"Very well; if you think so we will say nothing more about it. I thought
perhaps you would like to have him aft with you."

"I am much obliged to you, but I think the other way will be best; and I
am sure he would feel more comfortable with the other apprentices than as
a passenger."

"Are you going out for long, may I ask you, Mr. Prendergast?"

"For a couple of years or so. I am going to wander about and do some
shooting and exploring and that sort of thing, and I am taking him with me
as companion. I speak Spanish fairly well myself, and shall teach him on
the voyage, if you will allow me to do so. A knowledge of that language
will be an advantage to him when he comes back into Prosser & Co.'s
service."

"A great advantage," the captain agreed. "Most of us speak a little
Spanish, but I have often thought that it would pay the company to send a
man who could talk the lingo well in each ship. They could call him
supercargo, and I am sure he would pay his wages three or four times over
by being able to bargain and arrange with the Chilians and Peruvians. In
ports like Callao, where there is a British consul, things are all right,
but in the little ports we are fleeced right and left. Boatmen and
shopkeepers charge us two or three times as much as they do their own
countrymen, and I am sure that we could get better bargains in hides and
other produce if we had someone who could knock down their prices."

"When do you sail, Captain?"