“Now you know it, Captain,” said the skipper on bidding him farewell.  “These demons are after you in order to pay you up for something in the past.  You know what for....  Be very careful!”

The rest of the evening Ferragut and Toni talked very little together.  The two had exactly the same thought in their brain, but avoided putting it in shape because, as energetic men, they feared that some cowardly construction might be put upon such thoughts.

At nightfall when they returned to the steamer the pilot ventured to break the silence.

“Why do you not quit the sea?...  You are rich.  Besides, they’ll give you whatever you ask for your ship.  To-day boats are worth their weight in gold.”

Ulysses shrugged his shoulders.  He wasn’t thinking of money.  What good would that do him?...  He wanted to pass the rest of his life on the sea, giving aid to the enemies of his enemies.  He had a vengeance to fulfill....  Living on land, he would be abandoning this vengeance, though remembering his son with even greater intensity.

The mate was silent for a few moments.

“The enemies are so many,” he then said in dismay.  “We are so insignificant!...  We only escaped by a few yards being sent to the bottom on our last trip.  What has not happened yet will surely happen some day.... They have sworn to do away with you; and they are many ... and they are at war.  What could we do, we poor peaceable sailors?...”

Toni did not add anything further but his silent thoughts were divined by Ulysses.

He was thinking about his family over there in the Marina, enduring an existence of continual anxiety while he was aboard a vessel for which irresistible menace was lying in wait.  He was thinking also of the wives and mothers of all the men of the crew who were suffering the same anguish.  And Toni was asking himself for the first time whether Captain Ferragut had the right to drag them all to a sure death just because of his vengeful and crazy stubbornness.

“No; I have not the right,” Ulysses told himself mentally.

But at the same time his mate, repentant of his former reflection, was affirming in a loud voice with heroic simplicity: 

“If I counsel you to retire, it is for your own good; don’t think it is because I am afraid....  I will follow you wherever you sail.  I’ve got to die some time and it would be far better that it should be in the sea.  The only thing that troubles me is worrying about my wife and children.”

The captain continued walking in silence and, upon reaching his ship, spoke with brevity.  “I was thinking of doing something that perhaps you would all like.  Before next week your future will have been decided.”

He passed the following day on land.  Twice he returned with some gentlemen who examined the steamer minutely, going down into the engine room and the holds.  Some of these visitors appeared to be experts in matters pertaining to the sea.