looked round on all their faces.

Then he told them of the expedition up the west coast, and of the towns
they sacked; and the opulent names rolled oddly off his tongue, and
seemed to bring a whiff of southern scent into this panelled English
room,--Valparaiso, Tarapaca, and Arica--; and of the capture of the
_Cacafuego_ off Quibdo; and of the enormous treasure they took, the
great golden crucifix with emeralds of the size of pigeon's eggs, and the
chests of pearls, and the twenty-six tons of silver, and the wedges of
pure gold from the Peruvian galleon, and of the golden falcon from the
Chinese trader that they captured south of Guatulco. And he described the
search up the coast for the passage eastwards that never existed; and of
Drake's superb resolve to return westwards instead, by the Moluccas; and
how they stayed at Ternate, south of Celebes, and coasted along Java
seeking a passage, and found it in the Sunda straits, and broke out from
the treacherous islands into the open sea; crossed to Africa, rounded the
Cape of Good Hope; came up the west coast, touching at Sierra Leone, and
so home again along the Spanish and French coasts, to Plymouth Sound and
the pealing of Plymouth bells.

And he broke out into something very like eloquence when he spoke of
Drake.

"Never was such a captain," he cried, "with his little stiff beard and
his obstinate eyes. I have seen him stand on the poop, when the arrows
were like hail on the deck, with one finger in the ring round his
neck,--so": and Hubert thrust a tanned finger into a link of his chain,
and lifted his chin, "just making little signs to the steersman, with his
hand behind his back, to bring the ship nearer to the Spaniard; as cool,
I tell you, as cool as if he were playing merelles. Oh! and then when we
boarded, out came his finger from his ring; and there was none that
struck so true and fierce; and all in silence too, without an oath or a
cry or a word; except maybe to give an order. But he was very sharp with
all that angered him. When we sighted the _Madre di Dios_, I ran into
his cabin to tell him of it, without saluting, so full was my head of
the chase. And he looked at me like ice; and then roared at me to know
where my manners were, and bade me go out and enter again properly,
before he would hear my news; and then I heard him rating the man that
stood at his door for letting me pass in that state. At his dinner, too,
which he took alone, there were always