der in astonishment. They had
never tasted rum and were quite sure they would not care for it. Wine they
knew, almost as little about, using that they had found on "The Galleon"
chiefly as a medicine, and they ended, one and all, by choosing a mild
West Indian drink, a kind of orange water. Lieutenant Bernal reached over
and with his two hands felt gingerly of Henry's mighty right arm.

"Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that such a muscle and such a body
have been built up and nourished by things as mild as orange water?"

"Not orange water, but plain water," replied Henry laughing. "But in
Maryland where I was born, and in Kentucky, where I've been growing up,
the water is very good, clear, pure, and cold."

"Will you kindly stand up a moment?" said the lieutenant.

Henry promptly stood up and then Lieutenant Diego Bernal, standing by the
side of him, was about a head the shorter. Then the young lieutenant made
a wry face.

"And I have drunk wine all my life," he said plaintively, "and he has
drunk only water!"

The two sat down again, and the others laughed. Their talk and actions had
attracted the attention of a number in the room, and a large man with
great gold bands in his ears, rose and sauntered over toward them. He was
a dark fellow, evidently a West Indian Spaniard with a dash of Carib.

"I have drunk rum and wine and all other liquors all my life," he said,
"but I am neither little nor weak."

His tone was truculent, and his flushed face indicated that he had already
taken too much.

"Go away, Menocal," said Monsieur Gilibert, in a voice half soothing, half
warning. "I do not wish my guests to be annoyed."

But Menocal would not turn away. He put his hand upon Henry's shoulder.

"This is a great youth," he said. "They grow large in the new country to
the north that they call Kaintock, but I, Alonzo Menocal of Santo Domingo,
am the stronger. Stand up, thou youth of Kaintock, by the side of me!"

Henry promptly stood up again, and the young giant towered above Alonzo
Menocal of Santo Domingo, tall though the West Indian was. Moreover he had
greater breadth of shoulder and a deeper chest.

"Ha, thou Kaintock!" exclaimed Menocal, "thou art the taller and the
larger, but I am the stronger, as I shall quickly prove!"

The size of Henry acted as an irritant upon Menocal, already flushed with
intoxicants, and he seized the youth by the waist in an attempt to hurl
him to the floor and thus prove his s