He liked him because his eyes were kindly.

He liked him because he was one of his own race.

He liked him because he was a fellow prisoner, and he liked him above all because this was the first human companionship that he had had in a time that seemed ages.
Obed meanwhile was examining him with scrutinizing eyes.

He had heard the voice of fever, but he did not expect to find in the "tomb" next to his own a mere boy.
"How does it happen," he asked, "that one as young as you is a prisoner here in a dungeon with the castle of San Juan de Ulua and the sea on top of him ?" Obed White had the mellowest and most soothing voice that Ned had ever heard.

Now it was like that of a father speaking to the sick son whom he loved, and the boy trusted him absolutely.
"I was sent here," he replied, "by Santa Anna and his brother-in-law, Cos, because I knew too much, or rather suspected too much.