He was too pompously and innocently aware of his own existence to observe that of others. For instance, he could not believe that Sotillo had been really afraid of him, and this simply because it would never have entered into his head to shoot anyone except in the most pressing case of self-defence.
Anybody could see he was not a murdering kind of man, he reflected quite gravely. Then why this preposterous and insulting charge? he asked himself.
But his thoughts mainly clung around the astounding and unanswerable question:
How the devil the fellow got to know that the silver had gone off in the lighter? It was obvious that he had not captured it. And, obviously, he could not have captured it! In this last conclusion Captain Mitchell was misled by the assumption drawn from his observation of the weather during his long vigil on the wharf. He thought that there had been much more wind than usual that night in the gulf; whereas, as a matter of fact, the reverse was the case.
`How in the name of all that's marvellous did that confounded fellow get wind of the affair?' was the first question he asked directly after the bang, clatter, and flash of the open door (which was closed again almost before he could lift his dropped head) informed him that he had a companion of captivity. Dr Monygham's voice stopped muttering curses in English and Spanish.
`Is that you, Mitchell?' he made answer, surlily. `I struck my forehead against this confounded wall with enough force to fell an ox. Where are you?'
Captain Mitchell, accustomed to the darkness, could make out the doctor stretching out his hands blindly.
`I am sitting here on the floor. Don't fall over my legs,' Captain Mitchell's voice announced with great dignity of tone. The doctor, entreated not to walk about in the dark, sank down to the ground, too. The two prisoners of Sotillo, with their heads nearly touching, began to exchange confidences.
`Yes,' the doctor related in a low tone to Captain Mitchell's vehement curiosity, `we have been nabbed in old Viola's place. It seems that one of their pickets, commanded by an officer, pushed as far as the town gate.