While he was thus speaking, Borasco glided over the sea till he disappeared in the far distance.
Now it happened, as we have said, that the pirates, whom Alonzo had ordered to quit the island, instead of so doing, had hid themselves among the rocks on the sea-shore, waiting for an opportunity to wreak their vengeance on him; and as they were rowing along in their boat, they reached the mouth of the cavern in which he had left the body of Alonzo. Leaving their boat secured to a rock, they jumped on to the sand.
“Ah, here is a secure place indeed, where we may remain concealed though all the people of the island were hunting for us, till an opportunity occurs for punishing our traitor Captain,” said Almagro, who was now chief of the band, and was afraid, should Alonzo return, of losing his authority.
“It’s secure enough; but if the sea were to get up we should be caught, like mice in a trap,” observed Sancho, one of the lieutenants. “Why, where’s the boat?” As he spoke the boat drifted away from the cavern out of their reach.
“What clumsy fellow pretended to secure the boat? Ah, see, the sea is already rising,” ejaculated Almagro, in a tone of horror.
The pirates were now compelled to retire higher up the cavern. What was their astonishment when, as they reached the further end, they saw before them the very man they had been seeking, as they supposed fast asleep. Immediately they held consultation what should be done. Sancho, and some of the more merciful, were for binding him and carrying him off to their ship, but Almagro, who saw that thus his object would probably be defeated, was for destroying him while he slept. Several of the worst sided with him, and before Sancho could interfere, they sprang forward and plunged their daggers into Alonzo’s form. Scarcely had they done so, when loud peals of thunder echoed along the rocks, vivid lightning flashed from the skies, and the foaming waves rushed up into the cavern.
In vain the guilty and affrighted pirates fled into the interior of the cave. The angry waters foamed up on every side. Shrieking they fled from rock to rock; still the waves rose higher and higher, and swept them far off into the boiling sea, while the dead body of Alonzo was carried away into the depths of the ocean.