The boatman, for such a villain as he was, seemed to have a strange affection for his son; and Raimundo was almost willing to believe he had not intended till some time after they left the port to rob his passengers. Perhaps, with the aid of the wine, he had expected an easy victory; for, though the students were all stout fellows, they were but boys.
“I will not harm you if you do not injure my boy,” pleaded Filipe.
“It is not in your power to harm us now; for we have all the power,” replied the second master.
“But you are deserters from your ship. I can tell where you are,” added Filipe, with something like triumph in his tones.
“We expect you to tell all you know as soon as you return.”
“I can do it in Tarragona: they will arrest you there if I tell them.”
“We are not afraid of that: if we were, we should throw you and your son overboard.”
Filipe did not like this side of the argument, and he was silent for some time. It must be confessed that Raimundo did not like his side any better. The fellow could inform the police in Tarragona that the party were deserters, and cause them to be sent back to Barcelona. Though this was better than throwing the boatman and his son overboard, which was only an idle threat, it would spoil all his calculations, and defeat all his plans. He studied the case for some time, after he had explained to Bark what had passed between himself and Filipe in Spanish.
“You want more money than you were to receive for the boat; do you, Filipe?” asked he.
“I have to pay five hundred reales on this boat in three days, or lose it and my small one too,” replied the boatman; and the passenger was not sure he did not invent the story as he went along. “I am not a bad man; but I want two hundred reales more than you are to pay me.”