hose men they
are. But they answered him in a language he can't understand, d'ye see,
and after some jabbering he makes them understand that he wants to go on
board to see their captain. I went along, for I'd no mind to leave him
alone if there should be trouble.

"So soon as I set eyes on the captain I knew him for a chap I'd seen
years ago in Venice. He did me a good turn there, too, though he was but
a lad. I knew he was a Bristol man, but I hadn't expected to see him or
his ship so far from home. He could talk Spanish nearly as well as you
do.

"'What are you doing here?' asks our worshipful commander.

"'Looking at the sky,' said the other man, cool as a cucumber. 'I think
we are going to have a storm.'

"'Don't bandy words with me,' says Ojeda. 'You are trespassing on my
master's dominions.'

"'Your master is the Admiral of the Indies, no?' says the stranger, and
that pretty near shut our young gentleman's mouth for a minute, for
between you and me I think he knows that Colon has not been well
treated. But he only got the more furious.

"'Do you insult me?' says he, and whips out his Toledo blade and bends
it almost double, to show the quality.

"'Wait a minute, my young hornet,' says the captain--he wasn't much more
than a boy, himself,--'didn't your master the Duke of Medina Coeli teach
you better than to irritate a man on the deck of his own ship? Mine can
sail two leagues to your one, and I'm just leaving for home, so, unless
you would like to go with me, perhaps you will let this conversation end
without any more pointed remarks. If I chose, you know, I could drop you
overboard in sight of your men, to swim ashore. My guns would stave your
longboat all to pieces. But I've stayed long enough to give the lads a
chance to have a good meal and a bit of fun--nothing's better than
dancing, for the spirits, dad always said it was better than either
fighting or dicing on shipboard. Before we part, though, I'm going to
give you one piece of advice. Don't stir up these coast natives too
often. If you do, they'll eat you. They use poisoned arrows in some of
these parts, and there's no cure for that but a red-hot iron.'

"The caballero's temper is like gunpowder--it flashes up in a second,
or not at all. He must ha' seen that the captain meant him kindness.
Anyway, he slips his sword back in the scabbard and says cool as you
please,

"'Senor, pardon my hasty conclusion. You have of course a perfect right
to l