"New suit for two Britishers?" exclaimed the ship's tailor, who was a typical Yankee. "Say, where on airth did yer get hold of them ere togs? Oh, from the lieutenant? Wall, I'll fix yer up as good. That aer the way. Hold yer arm out, so, and I'll take yer measure."
He soon obtained all the necessary particulars, after which the lieutenant led Hal and Gerald to the New York's gunroom, where they were introduced to the other officers.
"Say, Mr. Marchant, sir," said one of them, "our friend here, the lieutenant, has got the better of us. How was it that you came to be aboard that old tank of a launch? Spin the yarn, like a good fellow, and we'll feel obliged."
There was nothing for it but to recount again how they had escaped from the Morro Castle; and that same evening the commodore also insisted upon hearing all the particulars of their adventures, and probed Hal so astutely with questions that he drew from him the tale of José d'Arousta's attack upon the hacienda, and the manner in which it had been foiled.
"You never let on about that, sir," said Samuel K. Billing reproachfully, "and the admiral has scored one. Say, Mr. Marchant, you seem unusually concerned about that Spaniard, and I don't wonder at all, for he's a low-down sort of beggar; but how did it happen that you first knocked up against him? Now, no hanging back, if you please, for if you don't feel inclined to oblige me, there's Admiral Sampson, who won't let you off."
"Indeed, no. Come, Mr. Marchant, I trust you will give us the story," chimed in the commodore. "This Spaniard seems to have some special spite against you. If I remember rightly, he and his rascally accomplice would have shot you in cold blood when the hacienda was taken. What was the quarrel between you?"
Nothing loath, for the officers seemed genuinely interested, Hal told how José d'Arousta had first come across his path, and how, on three successive occasions, he had been able to thwart him.
"There's luck, they say, in the number three," remarked the admiral. "Young, sir, I consider that you have done very well, and that you have been ably helped by your friend. But luck may pull you through danger on one occasion, while on another it leaves you in the lurch. Pluck and strength of purpose are of far more use in difficulties, and when combined with luck make the issue less doubtful. So, you see, I take it that you both have a very good allowance of what we in the States call 'grit.' But for that I reckon you would have been shot this very morning, for how else could you have succeeded in escaping from the Morro Castle? As for that fellow of a Spaniard, I am not in the least surprised that you feel uneasy about him. Beware of the man, is the caution I would impress upon you. Three, I have said, is considered a lucky number. Take care when you run up against him for the fourth time, that he does not shoot you at sight. No amount of good fortune will preserve a man when a revolver is fired at point-blank range. But there, what am I doing? Giving advice to a youngster who, in spite of his few years, has seen more adventures than many a man of forty. You've been almighty spry, my lad, and will pull through, whatever the danger."
"You may put it at that," exclaimed the lieutenant, who seemed to have taken a particular fancy to Hal. "I can tell you, sir, that this young guest of ours is as smart and as full of pluck as they make them."