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"I got de only olibs on dis ribber"
"Bastenade!" yelled the infuriated fellow "I 'll give you a shot to pay for your insolence"
Even as he spoke, fuun, that sah rail like Punch at a pantoly "Vas it ze olif you haf zare in ze leetle boat?"
I eagerly held up into view a choice handful of green fruit, my eyes hopeful
"Oui, SeƱor Oppercer--fresh olibs; saht on the rail by this ti far over, no slight interest depicted upon his pinched, sallow countenance
"It's all right, sentry," he said sharply to the soldier, who lowered his gun with a scowl indicating his real desire My newly found friend lifted his squeaking voice again in unfamiliar speech
"Bring ze leetle boat along ze side of ze sheep, you black fellar, an' coainst those steps, Alphonse," I ood fortune "Then pull out a few strokes; but stay alongside until I coue yourself"
The whites of his eyes alone answered htened for speech The situation was one to grate upon any nerves unaccusto of the slave would hold him obedient, I turned away, and, in anotheraardly over the high rail on to the hitherto concealed deck My pulses throbbed with exciteto myself, I lost at that instant every sensation of personal fear, in deterhlyin the balance, and, with tightly clenched teeth, I swore to prove equal to the venture The very touch of those deck planks toaunt Spaniard co, hardly more than five paces from where I landed, yet so intense becae scene--an interest partly real, but largely si my confused antics withme Even to this hour that scene lies distinct before my eyes Possessed I skill with pencil I could sketch each small detail from the retina of memory--the solitary sentinel beside the rail, his orn unifory in the sun; another farther forward, where a great opening yawned; with yet a third, standing rigid before a closed door of the after cabin An officer, his coat richly decorated with gold braid, wearing epaulets, and having a short sword dangling at his side, paced back and forth across the top of a little house near the stern I heard him utter some colanced toward me Perhaps thirty or more seaed idly aaunt, cadaverous Spaniard, at whose invitation I was present, leaned against a big gun, puffing nonchalantly at a cigarette, held between lean, saffron-colored fingers The deck hite as the snows of a northern Winter, while the brass work along the railings and about the cannon glittered brilliantly in the sunshine There was a gaudy yellow-and-white striped canopy stretched above a portion of the deck aft; the huge masts seemed to pierce into the blue of the skies; while on every side were ranged griuns of brass and iron