"Fer goodness' sake," cried Speake, "get somethin' between his jaws! He's chatterin' more'n a cage o' monkeys."
Ysabel stepped forward with a bandage, and the general was soon silent. Dick finished by dragging him into the prison chamber and dropping him down beside Fingal.
"Oh, what a fine general it is!" laughed Dick. "And he was trying to make himself dictator of the country! I wonder what sort of a population they have here, to let a little wasp like that go on the warpath and make trouble!"
"He is a little wretch!" exclaimed Ysabel, with flashing eyes.
"And that's the military phenomenon your uncle, Abner Fingal, was trying to make you marry!" exclaimed Dick, suddenly recalling a half-forgotten episode in Ysabel's life.
The girl flushed crimson.
"Never!" she breathed fiercely.
"If it hadn't been for his spurs and his sword," said Matt, "he would have been able to get away. But we're strangely reckless, friends," he added, "to amuse ourselves with the general when we are in such desperate plight. We can't leave here until Gaines gets back, and not only has one of Fingal's men escaped us, but Don Carlos has likewise got away. Both will carry the news of what we have done to the camp of the rebels—and you can imagine what will happen when the rebels hear that we have got their general below decks. We'll have the entire army about our ears—and that won't do; at least, not until we have Gaines with us. After that, we can close the hatch, sink below the surface and glide down-stream without——"
Matt paused. He suddenly remembered what Pedro had said about the submarine mines at the mouth of the river.
"What's taken you aback, matey?" spoke up Dick. "You act as though you had just thought of something."