"Do you want to spoil everything by loafin' 'round here?" he asked angrily. "These kind of chances don't come every day, an' if our plans are upset owin' to such nonsense I'll split you like a mackerel with your own knife!"
That the Mexican was a rank coward could be told by the pallor which came over his yellow face as these words were spoken, and with a muttered but inaudible reply he followed Dave to the companion-way ladder.
"Now what are we to do?" the thin man asked when the three were ready to go on deck; and the leader of the villains replied readily:
"Nothin' yet awhile. Some chance will turn up before we're under way; but if it don't, the matter must be settled at night while they're below. It won't be a hard job, for they can't stay on deck together all the time, and when the crowd is separated it'll be like child's play. Don't act as if anything was in the wind, but be sweet as molasses till the flies are where we want 'em!"
Then the three men ascended the ladder, and from the benign expression on their faces the most suspicious would hardly have fancied they had been plotting to murder those who befriended them in a time of need.
CHAPTER XVI.
TRICKED.
When the conspirators came on deck, and before they finished smoking, the boys cleaned the cabin, ate their own dinner in the galley, and were at liberty to remain idle until it should be time to prepare supper.
After the heat of the day had passed Bob proposed that all the brig's lower sails should be set; adding, in conclusion: