"Did you not ask?"
"I did. But she answered falsely. She pretended to be an American vessel——"
The Spaniard gave a sneer.
"So that is the yarn you mean to tell," he laughed.
"That is what occurred," said Clif, quickly. "If you have heard otherwise you have been told a lie. And my men will bear me out in the statement."
"Indeed! I do not doubt it."
There was fine sarcasm in that tone; but Clif did not heed it.
"Would you mind telling me what this fellow Ignacio has said?" he inquired.
"He says," responded the other, "that the vessel announced herself as a Spaniard, and called on you to surrender. You did so; and then when the boat's crew came aboard you shot two of them and steamed away. Is that so, Ignacio?"
"It is," snarled the "agent." "I will take my oath upon it."