Catalina understood enough English to laugh heartily at her lover’s grave and mysterious words.
“He has stolen a loaf and a bottle of wine,” she thought in her simplicity.
However, Catalina did not disappoint Jack, and together they paced towards the semi-circular platform of the King’s Bastion.
Jack was a very proud man as he tried to explain to his lady-love what a surprise was in store for her: he touched her wrists to show how the bracelets would fit, and her shapely neck to prove the existence of a splendid necklace, and Catalina began to believe her boy.
But as they came out upon the gun platform, Jack stopped suddenly, and uttered a fearful oath.
“O dios!” cried the maid, “what is there to hurt, Jacko?”
“Don’t you see? Oh, Catalina, the game is up! That devil of a gunner is wiping out the bore of his gun!”
Jack ran up, and, seizing the man by the arm, said: “I say, mate, if you have found a parcel in that gun, it’s mine! I put it in last night. I tell you it’s mine, mate! Don’t you try to make believe you have not seen it, ’cos I know you has.”
The gunner stared in open-mouthed astonishment at the speaker. At last he said, with a touch of sarcasm: