“You dassent leave me,” sobbed the youngster.  “I got no friend but you.”

“It will be hard enough for one man to slip through; two would be sure to fail.”

“Those Spaniards will skill you!” Jacket wailed.

“So much the more reason for you to stay here.”

At this the boy uttered a louder cry.  He stamped his bare feet in a frenzy of disappointment.  “You dassent leave me—­you dassent!”

“Listen, people are starving in Matanzas; they are sick; they are dying in the streets.”

“I don’t eat much.”

When Johnnie shook his head stubbornly Jacket launched himself into a torrent of profanity the violence of which dried his tears.  His vocabulary was surprising.  He reviled the Spaniards, O’Reilly, himself, everybody and everything; he leveled anathemas at that woman who had come between him and his beloved benefactor.  The latter listened good-naturedly.

“You’re a tough kid,” he laughed, when Jacket’s first rage had worn itself out.  “I like you, and I’d take you if I could.  But this isn’t an enterprise for a boy, and it won’t get you anything to keep up this racket.”

Jacket next tried the power of argument.  He attempted to prove that in a hazardous undertaking of this sort his assistance would be invaluable.  He was, so he declared, the one person in all Cuba in every respect qualified to share O’Reilly’s perils.  To begin with, he was not afraid of Spaniards, or anything else, for that matter—­he dismissed the subject of personal courage with a contemptuous shrug.  As for cunning, sagacity, prudence, resource, all-around worth, he was, without doubt, unequaled in any country.  He was a veritable Spartan, too, when it came to hardship—­ privation and suffering were almost to his liking.  He was discreet—­discretion was something he had inherited; he was a diplomat—­diplomacy being one of his most unique accomplishments.  As for this talk about hunger, O’Reilly need not concern himself in the least on that score, for Jacket was a small eater and could grow fat on a diet of dead leaves.  Disease?  Bah!  It made him laugh.  His experience with sickness was wider than most fisicos, and he was a better nurse than Miss Evans would ever be.  Jacket did not wish to appear in the least boastful.  On the contrary, he was actually too modest, as his friends could attest, but truth compelled him to admit that he was just the man for O’Reilly.  He found it impossible to recommend himself too highly; to save his soul, he could think of no qualification in which he was lacking and could see no reason why his benefactor would not greatly profit by the free use of his amazing talents.  The enterprise was difficult; it would certainly fail without him.

Johnnie remained carefully attentive during this adjuration.  He felt no desire even to smile, for the boy’s earnestness was touching and it caused the elder man’s throat to tighten uncomfortably.  Johnnie had not realized before how fond he had become of this quaint youngster.  And so, when the little fellow paused hopefully, O’Reilly put an arm around him.