The mate took him by the arm and led him away, as his experienced eye told him that the lad was dead.
"Oh! don't take me away!" cried Tommy. "He is the only friend I've got."
The mate pointed with his finger to the sky.
"He has a Friend up aloft, sonny, and that's the only one he will want now," he said.
Capt. Diaz had remained in a motionless condition for more than five minutes, but his eyes watched the movements of Boston Charley with the restlessness of a lynx.
All at once he stooped down and picked up the knife which had dropped from his hand when the mate shot him.
He held it in his left hand, and with a demoniac yell he rushed upon Boston Charley.
"Look out!" cried Tommy, who, seeing that Charley had his back turned to the enemy, feared he would be assassinated.
Turning sharply around, the mate did not hesitate a moment in drawing out his pistol.
He had not a second to lose. In fact, so sudden was the captain's attack upon him, that he had not time to take aim, so he fired at random, and Capt. Diaz fell, mortally wounded, by the side of the boy whom, in a moment of passion, he had so foully murdered a short time before.