"The tide
went out, but it came back bearing the sound of where we
were going!"
"Then what happened in Palos?"
"What happened was that they couldn't get the ships and
they couldn't get the men! Palos wouldn't listen. It was
too wild, what they wanted to do! It wouldn't listen to
the Prior and it wouldn't listen to Doctor Garcia Fernandez,
and it wouldn't even listen to Captain Martin Alonso Pinzon.
And when that happens--! So for a long time there
was a kind of angry calm. And then, lo you! we find that
they have written to the Queen and the King. There come
letters to Palos, and they are harsh ones!"
"I never heard harsher from any King and Queen!" said
Fernando.
"There weren't only the letters, but they'd sent also a great
man, Senor Juan de Penelosa, to see that they got obedience.
Upshot is we've got to go, ships and men, or else be laid by
the heels! As for Palos, her old sea privileges would be
taken from her, and she couldn't face that. Get those ships
ready and stock them and pipe sailors aboard, or there'd
be our kind Queen and King to deal with!"
"Wherever it is, we're going. Great folk are too tall
and broad for us!"
"So there comes another crowd in the square, before the
church. Out steps Captain Martin Pinzon, and he cries,
`Men of Palos, for all you doubt it, 'tis a glorious thing
that's doing! Here is the _Nina_ that my brothers and I own.
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