We all looked and saw them in a
clear canal between two floating masses. It brought the
Admiral credence. "Look you all!" he said, "how most
things have been seen before!"
"But Father Aristotle's ship--Was he `Saint' or
`Father'?"
"He was a heathen--he believed in Mahound."
"No, he lived before Mahound. He was a wise man--"
"But his ships turned back to Cadiz. They were afraid
of this stuff--that's the point!"
"They turned back," said the Admiral. "And the splendor
and the gold were kept for us."
A thicker carpet of the stuff brushed ship side. One of
the boys cried, "Ho, there is a crab!" It sat indeed on a
criss-cross of broken reeds, and it seemed to stare at us
solemnly. "Do not all see that it came from land, and land
to the west?"
"But it is caught here! What if we are caught here too?
These weeds may stem us--turn great crab pincers and
hold us till we rot!"
"If--and if--and if" cried the Admiral. "For
Christ, His sake, laugh at yourselves!"
On, on, we went before that warm and potent wind, so
steadfast that there must be controlling it some natural law.
Ocean-Sea spread around, with that weed like a marsh at
springtide. Then, suddenly, just as the murmuring faction
was murmuring again, we cleared all that. Open sea, blue
running ocean, endlessly endless!
The too-steady sunshine vanished.
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