"I was merely amusing myself."
"Amusing yourself?" he reiterated insolently, while a sudden gleam shot from his sinister eyes. "You'll excuse me, but I don't think there could be much amusement in the matter; so cut adrift all your quarter-deck humbug, and come to the point at once, my sojer officer."
"I am not in the habit of being addressed in this manner," said I angrily.
"Oh—I beg your pardon," he replied with a bow of mock servility, which was inexpressibly provoking; but, in a situation so terrible as ours, being willing to conciliate one with whom it was not worth my while to quarrel, I somewhat rashly said:
"Circumstanced as we are, perhaps it matters little whether I tell you the truth or not; but I have discovered a wreck there."
"A wreck in that hole?"
"The shattered hull of an ancient Spanish galleon."
"What! d—n my limbs!—a galleon—a regular Rio de la Plata treasure-ship?" he exclaimed.
"I have every reason to believe so."
"How—why?"