chief steward of the Tritonia, was very much astonished when he found that the prisoners had escaped from the brig. Doubtless he made as much of an excitement as was possible with only one of his assistants to help him. He had no boat; and he was unable to find one from the shore till the felucca was well out of the harbor. Probably Hugo was as zealous as the occasion required in the investigation of the means by which the fugitives had escaped; but he was as much astonished as his chief when told that Bill Stout and Bark Lingall were gone. The brig was in its usual condition, with the door locked; but the unfastened scuttle soon disclosed the mode of egress selected by the rogues. Mr. Pelham, assisted by Mr. Fluxion, vice-principal of the Josephine, did all they could to find the two “marines,” without any success whatever; but they had no suspicion that the second master, who had disappeared the night before, was one of the party.The next morning all hands from the two consorts were sent on board of the American Prince. Mr. Fluxion was the senior vice-principal, and had the command of the vessel. The ship’s company of the Josephine formed the starboard, and that of the Tritonia the port watch. The officers took rank in each grade according to seniority. Mr. Fluxion was unwilling tosail until he had drilled this miscellaneous ship’s company in their new duties. He had a superabundance of officers, and it was necessary for them to know their places. In the morning he had telegraphed to the principal at Saragossa, in regard to the fugitives; and the order came back for him to sail without them. Mr. Lowington was not disposed to waste much of his time in looking for runaways: they were pretty sure to come back without much assistance. At noon the Prince sailed for Lisbon; and all on board of her were delighted with the novelty of the new situation. As it is not necessary to follow the steamer, which safely arrived at Lisbon on the following Sunday morning, we will return to Raimundo and his companions.Filipe, struggling, and swearing the heaviest oaths, was bound hand and foot in the bottom of the felucca, and lashed to the heel of the mainmast. Juan lay insensible in the space between the cuddy and the mainmast, where he had fallen when the young Spaniard hit him with the spare tiller. The boat had broached to when the helm was abandoned by the boatman’s son, to go to the assistance of his father. Of course Raimundo and Bark were very much excited by this sudden encounter; and it had required the united strength of both of them to overcome the boatman, though he was not a large man. Bill Stout had done nothing. He had not the pluck to help secure Filipe after he had been thrown down, or rather dragged down, by Bark.As soon as the victory was accomplished, Raimundo sprang to the helm, and brought the felucca up to her course again. His chest heaved, and his breathing wasso violent as to be audible. Bark was in no better condition; and, if Juan had come to his senses at that moment, he might have conquered both of them.“Pick up that knife, Lingall,” said Raimundo, as soon as he was able to speak.He pointed to the knife which the boatman had dropped during the struggle; and Bark picked it up.“Now throw it overboard,” added the second master. “We can handle these men, I think, if there are no knives in the case.”“No; don’t do that!” interposed Bill Stout. “Give it to me.”“Give it to you, you coward!” replied Raimundo. “What do you want of it?”“I will use it if we get into another fight. I don’t like to tackle a man with a knife in his hand, when I have no weapon of any kind,” answered Bill, who, when the danger was over, began to assume his usual bullying tone and manner.“Over with it, Lingall!” repeated Raimundo sharply. “You are good for nothing, Stout: you had not pluck enough to touch the man after your friend had him down.”Bark waited for no more, but tossed the knife into the sea. He never “took any stock” in Bill Stout’s bluster; but he had not suspected that the fellow was such an arrant coward. As compared with Raimundo, who had risen vastly in his estimation within the last few hours, he thoroughly despised his fellow-conspirator. If he did not believe it before, he was satisfied now, that the gentlest and most correct students could also be the best fellows. However it hadbeen before, Bill no longer had any influence over him; while he was ready to obey the slightest wish of the second master, whom he had hated only the day before.“See if you can find the other knife,—the one the young man had,” continued Raimundo.“I see it,” replied Bark; and he picked up the ugly weapon.“Send it after the other. The less knives we have on board, the better off we shall be,” added the second master. “I don’t like the habit of my countrymen in carrying thecuchillaany better than I do that of yours in the use of revolvers.”“I think it was stupid to throw away those knives, when you have to fight such fellows as these,” said Bill Stout, as he glanced at the prostrate form of the older boatman, who was writhing to break away from his bonds.“Your opinion on that subject is of no value just now,” added Raimundo contemptuously.“What do you say, Bark?” continued Bill, appealing to his confederate.“I agree with Raimundo,” answered Bark. “I don’t want to be mixed up in any fight where knives are used.”“And I object just as much to knifing a man as I do to being knifed,” said Raimundo. “Though I am a Spaniard, I don’t think I would use a knife to save my own life.”“I would,” blustered Bill.“No, you wouldn’t: you haven’t pluck enough to do any thing,” retorted Bark. “I advise you not to say any thing more on this subject, Stout.”At this moment Filipe made a desperate attempt to free himself; and Bill retreated to the forecastle, evidently determined not to be in the way if another battle took place. Bark picked up the spare tiller the second master had dropped, and prepared to defend himself. Another club was found, and each of those who had the pluck to use was well prepared for another attack.“Lie still, or I will hit you over the head!” said Bark to the struggling skipper, as he flourished the tiller over him.But the ropes with which he was secured were strong and well knotted. Bark was a good sailor, and he had done this part of the work. He looked over the fastenings, and made sure that they were all right.“He can’t get loose, Mr. Raimundo,” said he.“But Juan is beginning to come to his senses,” added the second master. “He has just turned half over.”“I hope he is not much hurt: we may get into a scrape if he is.”“I was just thinking of that. But I don’t believe he is very badly damaged,” added Raimundo. “If the old man can’t get away, suppose you look him over, and see what his condition is.”Bark complied with this request. Filipe seemed to be interested in this inquiry; and he lay quite still while the examination was in progress. The young sailor found a wound and a considerable swelling on the side of Juan’s head; but it was now so dark that he could not distinctly see the nature of the injury.“Have you a match, Mr. Raimundo?” he asked.“I have not. We were not allowed to have matches on board the Tritonia,” replied the second master.“Tengo pajuelas,” said Filipe. “Una linterna en el camarote de proa.”“What does he say?” inquired Bark, glad to find that the skipper was no longer pugnacious.“He says he has matches, and that there is a lantern in the cuddy,” replied Raimundo. “Here, Stout, look in the cuddy, and see if you can find a lantern there.”Bill had the grace to obey the order, though he was tempted to refuse to do so. He found the lantern, for he had seen it while he lay in the cuddy. He brought it to Bark, and took the lamp out of the globe.“You will find some matches in Filipe’s pockets,” added Raimundo.“I have matches enough,” answered Bill.“I forgot that you used matches,” said the second master; “but I am glad you have a chance to make a better use of them than you did on board of the Tritonia.”“You needn’t say any thing! You are the first officer that ever run away from that vessel,” growled Bill, as he lighted a match, and communicated the blaze to the wick of the lamp.It was a kerosene-lamp, just such as is used at home, and probably came from the United States. Bark proceeded to examine the wound of Juan, and found it was not a severe one. The young man was rapidly coming to himself, and in a few minutes more he would be able to take care of himself.“I think we had better move him into the cuddy,” suggested Bark. “We can make him comfortable there, and fasten him in at the same time.”“That’s a capital idea, Lingall; and if Stout will take the helm I will help you move him,” answered Raimundo.“I will help move him,” volunteered Bill.“I supposed you were afraid of him,” added the second master. “He has about come to himself.”Juan spoke then, and complained of his head. Bark and Bill lifted him up, and carried him to the cuddy, where they placed him on the bed of old garments upon which they had slept themselves during the afternoon. Bark had some little reputation among his companions as a surgeon, probably because he always carried a sheet of court-plaster in his pocket, and sometimes had occasion to attend to the wounds of his friends. Perhaps he had also a taste for this sort of thing; for he was generally called upon in all cases of broken heads, before the chief steward, who was the amateur surgeon of the Tritonia, was summoned. At any rate, Bark, either from genuine kindness, or the love of amateur surgical dressing, was not content to let the wounded Spaniard rest till he had done something more for him. He washed the injury in fresh water, closed the ugly cut with a piece of court-plaster, and then bound up the head of the patient with his own handkerchief.The wounded man tried to talk to him; but he could not understand a word he said. If his father spoke English, it was certain that the son did not. When he had done all this, Bark relieved Raimundo at the helm, and the latter went forward to talk with the patient,who was so quiet that Bark had not thought of fastening the door of the cuddy.“I am well now,” said Juan, “and I want to go out.”“You must not go out of this place; if you do, we shall hit you over the head again,” replied the second master sternly.“Where is my father?” asked the patient.“He is tied hand and foot; and we shall tie you in the same way if you don’t keep still and obey orders,” added Raimundo. “Lie still where you are, and no harm shall be done to you.”Raimundo, taking the lantern with him, left the cuddy, and fastened it behind him with the padlock he found in the staple. Putting the key in his pocket, he made an examination into the condition of Filipe, with the aid of the lantern. He found him still securely bound, and, better than that, as quiet as a lamb.“How is my son?” asked he.“He is doing very well. We have dressed his wound, and he will be as well as ever in a day or two,” replied Raimundo.“Gracias, muchos gracias!” exclaimed the prisoner.“If we had been armed as you were, he might have lost his life,” added Raimundo, moving aft to the helm. “I think we are all right, Lingall.”“I am very glad of it. We came very near getting into a bad scrape,” replied Bark.“It is bad enough as it is. I have been afraid of something of this kind ever since we got well out of the port of Barcelona,” continued the second master. “The villain asked me so many questions about my money that my suspicions were excited, and I was onthe watch for him. Then he was so anxious that we should drink wine, I was almost sure he meant mischief.”“I am very sorry I drank any wine. It only makes my head ache,” replied Bark penitently.“I have heard my uncle speak of these men; and I know something about them.”“The wine did not make my head ache,” said Bill.“That’s because there is nothing in it,” answered Raimundo, who could not restrain his contempt for the incendiary.“But I do not understand exactly how the fight was begun,” said Bark. “The first I knew, the boatman sprang at you.”“That’s the first I knew, though I was on the lookout for him, as I had been all the afternoon. He understood what I meant when I told you this man means mischief.”“But he told you he could not speak English.”“Most of the boatmen speak more or less English: they learn it from the passengers they carry. He wanted to know whether we had money before he did any thing. He was probably satisfied that we had some before he attempted to assault us.”“I know you have money,” cried Filipe, in English; and he seemed to be more anxious to prove the correctness of his conclusion than to disprove his wicked intentions.“You have not got any of it yet,” replied Raimundo.“But I will have it!” protested the villain.“You tempt me to throw you and your son overboard,” said Raimundo sternly, in Spanish.“Not my son,” answered the villain, suddenly changing his tone. “He is his mother’s only boy.”“You should have thought of that before you brought him with you on such business.”The boatman, for such a villain as he was, seemed to have a strange affection for his son; and Raimundo was almost willing to believe he had not intended till some time after they left the port to rob his passengers. Perhaps, with the aid of the wine, he had expected an easy victory; for, though the students were all stout fellows, they were but boys.“I will not harm you if you do not injure my boy,” pleaded Filipe.“It is not in your power to harm us now; for we have all the power,” replied the second master.“But you are deserters from your ship. I can tell where you are,” added Filipe, with something like triumph in his tones.“We expect you to tell all you know as soon as you return.”“I can do it in Tarragona: they will arrest you there if I tell them.”“We are not afraid of that: if we were, we should throw you and your son overboard.”Filipe did not like this side of the argument, and he was silent for some time. It must be confessed that Raimundo did not like his side any better. The fellow could inform the police in Tarragona that the party were deserters, and cause them to be sent back to Barcelona. Though this was better than throwing the boatman and his son overboard, which was only an idle threat, it would spoil all his calculations, and defeatall his plans. He studied the case for some time, after he had explained to Bark what had passed between himself and Filipe in Spanish.“You want more money than you were to receive for the boat; do you, Filipe?” asked he.“I have to pay five hundredrealeson this boat in three days, or lose it and my small one too,” replied the boatman; and the passenger was not sure he did not invent the story as he went along. “I am not a bad man; but I want two hundredrealesmore than you are to pay me.”“Then you expect me to pay what I agreed, after what has happened, do you?”“You promised to pay it.”“And you promised to take me to Tarragona; and you have been trying to murder me on the way,” exclaimed Raimundo indignantly.“Oh, no! I did not mean to kill you, or to hurt you; only to take two hundredrealesfrom you,” pleaded the boatman, with the most refreshing candor.“That’s all; is it?”The villain protested, by the Virgin and all the saints in the Spanish calendar, that he had not intended any thing more than this; and Raimundo translated what he said to his companion.“There are a lot of lights on a high hill ahead,” said Bill Stout, who had been looking at the shore, which was only a short distance from them.“That must be Tarragona,” replied the second master, looking at his watch by the light of the lantern. “It is ten minutes of seven; and we have been six hours on the trip. I thought it would take about thistime. That must be Tarragona; it is on a hill eight hundred feet high.”“We have been sailing very fast, the last three hours,” added Bark. “But how are we to get out of this scrape?”“I will see. Keep a sharp lookout on the starboard, Lingall; and, when you see a place where you think we can make a landing, let me know.—Can you steer, Stout, and keep her as she is?”“Of course I can steer. I don’t give up to any fellow in handling a boat,” growled Bill.Raimundo gave him the tiller; but he watched him for a time, to see that he made good his word. The bully did very well, and kept the felucca parallel with the shore, as she had been all the afternoon.“There is a mole makes out from the shore,” continued the active skipper to Bark, who had gone forward of the foremast to do the duty assigned to him.“Ay, ay! I can see it,” replied Bark.“I think we need not quarrel, Filipe,” said Raimundo, bending over the prisoner, and unloosing the rope that bound his hands to the mast; but they were still tied behind him. “We are almost into Tarragona, and what we do must be done quickly.”“Don’t harm Juan,” pleaded Filipe.“That will depend on yourself, whether we do or not,” replied Raimundo, as fiercely as he could speak. “We are not to be trifled with; and Americans carry pistols sometimes.”“I will do what you wish,” answered Filipe.“I will give you what I agreed, and two hundredrealesbesides, if you will keep still about our being deserters; and that is all the money we have.”“Gracias!I will do it!” exclaimed the boatman. “Release me, and I will land you outside of the mole, and not go near the town to speak to any person.”“I am afraid to trust you.”“You can trust a Catalan when he promises;” and Filipe proceeded to call upon the Virgin and the saints to witness what he said.“Where can we land?” asked the second master.The boatman looked over the rail of the felucca; and, when he had got his bearings, he indicated a point where a safe landing might be made. It was not a quarter of a mile distant; and Filipe said the mainsail ought to be furled. Raimundo picked up the spare tiller,—for, in spite of the Catalan’s oath and promise, he was determined to be on the safe side,—and then unfastened the ropes that bound the prisoner.“If you play me false, I will brain you with this club, and pitch your son into the sea!” said Raimundo, as tragically as he could do the business.“I will be true to my promise,” he replied, as he brailed up the mainsail.“You see that your money is ready for you as soon as you land us,” continued Raimundo, as he showed the villain fiveIsabelinoshe held in one hand, while he grasped the spare tiller with the other.“Gracias!” replied Filipe, who was possibly satisfied when he found that he was to make the full sum he had first named as his price; and it may be that he was tempted by the urgency of his creditor to rob his passengers.“Have your pistol ready, Lingall!” added Raimundo, as the boatman, who had taken the helm from Bill, threw the felucca up into the wind, and her keel began to grate on the rocks.“Ay, ay!” shouted Bark.The boat ran her long bow up to the dry land, and hung there by her bottom. Raimundo gave the five hundredrealesto Filipe, and sprang ashore with the tiller in his hand. Calling to Bark, they shoved off the felucca, and then ran for the town.

AFTER THE BATTLE IN THE FELUCCA.

Weleft the second master of the Tritonia and the two runaway seamen in a rather critical situation on board of the felucca. We regret the necessity of jumping about all over Spain to keep the run of our characters; but we are obliged to conform to the arrangement of the principal,—who was absolute in his sway,—and follow the young gentlemen wherever he sends them. Though Mr. Lowington was informed, before his departure with the ship’s company of the Prince, of the escape of Raimundo and the two “marines,” he was content to leave the steps for the recovery of the runaways to the good judgment of the vice-principal in charge of the Tritonia.

Raimundo had managed his case so well that the departure of the three students from the vessel was not discovered by any one on board or on shore. If thealguacilwas on the lookout for his prisoner, he had failed to find him, or to obtain any information in regard to him. The circumstances had certainly favored the escape in the highest degree. The distance across the harbor, the concealment afforded by the hulls of the vessels of the fleet, and the shadow of the sea-wallunder which the fugitives had placed themselves, had prevented them from being seen. Indeed, no one could have seen them, except from the deck of the Tritonia or the Josephine; and probably those on board of the latter were below, as they were on the former.

Of course Mr. Salter, the chief steward of the Tritonia, was very much astonished when he found that the prisoners had escaped from the brig. Doubtless he made as much of an excitement as was possible with only one of his assistants to help him. He had no boat; and he was unable to find one from the shore till the felucca was well out of the harbor. Probably Hugo was as zealous as the occasion required in the investigation of the means by which the fugitives had escaped; but he was as much astonished as his chief when told that Bill Stout and Bark Lingall were gone. The brig was in its usual condition, with the door locked; but the unfastened scuttle soon disclosed the mode of egress selected by the rogues. Mr. Pelham, assisted by Mr. Fluxion, vice-principal of the Josephine, did all they could to find the two “marines,” without any success whatever; but they had no suspicion that the second master, who had disappeared the night before, was one of the party.

The next morning all hands from the two consorts were sent on board of the American Prince. Mr. Fluxion was the senior vice-principal, and had the command of the vessel. The ship’s company of the Josephine formed the starboard, and that of the Tritonia the port watch. The officers took rank in each grade according to seniority. Mr. Fluxion was unwilling tosail until he had drilled this miscellaneous ship’s company in their new duties. He had a superabundance of officers, and it was necessary for them to know their places. In the morning he had telegraphed to the principal at Saragossa, in regard to the fugitives; and the order came back for him to sail without them. Mr. Lowington was not disposed to waste much of his time in looking for runaways: they were pretty sure to come back without much assistance. At noon the Prince sailed for Lisbon; and all on board of her were delighted with the novelty of the new situation. As it is not necessary to follow the steamer, which safely arrived at Lisbon on the following Sunday morning, we will return to Raimundo and his companions.

Filipe, struggling, and swearing the heaviest oaths, was bound hand and foot in the bottom of the felucca, and lashed to the heel of the mainmast. Juan lay insensible in the space between the cuddy and the mainmast, where he had fallen when the young Spaniard hit him with the spare tiller. The boat had broached to when the helm was abandoned by the boatman’s son, to go to the assistance of his father. Of course Raimundo and Bark were very much excited by this sudden encounter; and it had required the united strength of both of them to overcome the boatman, though he was not a large man. Bill Stout had done nothing. He had not the pluck to help secure Filipe after he had been thrown down, or rather dragged down, by Bark.

As soon as the victory was accomplished, Raimundo sprang to the helm, and brought the felucca up to her course again. His chest heaved, and his breathing wasso violent as to be audible. Bark was in no better condition; and, if Juan had come to his senses at that moment, he might have conquered both of them.

“Pick up that knife, Lingall,” said Raimundo, as soon as he was able to speak.

He pointed to the knife which the boatman had dropped during the struggle; and Bark picked it up.

“Now throw it overboard,” added the second master. “We can handle these men, I think, if there are no knives in the case.”

“No; don’t do that!” interposed Bill Stout. “Give it to me.”

“Give it to you, you coward!” replied Raimundo. “What do you want of it?”

“I will use it if we get into another fight. I don’t like to tackle a man with a knife in his hand, when I have no weapon of any kind,” answered Bill, who, when the danger was over, began to assume his usual bullying tone and manner.

“Over with it, Lingall!” repeated Raimundo sharply. “You are good for nothing, Stout: you had not pluck enough to touch the man after your friend had him down.”

Bark waited for no more, but tossed the knife into the sea. He never “took any stock” in Bill Stout’s bluster; but he had not suspected that the fellow was such an arrant coward. As compared with Raimundo, who had risen vastly in his estimation within the last few hours, he thoroughly despised his fellow-conspirator. If he did not believe it before, he was satisfied now, that the gentlest and most correct students could also be the best fellows. However it hadbeen before, Bill no longer had any influence over him; while he was ready to obey the slightest wish of the second master, whom he had hated only the day before.

“See if you can find the other knife,—the one the young man had,” continued Raimundo.

“I see it,” replied Bark; and he picked up the ugly weapon.

“Send it after the other. The less knives we have on board, the better off we shall be,” added the second master. “I don’t like the habit of my countrymen in carrying thecuchillaany better than I do that of yours in the use of revolvers.”

“I think it was stupid to throw away those knives, when you have to fight such fellows as these,” said Bill Stout, as he glanced at the prostrate form of the older boatman, who was writhing to break away from his bonds.

“Your opinion on that subject is of no value just now,” added Raimundo contemptuously.

“What do you say, Bark?” continued Bill, appealing to his confederate.

“I agree with Raimundo,” answered Bark. “I don’t want to be mixed up in any fight where knives are used.”

“And I object just as much to knifing a man as I do to being knifed,” said Raimundo. “Though I am a Spaniard, I don’t think I would use a knife to save my own life.”

“I would,” blustered Bill.

“No, you wouldn’t: you haven’t pluck enough to do any thing,” retorted Bark. “I advise you not to say any thing more on this subject, Stout.”

At this moment Filipe made a desperate attempt to free himself; and Bill retreated to the forecastle, evidently determined not to be in the way if another battle took place. Bark picked up the spare tiller the second master had dropped, and prepared to defend himself. Another club was found, and each of those who had the pluck to use was well prepared for another attack.

“Lie still, or I will hit you over the head!” said Bark to the struggling skipper, as he flourished the tiller over him.

But the ropes with which he was secured were strong and well knotted. Bark was a good sailor, and he had done this part of the work. He looked over the fastenings, and made sure that they were all right.

“He can’t get loose, Mr. Raimundo,” said he.

“But Juan is beginning to come to his senses,” added the second master. “He has just turned half over.”

“I hope he is not much hurt: we may get into a scrape if he is.”

“I was just thinking of that. But I don’t believe he is very badly damaged,” added Raimundo. “If the old man can’t get away, suppose you look him over, and see what his condition is.”

Bark complied with this request. Filipe seemed to be interested in this inquiry; and he lay quite still while the examination was in progress. The young sailor found a wound and a considerable swelling on the side of Juan’s head; but it was now so dark that he could not distinctly see the nature of the injury.

“Have you a match, Mr. Raimundo?” he asked.

“I have not. We were not allowed to have matches on board the Tritonia,” replied the second master.

“Tengo pajuelas,” said Filipe. “Una linterna en el camarote de proa.”

“What does he say?” inquired Bark, glad to find that the skipper was no longer pugnacious.

“He says he has matches, and that there is a lantern in the cuddy,” replied Raimundo. “Here, Stout, look in the cuddy, and see if you can find a lantern there.”

Bill had the grace to obey the order, though he was tempted to refuse to do so. He found the lantern, for he had seen it while he lay in the cuddy. He brought it to Bark, and took the lamp out of the globe.

“You will find some matches in Filipe’s pockets,” added Raimundo.

“I have matches enough,” answered Bill.

“I forgot that you used matches,” said the second master; “but I am glad you have a chance to make a better use of them than you did on board of the Tritonia.”

“You needn’t say any thing! You are the first officer that ever run away from that vessel,” growled Bill, as he lighted a match, and communicated the blaze to the wick of the lamp.

It was a kerosene-lamp, just such as is used at home, and probably came from the United States. Bark proceeded to examine the wound of Juan, and found it was not a severe one. The young man was rapidly coming to himself, and in a few minutes more he would be able to take care of himself.

“I think we had better move him into the cuddy,” suggested Bark. “We can make him comfortable there, and fasten him in at the same time.”

“That’s a capital idea, Lingall; and if Stout will take the helm I will help you move him,” answered Raimundo.

“I will help move him,” volunteered Bill.

“I supposed you were afraid of him,” added the second master. “He has about come to himself.”

Juan spoke then, and complained of his head. Bark and Bill lifted him up, and carried him to the cuddy, where they placed him on the bed of old garments upon which they had slept themselves during the afternoon. Bark had some little reputation among his companions as a surgeon, probably because he always carried a sheet of court-plaster in his pocket, and sometimes had occasion to attend to the wounds of his friends. Perhaps he had also a taste for this sort of thing; for he was generally called upon in all cases of broken heads, before the chief steward, who was the amateur surgeon of the Tritonia, was summoned. At any rate, Bark, either from genuine kindness, or the love of amateur surgical dressing, was not content to let the wounded Spaniard rest till he had done something more for him. He washed the injury in fresh water, closed the ugly cut with a piece of court-plaster, and then bound up the head of the patient with his own handkerchief.

The wounded man tried to talk to him; but he could not understand a word he said. If his father spoke English, it was certain that the son did not. When he had done all this, Bark relieved Raimundo at the helm, and the latter went forward to talk with the patient,who was so quiet that Bark had not thought of fastening the door of the cuddy.

“I am well now,” said Juan, “and I want to go out.”

“You must not go out of this place; if you do, we shall hit you over the head again,” replied the second master sternly.

“Where is my father?” asked the patient.

“He is tied hand and foot; and we shall tie you in the same way if you don’t keep still and obey orders,” added Raimundo. “Lie still where you are, and no harm shall be done to you.”

Raimundo, taking the lantern with him, left the cuddy, and fastened it behind him with the padlock he found in the staple. Putting the key in his pocket, he made an examination into the condition of Filipe, with the aid of the lantern. He found him still securely bound, and, better than that, as quiet as a lamb.

“How is my son?” asked he.

“He is doing very well. We have dressed his wound, and he will be as well as ever in a day or two,” replied Raimundo.

“Gracias, muchos gracias!” exclaimed the prisoner.

“If we had been armed as you were, he might have lost his life,” added Raimundo, moving aft to the helm. “I think we are all right, Lingall.”

“I am very glad of it. We came very near getting into a bad scrape,” replied Bark.

“It is bad enough as it is. I have been afraid of something of this kind ever since we got well out of the port of Barcelona,” continued the second master. “The villain asked me so many questions about my money that my suspicions were excited, and I was onthe watch for him. Then he was so anxious that we should drink wine, I was almost sure he meant mischief.”

“I am very sorry I drank any wine. It only makes my head ache,” replied Bark penitently.

“I have heard my uncle speak of these men; and I know something about them.”

“The wine did not make my head ache,” said Bill.

“That’s because there is nothing in it,” answered Raimundo, who could not restrain his contempt for the incendiary.

“But I do not understand exactly how the fight was begun,” said Bark. “The first I knew, the boatman sprang at you.”

“That’s the first I knew, though I was on the lookout for him, as I had been all the afternoon. He understood what I meant when I told you this man means mischief.”

“But he told you he could not speak English.”

“Most of the boatmen speak more or less English: they learn it from the passengers they carry. He wanted to know whether we had money before he did any thing. He was probably satisfied that we had some before he attempted to assault us.”

“I know you have money,” cried Filipe, in English; and he seemed to be more anxious to prove the correctness of his conclusion than to disprove his wicked intentions.

“You have not got any of it yet,” replied Raimundo.

“But I will have it!” protested the villain.

“You tempt me to throw you and your son overboard,” said Raimundo sternly, in Spanish.

“Not my son,” answered the villain, suddenly changing his tone. “He is his mother’s only boy.”

“You should have thought of that before you brought him with you on such business.”

The boatman, for such a villain as he was, seemed to have a strange affection for his son; and Raimundo was almost willing to believe he had not intended till some time after they left the port to rob his passengers. Perhaps, with the aid of the wine, he had expected an easy victory; for, though the students were all stout fellows, they were but boys.

“I will not harm you if you do not injure my boy,” pleaded Filipe.

“It is not in your power to harm us now; for we have all the power,” replied the second master.

“But you are deserters from your ship. I can tell where you are,” added Filipe, with something like triumph in his tones.

“We expect you to tell all you know as soon as you return.”

“I can do it in Tarragona: they will arrest you there if I tell them.”

“We are not afraid of that: if we were, we should throw you and your son overboard.”

Filipe did not like this side of the argument, and he was silent for some time. It must be confessed that Raimundo did not like his side any better. The fellow could inform the police in Tarragona that the party were deserters, and cause them to be sent back to Barcelona. Though this was better than throwing the boatman and his son overboard, which was only an idle threat, it would spoil all his calculations, and defeatall his plans. He studied the case for some time, after he had explained to Bark what had passed between himself and Filipe in Spanish.

“You want more money than you were to receive for the boat; do you, Filipe?” asked he.

“I have to pay five hundredrealeson this boat in three days, or lose it and my small one too,” replied the boatman; and the passenger was not sure he did not invent the story as he went along. “I am not a bad man; but I want two hundredrealesmore than you are to pay me.”

“Then you expect me to pay what I agreed, after what has happened, do you?”

“You promised to pay it.”

“And you promised to take me to Tarragona; and you have been trying to murder me on the way,” exclaimed Raimundo indignantly.

“Oh, no! I did not mean to kill you, or to hurt you; only to take two hundredrealesfrom you,” pleaded the boatman, with the most refreshing candor.

“That’s all; is it?”

The villain protested, by the Virgin and all the saints in the Spanish calendar, that he had not intended any thing more than this; and Raimundo translated what he said to his companion.

“There are a lot of lights on a high hill ahead,” said Bill Stout, who had been looking at the shore, which was only a short distance from them.

“That must be Tarragona,” replied the second master, looking at his watch by the light of the lantern. “It is ten minutes of seven; and we have been six hours on the trip. I thought it would take about thistime. That must be Tarragona; it is on a hill eight hundred feet high.”

“We have been sailing very fast, the last three hours,” added Bark. “But how are we to get out of this scrape?”

“I will see. Keep a sharp lookout on the starboard, Lingall; and, when you see a place where you think we can make a landing, let me know.—Can you steer, Stout, and keep her as she is?”

“Of course I can steer. I don’t give up to any fellow in handling a boat,” growled Bill.

Raimundo gave him the tiller; but he watched him for a time, to see that he made good his word. The bully did very well, and kept the felucca parallel with the shore, as she had been all the afternoon.

“There is a mole makes out from the shore,” continued the active skipper to Bark, who had gone forward of the foremast to do the duty assigned to him.

“Ay, ay! I can see it,” replied Bark.

“I think we need not quarrel, Filipe,” said Raimundo, bending over the prisoner, and unloosing the rope that bound his hands to the mast; but they were still tied behind him. “We are almost into Tarragona, and what we do must be done quickly.”

“Don’t harm Juan,” pleaded Filipe.

“That will depend on yourself, whether we do or not,” replied Raimundo, as fiercely as he could speak. “We are not to be trifled with; and Americans carry pistols sometimes.”

“I will do what you wish,” answered Filipe.

“I will give you what I agreed, and two hundredrealesbesides, if you will keep still about our being deserters; and that is all the money we have.”

“Gracias!I will do it!” exclaimed the boatman. “Release me, and I will land you outside of the mole, and not go near the town to speak to any person.”

“I am afraid to trust you.”

“You can trust a Catalan when he promises;” and Filipe proceeded to call upon the Virgin and the saints to witness what he said.

“Where can we land?” asked the second master.

The boatman looked over the rail of the felucca; and, when he had got his bearings, he indicated a point where a safe landing might be made. It was not a quarter of a mile distant; and Filipe said the mainsail ought to be furled. Raimundo picked up the spare tiller,—for, in spite of the Catalan’s oath and promise, he was determined to be on the safe side,—and then unfastened the ropes that bound the prisoner.

“If you play me false, I will brain you with this club, and pitch your son into the sea!” said Raimundo, as tragically as he could do the business.

“I will be true to my promise,” he replied, as he brailed up the mainsail.

“You see that your money is ready for you as soon as you land us,” continued Raimundo, as he showed the villain fiveIsabelinoshe held in one hand, while he grasped the spare tiller with the other.

“Gracias!” replied Filipe, who was possibly satisfied when he found that he was to make the full sum he had first named as his price; and it may be that he was tempted by the urgency of his creditor to rob his passengers.

“Have your pistol ready, Lingall!” added Raimundo, as the boatman, who had taken the helm from Bill, threw the felucca up into the wind, and her keel began to grate on the rocks.

“Ay, ay!” shouted Bark.

The boat ran her long bow up to the dry land, and hung there by her bottom. Raimundo gave the five hundredrealesto Filipe, and sprang ashore with the tiller in his hand. Calling to Bark, they shoved off the felucca, and then ran for the town.

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