It was long past midnight, and the moon was down. The sentinels, who had tramped and challenged overhead till they thought their officers were sound asleep, had slipped out of the unwholesome rays of the planet to seek that health and peace which they considered their right, and slept as soundly as the bishop's self.
Two long lines glided out from behind the isolated rocks of the Morro Grande, which bounded the bay some five hundred yards astern of the galleon. They were almost invisible on the glittering surface of the water, being perfectly white; and, had a sentinel been looking out, he could only have descried them by the phosphorescent flashes along their sides.
Now the bishop had awoke, and turned himself over uneasily; for the wine was dying out within him, and his shoulders had slipped down, and his heels up, and his head ached! so he sat upright in his hammock, looked out upon the bay, and called Tita.
"Put another pillow under my head, child! What is that? a fish?"
Tita looked. She did not think it was a fish: but she did not choose to say so; for it might have produced an argument, and she had her reasons for not keeping his holiness awake.
The bishop looked again; settled that it must be a white whale, or shark, or other monster of the deep; crossed himself prayed for a safe voyage, and snored once more.
Presently the cabin-door opened gently, and the head of the Señor Intendant appeared.
Tita sat up; and then began crawling like a snake along the floor, among the chairs and tables, by the light of the cabin lamp.
"Is he asleep?"
"Yes: but the casket is under his head."
"Curse him! How shall we take it?"
"I brought him a fresh pillow half-an-hour ago; I hung his hammock wrong on purpose that he might want one. I thought to slip the box away as I did it; but the old ox nursed it in both hands all the while."
"What shall we do in the name of all the fiends? She sails to-morrow morning and then all is lost."
Tita showed her white teeth, and touched the dagger which hung by the intendant's side.
"I dare not!" said the rascal, with a shudder.
"I dare!" said she. "He whipt my mother, because she would not give me up to him to be taught in his schools, when she went to the mines. And she went to the mines, and died there in three months. I saw her go, with a chain round her neck; but she never came back again. Yes; I dare kill him! I will kill him! I will!"
The Señor felt his mind much relieved. He had no wish, of course, to commit the murder himself; for he was a good Catholic, and feared the devil. But Tita was an Indian, and her being lost did not matter so much. Indians' souls were cheap, like their bodies. So he answered, "But we shall be discovered!"
