he
girl's name was Nina. One of the small caravels in her father's
three-ship fleet was named after her. Her full name was Nina Columbus.

Nina brought another wet cloth and covered Danny's swollen throat with
it. "Does it hurt much?" she said, and, for the tenth time, "we have no
money to thank you with, senor."

"Any man would have--"

"But you were the only one. The only--never mind. Martin, listen. I have
no right to trouble you, but ... it's father. Tomorrow is the second day
of August, you see, and it is all over Palos that tomorrow he sails with
the Queen's charter...."

"Then if you're worrying about that big man, Pietro, you can forget it.
If you're sailing, I mean."

"That's just it," Nina said desperately. "Father doesn't want to sail.
Martin, tell me, do you believe the world is round?"

Danny nodded very soberly. "Yes, Nina," he told her softly. "The world
is round. I believe it."

"My father doesn't! Funny, isn't it, Martin?" she said in a voice which
told him she did not think it was funny at all. "All Spain--and Genoa
too--think that tomorrow morning my father, Christopher Columbus, will
journey to the unexplored west confident that he will arrive, after a
long voyage, in the East--when really my father, this same Christopher
Columbus, lies here in a drunken stupor because he lacks the courage to
face his convictions and ... oh, Martin!" Her voice broke, her pretty
face crumpled. She sobbed into her hands. Gently, Danny stroked her
back.

* * * * *

"There now, take it easy," he said. "Your father will sail. I know he'll
sail. Do you believe the world to be round, little Nina?"

"Yes. Oh yes, yes, yes!"

"He will sail. He will prove it and be famous. I know he will."

"Oh, Martin. You sound so sure of yourself. I wish I could ..."

"Nina, listen. Your father will sail."

"You'll help us you mean?"

"Yes. All right, I'll help you. Now, get some sleep if you want to wake
up and say goodbye to him in the morning. Because I'll be getting him up
before the sun to--"

"Are you a sailing man too? Are you going with him?"

"Well ..."

"Wait! Martin, I remember you now. Martin Pinzon. At the meeting of the
organization to prove the Earth's round shape. You! You were there. And
once, once when he was not drunk, father said that a Don Pinzon would
command one of our three ships, the Nina it was, the caravel which
bears my name. Are you this Don Pinzon?"

Slow