Then I heard the skipper hailing, apparently from the forecastle—
“Is that Mr Ryan’s voice that I hear, aft there?”
“Ay, ay, sorr,” answered the second luff; “it’s myself, bedad, all that’s left ov me!”
A sound of footsteps followed, suggesting that he had walked away forward to join his superior; but as the man at my feet just then stirred uneasily, as though his senses were returning to him, I made a quick grab at my cutlass, and drawing from my belt a loaded pistol, the existence of which I had until then forgotten, I pulled myself together and made ready for the next emergency.
Presently, my prisoner, for such he now was, stirred again, sighed deeply, and opened his eyes, his glance immediately falling upon me. For a few seconds he seemed not to know where he was, or what had happened; then, as we gazed into each other’s eyes, I saw that his memory had returned to him, and as he made a motion to rise to his feet, I sprang to mine, and pointing my pistol straight at his head, said in the best Spanish that I could muster—
“Stay where you are! If you make the slightest attempt to move I will blow your brains out, you villain!”
He continued to gaze steadfastly at me for some moments; and then seeing, I suppose, that I fully meant what I said, he smiled bitterly and muttered—
“So it has come to this, has it, that I must lie here in my own cabin, helpless, at the mercy of a mere boy? Car–r–am–ba!”
He still kept his regards steadfastly fixed upon me; and as I seemed to read in the expression of his eyes a dawning determination to make at least one more effort for freedom, I was not sorry to hear footsteps coming along the deck, and the voices of the skipper and Ryan in earnest conversation.
“We must get a light from somewhere at once, and look to the wounded without a moment’s delay,” said the former. “I fear that our loss has been very serious in this affair. Ah! there is a faint glimmer of light from the skylight yonder; I will go below and see what it is. Meanwhile, Mr Ryan, muster your men, and load the guns, if you can lay your hand upon any ammunition. Those schooners will try to slip away if they can, now that we have got the brig; but I shall not be satisfied unless I can secure the whole of them; we must have something more than we have got already to account satisfactorily for our loss!”