Another week must pass before they could sail.
If they returned to Palos it was doubtful whether they could get any men
at all to replace the disloyal ones. Too much delay might cause the
withdrawal of Martin Pinzon and his brother Vicente, owners of the
_Nina_; and if they went, most of the seamen who were worth their salt
would go also. La Cosa himself in the Admiral's place would go on and
take the chance of mutiny, trusting in his own power to prevent or
subdue it.
"Pedro," he said, "have you told this to any one else?"
"Not a soul."
"Would you like to sail with us?"
"Will a wolf bite? Why do you suppose I told you all this?"
"Bite your tongue then, wolf-cub, until I have seen the Admiral. Where
shall I find you if I want you?"
"Tia Josefa over there lets me sleep in the courtyard."
"Very well--now, off with you."
The Admiral said exactly what the pilot had thought he would say. He
knew himself to be looked upon with envy and dislike, as a Genoese, and
the Spaniards who made up his three crews had been collected as with a
rake from the unwilling Andalusian seaports. It was decided that the
mutinous sailors should be scattered so that they could not easily act
together. Pedro was taken on as cabin-boy, for he was thirteen, and
wiser than his age.
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