Him will I cause my men to lower into the boat and bring
to you after our return tonight."
In silence Torquam inclined his head. Nothing could have pleased him
more. He would be the first then, of all his tribe to own one of those
strange yet wondrous creatures never before seen in his world until the
Spanish landed! Yet only the eager gleam in his eyes betrayed his
pleasure. But Harold of Wessex stared at his captain in blank
astonishment, for the gift he had just bestowed with such apparent
carelessness was the most valuable bit of cargo in the ship, a costly
Arabian horse intended for the young noble's own special comfort and
convenience during the search for gold on which they were bound. Was
Drake gone suddenly mad, then, thus to throw away, and that without
permission, his choicest property on a mere savage? Hot with resentment
he was about to interfere; but before he could obey the rash impulse his
better judgment prevailed, and just in time he remembered how, on
several other such occasions, his very life had been saved by some swift
expedient of Drake's and his tact in handling the natives.
Slowly Sir Francis continued, and now one watching intently might have
sensed from the gleam in his eyes that he had reached the real point in
the interview.
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