"Lord love you, sir; yes, faith, if they had but been there. Many's the
time that I thought to myself, as we went alongside, 'Oh, if Captain
Drake was but here, well to windward, and our old crew of the "Dragon"!'
Ask your pardon, gentles: but how is Captain Drake, if I may make so
bold?"
Neither could hold out longer.
"Fellow, fellow!" cried Sir Richard, springing up, "either thou art the
cunningest liar that ever earned a halter, or thou hast done a deed
the like of which never man adventured. Dost thou not know that Captain
Drake took that 'Cacafuogo' and all her freight, in February come two
years?"
"Captain Drake! God forgive me, sir; but--Captain Drake in the South
Seas? He saw them, sir, from the tree-top over Panama, when I was with
him, and I too; but sailed them, sir?--sailed them?"
"Yes, and round the world too," said Amyas, "and I with him; and took
that very 'Cacafuogo' off Cape San Francisco, as she came up to Panama."
One glance at the man's face was enough to prove his sincerity. The
great stern Anabaptist, who had not winced at the news of his mother's
death, dropt right on his knees on the floor, and burst into violent
sobs.
"Glory to God! Glory to God! O Lord, I thank thee! Captain Drake in
the South Seas! The blood of thy innocents avenged, O Lord! The spoiler
spoiled, and the proud robbed; and all they whose hands were mighty have
found nothing.
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