"When I say that no one will be killed at all in this cursed place, and I shall break my heart! but as you will." Again there was a pause, while Mr.Bill Hen wondered if this were a floating lunatic asylum or a nest of pirates, that had come so easily up their quiet river and turned the world topsy-turvy.

At length--"Your force, Senor Pike," the Skipper said, "I perceive it not, for to take away this child.

Have you the milizia--what you call soldiers, police--have you them summoned and concealed behind the rocks, as in the theatres of Havana?
I see no one but your one self.

Surely you have no thought to take the child of your own force from me ?" Mr.Bill Hen gasped again.

"Look here!" he broke out at last.