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“Who is this that enters, at this late hour, without warning or announcement?” he sternly asked, looking in doubt at the unknown face.

“One who brings information that the governor-general wants. You are he, I believe?”

“I am. What do you want? And how did you, a stranger, pass my guard without challenge?”

“That is not the question. Your Excellency, I understand, has offered a handsome reward to any one who will put you on the track of the rovers of the gulf?”

“Ha! is that your errand?” exclaimed Tacon, with sudden interest. “What know you of them?”

“Excellency, I must speak with caution,” said the stranger. “I have my own safety to consider.”

“That you need not fear. My offer of reward also carries pardon to the informant. If you are even a member of the confederation itself you will be safe in speaking freely.”

“I understand you offer an additional reward, a rich one, for the discovery of Captain Marti, the chief of the smugglers?”

“I do. You may fully trust in my promise to reward and protect any one who puts me on the track of that leader of the villains.”

“Your Excellency, I must have special assurance of this. Do you give me your knightly word that you will grant me a free pardon for all offences against the customs, if I tell all you wish to know, even to the most secret hiding-places of the rovers?”

“I pledge you my full word of honor for that,” said the governor, now deeply interested.

“You will grant me full pardon, under the king’s seal, no matter how great my offences or crimes, if you call them so, may have been?”

“If what you reveal is to the purpose,” said Tacon, wondering why his visitor was so unduly cautious.

“Even if I were a leader among the rovers myself?”

Tacon hesitated a moment, looking closely at the stalwart stranger, while considering the purport of his words.

“Yes,” he said, at length. “If you will lead our ships to the haunts of Marti and his followers, you can fully depend on the reward and the pardon.”

“Excellency, I know you well enough to trust your word, or I should never have put myself in your power.”

“You can trust my word,” said Tacon, impatiently. “Now come to the point; I have no time to waste.”

“Your Excellency, the man for whom you have offered the largest reward, dead or alive, stands before you.”

“Ha! you are

“Captain Marti.”

The governor started in surprise, and laid his hand hastily on a pistol that lay before him. But he regained his self-possession in a moment, and solemnly said,–

“I shall keep my promise, if you keep yours. You have offended deeply, but my word is my law. But to insure your faithfulness, I must put you for the present under guard.”

“As you will, your Excellency,” said Marti.

Tacon rang a bell by his side, an attendant entered, and soon after Marti was safely locked up, orders being given to make him comfortable until he was sent for. And so this strange interview ended.

During the next day there was a commotion in the harbor of Havana. An armed revenue cutter, which for weeks had lain idly under the guns of Morro Castle, became the scene of sudden activity; food, ammunition, and other stores being taken on board. Before noon the anchor was weighed and she stood out into the open sea. On her deck was a man unknown to captain or crew, otherwise than as the pilot of their cruise. Marti was keeping his word.

A skilled and faithful pilot he proved,–faithful to them, but faithless and treacherous to his late comrades and followers,–for he guided the ship with wonderful ease and assurance through all the shoals and perils of the coast waters, taking her to the secret haunts of the rovers, and revealing their depots of smuggled goods and secret hiding-places. Many a craft of the smugglers was taken and destroyed and large quantities of their goods were captured, as for a month the raiding voyage continued. The returns to the government were of great value and the business of the smugglers was effectually broken up. At its end Marti returned to the governor to claim the reward for his base treachery.