“‘Sir,’ exclaimed Professor Chadwick, ‘you are deliberately insulting.’
“‘Senor Yankee,’ was the calm reply, ‘you have deliberately intruded yourself into a country where you and your inquisitive countrymen are not wanted.’
“‘I am not aware by what right you dare to assume such an attitude toward us,’ resumed Professor Chadwick, now thoroughly aroused, and, indeed, we were all at the boiling-point, as you can imagine. Herrera’s every word seemed to be a deliberate taunt.
“‘I assume my attitude, as you call it, by right of might,’ was the cold reply, ‘my ancestor. General Jose de Guzman Herrera, was slain by your Yankee soldiers in the Mexican war. Judge, then, if I have any reason to favor Yankees.’
“‘You are likely to pay dearly for this forcible detention of peaceful citizens of a republic at peace with your country,’ warned Allworthy.
“Herrera shrugged his shoulders.
“‘I’ll take my chance of that,’ he said, ‘besides, as I remarked before, I am not so certain that my country and your country are not by this time at war.’
“Well, there was nothing more to be said, and determined to make the best of our situation we went docilely enough to the quarters that Herrera had provided for us, which consisted of three cabins in the extreme stern of the ship. Captain Andrews, MacDuffy and I were thrust into one cabin, your father and Mr. Jesson into the next compartment, and Abner Jennings and the two sailors into a third stateroom.
“Here was a pretty kettle of fish, and a fine ending to our hopes of reaching the coast, which, we were confident, was not far distant. From scraps of conversation we overheard, for there were gratings above each stateroom door, we learned that the Tarantula was tied up to the shore bordering on one of Herrera’s plantations. We heard later that the slaves,—most of them Mosquito Coast negroes illegally impressed as slaves,—had made some trouble, and that Herrera was here with his armed craft to suppress the uprising by stern means. What these means were we found out later, and without going into detail, we heard enough to know that the monster,—as we subsequently found him to be,—spared no form of cruelty to browbeat his luckless servitors into submission. All this was translated for us by Captain Andrews, who spoke Spanish fluently.
“We might have been confined in our narrow quarters for an hour, or it might have been longer, when we heard the door of the adjoining stateroom unlocked, and presently voices came to us through the grating. It was easy to recognize Herrera’s tones as he cross-examined Professor Chadwick. One of the Mexican sailors had noticed that when the professor came on board he had slipped a silver chest—the treasure box—under his coat. The fellow had informed Herrera, and now that arch-scoundrel was demanding that Professor Chadwick and Mr. Jesson submit to being searched.