"I did, sir," puffed Bill.
"Why didn't he come, then?"
"Said he was English, sir; 'd like, to go back. Waited a purpose for them Britishers. Wanted 'em to capture him."
"I am afraid he has mistaken their nationality," said I.
"Damn the Britishers!" remarked the parrot.
"We have no quarrel with the British at present," I remarked. "What's your antediluvian bird talking about, Miss Archer?"
"I should think that with two six-pounders in the waist, and a gun that none of you had the pluck to fire on the poop, you might have——"
"Too much noise in the bows!" growled the Skipper.
I was sitting in the bows, facing Cynthia, as we left the Yankee Blade. I had watched the citadel on its far distant height grow lower and lower to the eye, and finally sink behind its seaward hills and masses of foliage. I noticed, however, that our course was laid in an almost direct line for it; a little to the left, but still so that the position of the castle was impressed upon my mind. As we neared the shore, white rocks began to show, and the water, from having been blue, of a dark and beautiful shade, began to fade into tints no less lovely. There were streaks of pale green upon darker green, streaks of yellow upon blue. This was caused by the depth or shallowness of the water which flowed between us and the white rocks. Cocoanut tufts fringed the shore, and behind them were the various species of trees that thrive in the tropics. The gri-gri, the mahogany, reared their tall heads and vari-coloured leaves. Masses of green of all shades clothed the hills, which sloped upward a short distance from the level of the beach.
"O Uncle! See those lovely pieces of coral! Stop a moment, do, and let me get a piece to take home to Aunt Mary 'Zekel."