“General Bambos will give him to me and I will punish him; I will do the same with Captain Guzman for aiding the foul ingrate.”
But the Dictator never did either. Jack Starland was not the one to forget the service of his friends. He had no trouble in persuading Martella to engage himself as one of the firemen on the Warrenia, for wages that were three-fold what he had received—when he did receive them which was not often—in his own country. Something in the nature of a compromise was made with Captain Guzman. He could not be induced to go so far as the great Republic of the North, but halted at Caracas.
“I am so accustomed to revolutions,” said he with a grin and shrug, “that I should die of weariness in your noble country, but here I shall have all that my heart craves.”
“It has much that look,” replied Major Starland, as he shook him by the hand, after compelling him to accept a generous douceur from himself and Miss Starland.
Returning from this digression, the small boat was kept under careful survey until it returned from the General Yozarro. Some feared that a musket shot might be fired at the seamen, for the Atlamalcan is hot-headed and reckless, and the fully loaded saluting gun was kept pointed.
“If I have to fire again,” grimly said the mate, “I shall send the ball through her boiler, and sink the whole gang.”
Fortunately the necessity did not arise. The most prominent form on the tug was that of Captain Ramon Ortega, standing in front of the pilot house on the upper deck. Pistol in hand, his watchfulness no doubt prevented any treacherous act, for all who knew him knew his unflinching sense of honor and his personal bravery. When the peril passed, he put away his weapon and stood with hands thrust in the side pockets of his light jacket.
Up went the hand of Miss Starland and she fluttered aloft her handkerchief.
“I see no reason why he should not recognize me as a friend now,” she explained to the Major at her side.
The other saw her and lifted his hat and bowed low. Jack Starland did the same and called a cheery good bye to him.