"There is not the least necessity," he replied. "She will be very well taken care of here. Just for the present I prefer to have the lady under my own eye. Sailors are impressionable beings, and there is no telling what ideas she might put into their heads. Remember me to Ferguson and the others, and be sure to be up here by eleven in the morning. Good-night!"
I thereupon left him and returned by the path to the beach below. The niggers who had brought us ashore had departed, so taking my boat-call from my pocket I blew a shrill blast upon it. They must have heard me on the yacht, for a boat was immediately lowered and sent off to fetch me. Arriving on board I went in search of Ferguson, to whom I stated that I did not at all like the look of things ashore. I communicated to him my fear that Silvestre, in spite of the assurance he had given me to the contrary, contemplated doing some mischief to Fernandez.
"I should not be at all surprised if he did," my companion replied. "The two men have a lot to settle between them, and Silvestre is not the sort of man to forget or to forgive an injury."
"But he gave me his word of honour, when I undertook the task of getting the President out of the country, that he only meant to keep him locked up until all chance of his upsetting matters in Equinata was past and done with."
"They say that promises, like pie-crust," Ferguson returned, "are made to be broken. I wonder what Silvestre's promises are like? Heigho! I shall be thankful when I have done with the whole concern."
"And when do you think that will be?"
"When I have landed Don Guzman on the mainland," he replied. "Then I have to take this vessel back to a certain northern port, and to hand her over to a man who is to meet her there. After that, old England, and, if Allah wills, a life of an entirely different description."
Next morning I returned to the house on the hill, to find Silvestre's health much improved, and his prisoners, as he found early occasion to inform me, still alive.
"The lady," he said, "treated me to a pretty specimen of her temper last night. She wouldn't leave her room, and declined to eat her food. Realizing that it was not the least use arguing with her, I left her to her own devices. Her condition, I understand, has somewhat improved this morning."
Presently he produced from his pocket a bundle of bank-notes, which he handed to me.