Seraphina said suddenly, “They have reason. It is well for them to be suspicious of us in this place.” She had a tone of calm reproof, and of faith.
“They shall be of more use when they are dead,” Castro muttered. “The senor’s other dead countrymen served us well.”
“I shall give you great, very great sums of money,” Seraphina suddenly cried towards the ship. “I am the Señorita Seraphina Riego.”
“There is a woman—that’s a woman’s voice, I’ll swear,” I heard them exclaim on board, and I cried again:
“Yes, yes. There is a woman.”
“I dare say. But where do you come in? You are a distressed Englishman, aren’t you?” a voice came back.
“You shall let us come up on your ship,” Seraphina said. “I shall come myself, alone—Seraphina Riego.”
“Eh, what?” the voice asked.
I felt a little wind on the back of my head. There was desperate hurry.
“We are escaping to get married,” I called out. They were beginning to shout orders on the ship. “Oh, you’ve come to the wrong shop. A church is what you want for that trouble,” the voice called back brutally, through the other cries of orders to square the yards.