When at last the feast was finished, Torquam rose, and removing with
slow solemnity his crest of eagle feathers, he placed it upon the head
of Sir Francis, a seal of everlasting friendship. With difficulty young
Harold suppressed a smile. But the older man, as well aware of what the
situation demanded as he was keenly alive to its danger, received the
attention with a gravity fully equal to that of his host. Indeed, he
went still further.

"Most gracious hast thou been, oh Torquam, all wise chief of the
Mariposa," he began in carefully chosen Spanish, "nor shall thy kingly
gift remain unrequited. Listen, oh Torquam! On yonder vessel I carry
steeds like those of which I told you. For a journey over the mountains
of the north we have brought them. One there is, swifter of foot than
all the rest. Him will I cause my men to lower into the boat and bring
to you after our return tonight."

In silence Torquam inclined his head. Nothing could have pleased him
more. He would be the first then, of all his tribe to own one of those
strange yet wondrous creatures never before seen in his world until the
Spanish landed! Yet only the eager gleam in his eyes betrayed his
pleasure. But Harold of Wessex stared at his captain in blank
astonishment, for the gift he had just bestowed with such apparent
carelessness was the most valuable bit of cargo in the ship, a costly
Arabian horse intended for the young noble's own special comfort and
convenience during the search for gold on which they were bound. Was
Drake gone suddenly mad, then, thus to throw away, and that without
permission, his choicest property on a mere savage? Hot with resentment
he was about to interfere; but before he could obey the rash impulse his
better judgment prevailed, and just in time he remembered how, on