"I will take away these irons so
that if--"
The Admiral's silver hair gleamed in the dusk. He moved
and his gyves struck together. "Villejo!" he said, "if I
lie to-night on the floor of Ocean-Sea, I will lie there in these
chains! When the sea gives up its dead, I will rise in them!"
"I could force you, senor," said Villejo.
The other answered, "Try it, and God will make your
hands like a babe's!"
Villejo and the smith did not try it. There was something
around him like an invisible guard. I knew the feel of it,
and that it was his will emerged at height.
"Remember then, senor, that I would have done it for
you!" Villejo touched the door. The Admiral's voice came
after. "My brother, Don Bartholomew, he who was responsible
to me and only through me to the Sovereigns,
free him, Villejo, and you have all my thanks!"
We went to take the gyves from Don Bartholomew. It
would have been comfort to these brothers to be together in
prison--but that the Governor of Hispaniola straitly forbade.
When Villejo had explained what he would do, the
Adelantado asked, "What of the Admiral?"
"I wish to take them from him also. But he is obstinate
in his pride and will not!"
"He will go as he is to the Queen and Spain and the
world," said Juan Lepe.
"That is enough for me," answered the Adelantado. "I
do not go down to-night a freed body while he goes down a
chained.
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