"If you please."
"How cursedly polite we are," sneered Pedro. "Well, most illustrious Senor Caballero, does he mean to maroon you, or hang you?"
"Neither; and in either case it is not probable he would consult you."
"Well, companero, perhaps he will land you at El Cabo de Bueno Esparanza?" said Pedro, with more suavity.
"We are not to touch at the Cape," was the unwary reply.
"Not to touch at the Cape?" repeated Pedro, so loudly that he might have been heard in the cabin.
"No."
"Why."
"Simply because I have been given to understand that we are past it."
"Por vida del demonio! Past it, say you?" exclaimed Pedro, as if communing with himself.