“Ay, comrade, thou wilt find him aft.  He hath just had speech once more with the chief rebel, the graybeard they call Lafreniere, and was in raging temper when last we met. Caramba! he even called me an ass, for no more serious fault, forsooth, than that I made the round of my guard unattended.  Hath your darky news for him?”

“Nay; the fellow possesseth not sufficient sense to be a messenger, except it may be a message for his stomach to make his humor better,” was the reply.  “Come, trot along now, boy, and mind where you put down those big feet in the passage.”

I struggled upright in response to his order, assisted by the sharp tap of a boot accompanying it, tripped over a gun barrel one of the guard facetiously inserted between my legs, and went down once more, uttering such howl of terror as could be only partially drowned beneath the uproarious laughter of my merry tormentors.  It developed into a gantlet, yet I ran the line with little damage, and, after much ducking and pleading, managed to regain my position close to the heels of Senor Gonzales before he turned into the passageway, which, as I now perceived, was dimly illumined by means of a single lantern, hung to a blackened upper beam.

“Well, good luck to both of you,” called out the young officer of the guard laughingly as we disappeared.  “Yet I ’d hate to have the steering of such a crazy craft as follows in your wake, Gonzales, and I warn you again the Senor Captain will be found in beastly humor.”

“I fear nothing,” returned my guide, his lean yellow face turned backward over his shoulder.  “I have what will bring him greater happiness than a decoration from the King.”

Shambling awkwardly forward, simulating all the uncouthness possible, I retained my wits sufficiently to note our surroundings—­the long, narrow passage, scarcely exceeding a yard in width, with numerous doors opening on either side.  Several of these stood ajar, and I perceived berths within, marking them as sleeping apartments, although one upon the right was evidently being utilized as a linen closet, while yet another, just beyond, and considerably larger, seemed littered with a medley of boxes, barrels, and great bags.  This apartment appeared so much lighter than those others, even a stray ray of sunshine pouring directly down into it from above, that I instinctively connected it in my mind with the cook-house on the upper deck, and the open cuddy door I had chanced to notice.

As we approached the farther end this passage suddenly widened into a half circle, sufficiently extended to accommodate the huge butt of the mizzenmast, which was completely surrounded by an arm-rack crowded with short-swords, together with all manner of small arms.  A grimly silent guard stood at either side, and I perceived the dark shadow of a third still farther beyond, while the half-dozen cabins close at hand had their doors tightly closed, and fastened with iron bars.