“Don’t be too sure of that,” returned the captain. “I think he is on our trail, but we will give him the slip yet. And we will be rid of her, the day after to-morrow.”
“What are you going to do with her?” asked the dwarf.
“Put her ashore at San Matteo. If we don’t get rid of her pretty soon he will be bringing the whole pack down on us.”
“Him!” muttered the dwarf, “leave Jim to me. But he thinks more of the gold.”
“Why didn’t you at least get the papers from him?”
“Carambo!” hissed the dwarf. “Why didn’t I? I had the bag and those clumsy gringoes were chasing one another in the dark, when the professor, maledictions upon him, came in my way. Who would have looked for him there?”
“And he picked you up and spanked you like a bad little boy,” said Broome, maliciously.
“Curses on him!” howled the dwarf. “But I—I, Manuel de Gorgiza,” he struck himself on the chest, “will have my revenge on them all. But I fooled them. I swam under the water, and while they waited for me to come up I am under the dock, and I laugh at them all for the fools that they are. They think that I am down at the bottom of the bay, but I will have them yet.”
“It is time we were getting under way,” said the captain, rising. “You will have to postpone your revenge until we come back.”