"Now no insubordination," continued Baptiste; "the captain would not deprive you of a day's holiday after so long a voyage unless he had urgent reasons for doing so."
"Reasons indeed!" muttered El Toro. "He who wants reasons can always find them."
"Silence, you old calf! Listen! We shall most probably sail to-day, for there is a treasure waiting for us outside."
El Chico pricked up his ears. "What! another Vrouw Elisa?" he asked.
"Something of the sort; but this is a safer scheme. Our necks will not be in danger this time."
"That's well for you, Baptiste," exclaimed El Toro, with his brutal laugh; "for your neck must be the most precious on this ship if we may judge from the value you set on it. Ha! ha! I never shall forget your white face and your starting eyes in that Dutch law court."
"My neck supports a head of brains and not a pig's head like thine, with only three ideas in it—rum, grub, and tobacco," retorted the mate. "But no more nonsense; listen to me, men."
Then he briefly disclosed the plan.
"Bravo!" grunted El Toro. "That sounds a likely bit of business. I will go and sharpen my knife at once. And so our English milord is a game-cock, after all, like the rest of us."
"He is worth fifty of you," said Baptiste. "He has the clever brains that can devise; and he is braver than you, El Toro."