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"No fired?" grunted Filipo. "Too bad. Bum job." "Now go back to the kitchen, and promise not to strike Mr. Boyd any more." "No hit 'um. Boil 'um. Three minutes; stick fork in hum," said the cook with a cannibal glare at the still writhing pirate. He shuffled off to his pots and pans.
"I'm sorry that I can't please your Reverence," said Don Filipo, "but Señor Ibarra is one of the heaviest contributors and has a right to be here as long as he doesn't disturb the peace." "But isn't it disturbing the peace to scandalize good Christians? It's letting a wolf enter the fold. You will answer for this to God and the authorities!"
The cause of all this uproar was two civil-guards, clubs in hand, chasing the musicians in order to break up the performance. The teniente-mayor, with the aid of the cuadrilleros, who were armed with old sabers, managed at length to arrest them, in spite of their resistance. "Take them to the town hall!" cried Don Filipo. "Take care that they don't get away!"
"So, according to you, the Jesuits keep up with progress?" asked Don Filipo in wonder. "Why, then, are they opposed in Europe?" "I will answer you like an old scholastic," replied the Sage, lying down again and resuming his jesting expression. "There are three ways in which one may accompany the course of progress: in front of, beside, or behind it.
"You were present at the sale of this girl?" "Assuredly, senor; since I purchased her." "There was an old woman sold at the same time?" "Yes, senor; the one that I found in here." "Exactly. There was also a young man?" "Yes, senor." "Can you tell me who became his purchaser?" "Certainly, senor. He was bought by the Senor Don Filipo Martinez, who lives in the Suburb Regla."
The next morning everything seemed outwardly as usual, the skiff had been restored to its place astern. The Pirate was intoxicated; the cook sober. But there was the threat of trouble in the air, Pauline felt it in the attitude of all the men, even of Owen and Hicks. The Pirate showed a strange new tendency to make friends with Filipo.
Don Filipo said to him: "Take note that this description corresponds to that of nine-tenths of the natives. Take care that you do not make a mistake!" At last the soldiers returned, saying that they had not been able to discover either a banca, or a man that aroused their suspicion. The sergeant murmured a few indistinct words and then marched off.
"What! What are you saying?" asked his surprised hearers. "I said that if I speak first I shall present the plan of our rivals." "But what about our plan?" "I shall leave it to you to present ours," answered Don Filipo with a smile, turning toward a youthful cabeza de barangay. "You will propose it after I have been defeated."
Yeyeng appeared fancifully dressed, with the "Da usté su permiso?" and Carvajal was answering her, "Pase usté adelante," when two soldiers of the Civil Guard went up to Don Filipo and ordered him to stop the performance. "Why?" asked the teniente-mayor in surprise. "Because the alferez and his wife have been fighting and can't sleep."
The peril of her precious pirate stirred all her courage. She saw her dreams vanishing the chief narrator, navigator and guide of the treasure voyage suspended in two strong arms over the blue deep. Forgetting that he was accustomed to conquer twenty men single handed, she felt only pity for his plight. Her soft but determined hand gripped the cook's. "Filipo, obey my orders!" she commanded.
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