"Oh, Queen Luck,
that I have served for so long! Why do you not make me
viceroy?"
Said Escobedo, "Viceroy of the continent of water and
Admiral of seaweed and fishes!"
Diego de Arana took that up. "We are obliged to find
something! No sensible man can think like some of those
forward that this goes on forever and we shall sail till the
wood rots and sails grow ragged and wind carries away their
shreds or they fall into dust!"
"Who knows anything of River-Ocean? We may not
find the western shore, if there be such a thing, for a year!
By that time storm will sink us ten times over, or plague
will take us--"
"There's not needed plague nor storm. Just say, food
won't last, and water is already half gone!"
"That's the undeniable truth," quoth Roderigo Sanchez,
and looked with a perturbed face at the too-smooth sea.
Smooth blue sea continued, wind continued, pushing like
a great, warm hand, east to west. The Admiral spent hours
alone in his sleeping cabin. There were men who said that
he studied there a great book of magic. He had often a
book in his hand, it is true, but Juan Lepe the physician
knew what he strove to keep from others, that the gout that
at times threatened crippling was upon him and was easier
to bear lying down.
Sunset, vesper prayer and _Salve Regina_. As the strains
died, there became evident a lingering on the part of the
seamen.
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