150 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPOET. 



" Do you know that you have a state-criminal on 

 board 1 " thundered he to the captain. " What is 

 the meaning of this ] " 



" Santa Virgen ! " exclaimed the lady, and fell 

 fainting into her husband's arms. There was a 

 moment's deep silence. All present seemed touched 

 by the misfortunes of this youthful pair. The young 

 officer sprang to the assistance of the husband, and 

 relieving him of the child, enabled him to give his 

 attention to his wife, whom he laid gently down 

 upon the deck. 



" I am grieved at the necessity," said the officer, 

 " but you must return with me." 



The American captain, who had been contemplating 

 this scene apparently quite unmoved, now ejected 

 from his mouth a huge quid of tobacco, replaced it 

 by another, and then stepping up to the officer, 

 touched him on the arm, and offered him the pass 

 he had received from his passengers. The Spaniard 

 waved him back almost with disgust. There was, in 

 fact, something very unpleasant in the apathy and 

 indifference with which the Yankee contemplated 

 the scene of despair and misery before him. Such 

 cold-bloodedness appeared premature and unnatural 

 in a man who could not yet have seen more than 

 five-and-twenty summers. A close observer, how- 

 ever, would have remarked that the muscles of his 

 face were beginning to be agitated by a slight con- 

 vulsive twitching, when, at that moment, his mate 



