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Updated: June 14, 2025
In ten minutes Spike found he had the weight of the schooner, so far as he should be obliged to sustain it at all, until the stern rose above the surface; and he felt reasonably secure of the doubloons. Further than this he did not intend to make any experiment on her, the Senor Montefalderon having abandoned all idea of recovering the vessel itself, now so much of the cargo was lost.
I fell in with him among the reefs here, where he was rummaging about in hopes of meeting with a wrack, he tells me, and thinking to purchase something profitable in that way; but finding I had flour, he agreed to take it out of me at this anchorage, and send me away in ballast at once. I have found Don Wan Montefalderon ready pay, and very honourable."
As for the sloop-of-war, he believed she had given him up; for by this time she must know that she had no chance with the brig, so long as the latter kept near the reef, and that she ran the constant hazard of shipwreck, while playing so near the dangers herself. Before the Senor Montefalderon exhausted all he had to communicate, he was interrupted by Jack Tier with a singular proposition.
Harry was delighted with this suggestion of his Mexican friend the most loyal American may still have a sincere friend of Mexican birth and Mexican feelings, too since it favoured not only his secret wishes, but his secret expectations also. At the appointed moment, Don Juan Montefalderon and Jack Tier took their leave of the two they left behind them.
On these great premises Spike had laid the foundation of the practical problem he intended to solve. No expectation existed of ever getting the schooner afloat again. All that Spike and the Senor Montefalderon now aimed at, was to obtain the doubloons, which the former thought could be got at in the following manner.
In a word, Harry was too much of a tar not to feel a deep reluctance to turn against his cruise, or his voyage, however much either might be condemned by his judgment, or even by his principles. It was quite nine o'clock when the Senor Montefalderon and Spike returned from burying the dead.
A fatality appeared to attend the brig; and most of the men connected the sad occurrence of this night with the strange appearance of the previous evening. Even the Senor Montefalderon was disposed to abandon the doubloons, and he urged Spike to make the best of his way for Yucatan, to seek a friendly harbour.
The Senor Montefalderon was earnestly engaged in what he conceived to be the cause of his country. It was scarcely possible to bring together two men impelled by motives more distinct than Spike and this gentleman. The first was acting under impulses of the lowest and most grovelling nature; while the last was influenced by motives of the highest.
The thirty or forty minutes that succeeded were passed in general conversation. On this occasion the Senor Montefalderon spoke more freely than he had yet done of recent events. He let it be plainly seen how much he despised Spike, and how irksome to him was the intercourse he was obliged to maintain, and to which he only submitted through a sense of duty.
Biddy parted with the carpet-bag, and Senor Montefalderon, feeling the importance of example, committed to the deep a small writing-desk that he had placed on his knees. The doubloons alone remained, safe in a little locker where Spike had deposited them along with his own.
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