I watched until midnight, at which hour Yawl relieved Kidd at the helm, and Kidd turned in.  Shortly afterward I roused Ramon, and bade him keep watch while I slept.

CHAPTER XXXII.

FOUND OUT.

When I awoke it was broad daylight, Yawl at the helm, the sloop bowling along at a great rate before a fresh breeze.  But, to my utter surprise, there was no land in sight.

“How is this, Yawl?” I asked; “we are out of doors.  How have you been steering?”

“The course you laid down sir, nor’ by west.”

“That is impossible.  I am not much of a seaman, yet I know that if you had been steering nor’ by west, we should have the coast under our lee, and we cannot even see the peaks of the Cordillera.”

“Of course you cannot; they are covered with a mist,” put in Kidd.

“I see no mist; moreover, the Cordillera is visible a hundred miles away, and by good rights we should not be more than thirty or forty miles from the coast.”

“It’s the fault of your compass, then.  The darned thing is all wrong.  Better chuck it overboard and have done with it.”

“If you do, I’ll chuck you overboard.  The compass is quite correct.  You have been steering due west for some purpose of your own, against my orders.”

“Oh, that’s your game, is it?  You are the skipper, and us a brace of lubbers as doesn’t know north from west, I suppose.  Let him sail the cursed craft hissel, Bill.”

Yawl let go the tiller, on which the sloop broached to and nearly went on her beam ends.  This was more than I could bear, and calling on Ramon to follow me, I sprang forward, seized Kidd by the throat, and, drawing my dagger, told him that unless he promised to obey my orders and do his duty, I would make an end of him then and there.  Meanwhile, Ramon was keeping Yawl off with his machete, flourishing it around his head in a way that made the old salt’s hair nearly stand on end.  Seeing that resistance was useless, Kidd caved in.

“I ask your pardon, Mr. Fortescue,” he said, hoarsely, for my hand was still on his throat.  “I ask your pardon, but I lost my temper, and when I lose my temper it’s the very devil; I don’t know what I’m doing; but I promise faithfully to obey your orders and do my duty.”

On this I loosed him, and bade Ramon put up his machete and let Yawl go back to his steering.  In one sense this was an untoward incident.  It made Kidd my personal enemy.  Quite apart from the question of the diamonds, he would bear me a grudge and do me an ill turn if he could.  He was that sort of a man.  Henceforward it would be war to the knife between us, and I should have to be more on my guard than ever.  On the other hand, it was a distinct advantage to have beaten him in a contest for the mastery; if he had beaten me, I should have had to accept whatever conditions he might have thought fit to impose, for I was quite unable to sail the sloop myself.