t have him in, and by and by comes the prior and stands to
talk with him, 'From where?' 'From Cordova.' 'Whither?' 'To Portugal.'
'For why?' 'To speak again with King John!' 'Are you in the habit of
speaking with kings?' 'Aye, I am!' 'About what, may I ask?' 'About
the finding of India by way of Ocean-Sea, the possession of idolatrous
countries and the great wealth thereof, and the taking of Christ to the
heathen who else are lost!'"

"Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" This was Escobedo.

"The prior thinks, 'This is an interesting madman.' And being a
charitable good man and lacking entertainment that evening, he brings
the beggar in to supper and sits by him."

Roderigo Sanchez opened his mouth. "All Andalusia knows Fray Juan Perez
is a kind of visionary!"

"Aye, like to like! 'Have you been to our Queen and the King?' 'Aye, I
have!' saith the beggar, 'but they are warring with the Moors and will
pull Granada down and do not see the greater glory!'"

All laughed at that, and indeed Gutierrez could mimic to perfection. We
got, full measure, the beggar's loftiness.

"So the siren sings and the prior leaps to meet her, or tarantula stings
him and he dances! 'I am growing mad too,' thinks Fray Juan Perez, and
begins presently to tell that last week he dreamed of Prester John. The
end is that he and the beggar talk till midnight and the next morning
they talk again, and the prior sends for his friends Captain Martin
Alonzo Pinzon and the physician Garcia Fernandez. The beggar gains them
all!"

"Do you think a beggar can do that?" I said. "Only a giver can do that."

Pedro Gutierrez turned black eyes upon Juan Lepe, whom he resented there
on the poop deck. "How could you have learned so much, Doctor, while you
were making sail and washing ship?" He was my younger in every way, and
I answered equably, "I learned in the same way that the Admiral learned
while he begged."

"Touched!" said Diego de Arana. "So that is the way the prior came into
the business?"

"He enters with such vigor," said Gutierrez, "that what does he do but
write an impassioned letter to the Queen, having long ago, for a time,
been her confessor? What he tells her, God knows, but it seems that it
changes the world! She answers that for herself she hath grieved for
Master Columbus's departure from the court and the realm, and that if
he will turn and come to Santa Fe, his propositions shall at last be
thoroughly weighed. Letter finds the beggar with his boy hono