etter to Diego Colon, son of the great Admiral and
governor of the island, explaining his need for more troops in view of
what he had just learned about a new and wealthy kingdom not far away.
He frankly requested the Governor to use his influence with the King to
make this discovery possible without delay.

Weeks passed, and Valdivia did not come back. Provisions again became
scarce. Then a letter from Balboa's friend Zamudio, who had gone to
Spain in the same ship with the Bachelor Enciso, in order to defend
Balboa's course. Everything, it seemed, had gone wrong. The King had
listened to the eloquence of the Bachelor, and would probably send for
Balboa to come to Spain to answer criminal charges. It was said that he
meant to send out as governor of Darien, in the place of Balboa, an old
and wily courtier, one of Fonseca's favorites, named Pedro Arias de
Avila, and usually called Pedrarias.

"That," said Balboa, handing the letter over to Saavedra to read, "seems
to mean that the fat has gone into the fire."

"What shall you do?"

"If the King's summons arrives," said Balboa reflectively, "I think I
will be on the top of that mountain range looking for the sea the
cacique spoke of."

"I will go at once and make my preparations," assented the other. "Did
you know that Pizarro has adopted that dog--the Spitfire--Enciso's
brute?"

"Has the dog adopted him?" laughed Balboa, extracting a thorn with the
utmost care from the paw of Leoncico.

"That is a shrewd question. You know I have a theory that a man is known
by his dog. This beast seems to have changed character when he changed
masters. When Enciso had him he was little more than a puppy, and then
he was thievish and cowardly. Now he will attack an Indian as savagely
as Leoncico himself. Pizarro must have put the iron into him."

"Pizarro can," said Balboa carelessly. "He does it with his men. I think
there is more in that fellow than we have supposed. We shall see--this
expedition will be a kind of test."

Saavedra, as he went to his own quarters, wondered whether Balboa were
really as unconscious and unsuspicious as he seemed.

"Like dog, like master," he said to himself. "Cacafuego shifted collars
as easily as any mongrel does--as readily as Pizarro himself would. I
think that Leoncico, left here without Balboa, would die. Neither a dog
or a man has any business with two masters. I wonder whether in the end
we shall conquer this land, or find that the lan