"Now then, go ahead," I said. "What have you discovered?"
"It's the most fiendish plot I ever heard of," he replied. "I would not have believed a man could have thought of anything so vile. If I had not chanced to stray where I did no one would have been the wiser. And then——" He stopped abruptly, as if the thought were too much for him.
"But you have not told me yet what it is you have heard," I continued, with some sort of impatience.
He rose and went to the door, opened it, looked outside, and then returned once more to his place on the couch.
"This afternoon, as you know," he began, leaning forward on his seat, as if he were desirous that no one but myself should hear, "I went ashore to see Silvestre. He was anxious, he said, to consult me concerning the business of taking you to Cuba, and also about the landing of himself and the others on the Equinata coast. I had a long talk with him, during which he was all graciousness and condescension. Butter wouldn't have melted in his mouth. He praised all the services we had rendered him. You can have no idea how pleasant he was. When he became President, I was to have command, if I wished it, of an Equinata man-o'-war, etc., and above all others I was to be his trusted naval adviser. No post could be too big for me."
"It sounds very nice, but he also endeavoured to advise me to return with him," I said.
"And what reply did you give him?" Ferguson inquired.
"I gave him to understand that I would not go back to Equinata for all the money in the world," I said. "I had had quite enough of the place to last me a lifetime."
"That was my reply exactly," Ferguson replied. "The next time they see me there of my own free will, they may treat me as they please."
"Well, never mind that, continue your story," I returned. "What is it you have discovered?"