Galleon by Dudley Pope

Author:Dudley Pope [Pope, Dudley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Naval Fiction, Historical
ISBN: 9780802709899
Google: ZBo5kIbPkvcC
Amazon: 0755104390
Barnesnoble: 0755104390
Goodreads: 2245386
Publisher: Walker & Co
Published: 1986-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Ned did not think four men in a boat could take so long to get alongside theGriffin and board.

Yes, Julio could not rush back because if any Spanish were watching from the shore they would be puzzled (or even suspicious) of such haste. Yes, the sun was scorching and the two men at the oars wearing breastplates and backplates must be as hot as steaming kettles — not that anyone in the Tropics ever saw a boiling kettle steam, unless it was a very cold morning in January. . .He was thankful thatAureliawas so patient: it was extraordinary how she understood him, a man born without patience.

Finally seamen were at the bulwarks taking the boat's painter and sternfast and Julio swung over the bulwark, landing on the deck with a thump. Grinning, he gave Ned a salute and then swept off his hat in a deep bow toAurelia.

"From the silly grin on your face it seems the news is good," Ned growled, still irritated by the man's tardiness.

"What little we could find out was good," Julio said cautiously, obviously put out by Ned's manner and not understanding its cause.

Ned gestured to the square of canvas rigged up over the afterdeck to provide some shade.

"Let's stand under the awning; it's so damned hot in this bay: the hills shut off all the breeze."

The other three Spaniards joined them, the two in armour thankfully undoing the straps and taking off their breast and backplates, revealing the shirts underneath sodden and dark with perspiration. Their hair was matted and flattened by theweight and heat of the helmets; where the edges of the helmets had rested, both had livid red weals across their brows below the hairline.

Julio, as if wanting his three countrymen to share in his report, waited patiently. A diving pelican hit the water with a splash a moment before one of the men dropped his helmet on deck with a clatter, and black-headed gulls circled uttering shrill cries, waiting for the pelican to sit squarely on the sea, water streaming from the bulbous pouch forming his lower beak and letting some small fish accidentally escape to provide a meal for the gulls.

"Well," said Julio, "we landed on the jetty and there to meet us was thealcalde, theaduana,the priest and the agent for the man who owns the salt pans behind the mangroves —"

"Come on!" Ned urged, but it was clear toAureliathat Julio had reached his hour of importance, when he had the complete attention of the Admiral of the Brethren of the Coast, and he was not going to rush anything; a time of glory to be savoured, not gulped, but Ned would not understand that in a thousand years.

"—all very friendly and obviously wondering what they could get out of us. If you want to ship fifty tons of salt to Vieques — that's an island just off the eastern end of Porto Rico — the agent will pay well."

"No salt," Ned said, hoping to speed up Julio's report.

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