whose memory also got
some stimulus from Rob's stories, related how lie met a Spanish
prisoner in a Dutch town, who told him that the pebbles in "El
Dorado's" land were all pearls or jewels, sometimes one, sometimes the
other--just according to the haphazard luck of the thing. Then honest
Rob took some more sack, and found that he distinctly remembered
meeting a Bideford man on Plymouth Hoe who had sailed with a Bristol
captain whose twin brother had shot a no-headed, breast-eyed monster,
and had immediately afterwards been stunned by the stone club of a
two-headed gentleman of those same parts. 'Twas an exciting adventure
altogether, and Rob proceeded to remember the details and relate them.
As for the forests, the swamps, the lurking reptiles and ravenous
beasts, the huge crabs, venomous snakes, and the fevered ghosts and
ghouls that wreathed up after sunset from the pools and rivers--why!
Rob had seen all those things for himself. He had also handled bars of
gold and lumps of silver, and let pearls run through his fingers like
beads. Captain Dawe, Master Morgan, and the ladies might be assured
that they had heard but a tithe of the wonders and horrors that might
be told them. Ah! that wonderful New World! Brave Rob shook the head
that was bereft of an ear. He had talked to them for three hours, but
he had no gift of speech, and had been unable to give them any real
idea of the glamour and mystery that lay beneath the setting sun.

Nevertheless, he had set each heart and brain pulsing and throbbing
with wild dreams. The world was changing for Johnnie Morgan. The
admiral and Raleigh had opened his eyes in the glades of the forest,
and taught him to look beyond its treetops. Master Jeffreys had
extended his view, and all men and all things in London Town seemed to
probe deeper into his mind, and find new emotions and desires, and stir
them into active life. The grim old Forest of Dean was dwarfing to a
mere coppice; the rushing Severn was becoming an insignificant brook.
The forester's heart was expanding; his eyes were opening; his arms
were stretching forth to grasp that which was finite, yet infinite. He
dreamed strange dreams; his eyes started open to behold wondrous
visions. The fever of the time was getting into his blood. Vague,
half-understood impulses moved him hither and thither. He groped, and
touched nothing. He cried out, "What do I want?"

A woman answered the question the very next day.