Night to the average Spanish mind means a period for chasing dull care away in music, the dance and carousal.
While Roderic sat thus, his thoughts flitting from one subject to another, since no one had spoken for quite some time, a figure approached which he recognized upon glancing up as belonging to Captain Beven.
As the mariner stooped over him he electrified Owen with the few words he softly uttered.
"Sir, I have reason to believe the steamer Sterling Castle lies at anchor just off our port quarter!"
CHAPTER XI.
THE LADY ON THE QUARTER DECK.
The news which Captain Beven communicated almost in a whisper to Roderic had as startling an effect upon that gentleman as though the guns of the battery that frowned upon their anchorage had suddenly and without the least warning opened full upon their jaunty craft.
He sprang to his feet as though urged by a shock from a concealed galvanic battery.