ve risen to
Adelantado in some South American province if he had not been too
scrupulous to join Pizarro. He was in London, ten or fifteen years
before I knew him, and I believe he was the destruction of a
well-considered Spanish plot for the assassination of Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth--the assassins nearly killed him. He was left for dead and was
picked up by some sailors."

"He was in luck." Drake's eyes twinkled.

"They would have been luckier--if they had let the Spanish agents in
London know they had him. He paid them well of course, but he gave them
credit for the most exalted motives. All his geese were swans."

"Maybe they acted out o' pure decency," Drake said dryly.

"My Admiral, this is not Utopia." Doughty stroked his beard with a light
complacent hand. "Seriously, it is not a kindness to expect of men
without traditions more than they are capable of doing. 'E meglio
cade dalle fenestre che del tetto.'" (It is better to fall from the
window than from the roof.)

Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard with the blade
inlaid with gold and the great ruby in the top of the hilt, which lay on
the table between them. The shipmaster came in just then with some
question, and the conversation dropped.

[Illustration: "DRAKE WAS SILENT, FINGERING THE SLENDER MILANESE
PONIARD."--_Page_ 227]

It was not often that Francis Drake attempted to analyze the character
and behavior of those about him. Mostly he judged men by a shrewd
instinct; but that night he lay long awake, watching the witch-lights
upon the waves from the dancing lanterns. He was acute enough to see
that Doughty had hit slyly at him over Saavedra's shoulders. Doughty had
not liked it that Moone should be raised to the rank of captain; he had
already shown that he regarded himself as second only to Drake in
command, and the champion of the gentlemen as distinct from the
mariners. The second officer of every English ship was a practical
shipmaster whose authority held in all matters concerning navigation.
The soldiers and their officers were passengers. This was unavoidable in
view of the new method of English sea-fighting, which depended quite as
much on the skill of the seamen as on the armed and trained soldier.
English gunners could give the foe a broadside and slip away before
their huge adversary could turn. Drake now had two factions to deal
with, and he bent his brows and set his jaw as he pondered the
situation. If discord