It is curious, too, for Pipon was not a man to get drunk.

He did not speak a word of the language, and therefore could not have had a dispute with a Spaniard.
"We have been ordered to be more vigilant than before.

I suppose the authorities think that perhaps there was some attempt to bribe him and, on his seizing the man who made it, some of the fellow's comrades rushed upon him, and killed him." Ryan wondered whether the supposition was a correct one, and whether the men concerned had been set at work by Terence, in order to effect his release.

Two days later, on cutting the loaf that formed his day's ration of bread, he found a small piece of paper in its centre.

It had evidently been put there before the bread was baked for, although he examined it very closely, he could find no sign in the crust of an incision by which the note might have been inserted.