“But the gold,” inquired one, as if the question had not already been asked and answered a hundred times. “Do they say there is a plenty of it?”
“Plenty and plenty; but what is the use of my telling that so many times? By the morning we shall know all about it; and if we are not all roasted and served up before we can get away, I have no doubt that we shall all be as rich as we ought to be.”
“Ay! if we are not roasted,” growled Miguel.
“Have no fear, my son,” said Diego, in his most benevolent tones; “for unless it should be in the dark, I doubt if any savage would take so much as one bite of you. And unless your flesh be far sweeter than your temper, even the darkness would not win you a second bite.”
The men laughed heartily, and Miguel muttered under his breath; while Juan, leaning over to Diego, whispered uneasily:
“I pray you, Diego! You promised you would not torment him.”
“Then let him stop his croaking. If there be mischief, he is in it. If there be doubts, he has bred them. Always scowling at me, and always ready with his eternal croaking.”
“It is true, Diego; but he is almost alone on the ship now, and you have all the friends. Besides, you promised me.”
“Well,” said Diego, contritely, “I will try to rule my tongue.”
With his change to better thoughts and feelings, Juan had been unable to continue the close intimacy with Miguel which had been begun in the prison; but he was of too generous and loyal a nature to cast him off, and so he had all through been placed in a very uncomfortable attitude towards him.