the unsophisticated young Englishman looked no more
than merely pleasing representations of landscapes and shipping, but
several of them bore as signatures names that are now world famous,
while some of the paintings which Saint Leger regarded as hardly worthy
of a second glance to-day adorn picture galleries, the contents of which
are reckoned of incalculable value. The furniture was elegantly carved
and richly gilt, the upholstery was of velvet and silk; a guitar gaily
decorated with ribbons lay where it had been carelessly placed upon one
of the divans, with a pair of beautifully embroidered gloves near it;
and the after-bulkhead supported a splendid trophy of weapons,
conspicuous among which was a magnificent sword with a gold hilt and a
Toledo blade elegantly damascened in gold.

A door in this bulkhead showed that there was another apartment on the
other side of it, and to this door George strode and, sword in hand,
flung it open, holding himself ready for a sudden attack by the
occupant. But the room--which was a large state-room, as handsomely
furnished as the grand saloon--was untenanted; and then George suddenly
remembered that upon the arrival of the galleon he had seen several
people leave her in the galley, and it now began to dawn upon him that
those people must undoubtedly have been the captain and principal
officers of the ship, who, in accordance with the Spanish fashion of the
times, had no doubt regarded their duty as at an end with the letting go
of the anchor, and had accordingly gone ashore to celebrate the
successful completion of the voyage. And so upon further inspection it
proved, not a single officer of any description being found in the after
part of the ship, which, by the way, proved to be named the _Cristobal
Colon_. As regards the remainder of the crew, a cautious reconnoitre
revealed the fact that they were all sleeping more or less soundly in
their stifling quarters on the lower deck, and this ascertained, it was
not difficult to arouse them by a sudden call of "All hands on deck!"
They came, stumbling, grumbling, execrating, and still more than half
asleep, up through the hatchways, and as they came, unarmed, they were
carefully herded upon the fore part of the deck where, when all hands of
them had appeared, they were placed under the guard of a strong body of
Englishmen armed with loaded muskets, and told with pithy succinctness
that the first man who attempted to move without ord