"He is bleeding to death, and I wish to remove him."
"Do as you please, he will be food for the fish before the sun sets."
"You will allow me to take him on deck?" said I, earnestly, almost imploringly.
"Yes; you have done me no harm;" (he repeated this very often) "woe to those who have done so!"
A gleam of suspicion flashed in the eyes of Antonio as he said—
"True; but not a man shall enter here, and leave alive. The ship-boys may assist you; but I will shoot the whole crew down like dogs, if they venture to approach me; so I give you five minutes to carry the contra-maestre to the forecastle bunks, or to pitch him overboard, whichever you please, though the last would please me."
"Five minutes?"
"Yes, five by this watch," he added, pulling out of his fob a gold repeater, which, even in the excitement of the moment, I recognized to be mine, the same which my mother gave me, when I first left home for Eton, and of which I had been robbed at Teneriffe. There was no doubting the little rings and charms which my sisters Dot, Sybil, and one of their female friends had appended to it; and thus I discovered another black link in the life of Antonio.
I dared not appear to recognize it when his strong, brown, hairy hand, the bloody spots on which made me shudder, held it toward me, lest he might shoot me down, but summoned Billy Wilkins, the cabin boy, by desiring the man at the wheel, "to pass word forward for him and another apprentice."
The boys came, but not without great fear and reluctance; and while Antonio proceeded leisurely to make another paper cigar, keeping his ears open for every sound, and his black eyes fixed keenly on us the while, we entered the little state-room of Marc Hislop, and beheld a sight which filled us with the deepest commiseration and dismay.