CHAPTER XXXI.
The American leaned on the bottom of the slide, with his face scarcely two feet from the other, and with the revolver at his hip within instant reach.
“Captain Ortega, will you answer a question truly?”
“That depends upon the question, Señor; if I answer at all, it shall be truly, but I may choose to leave it unanswered.”
“Did you run this boat aground on purpose?”
Captain Ortega took two or three complacent whiffs, gazed off over the moonlit river and then removing the wisp of tobacco from between his lips, smiled, and looking into the face before him, coolly replied:
“I did, Señor.”