Meanwhile, in the dark hold of the ship, a small bay stallion was pawing the floor of his stall. His beady eyes darted to the lookout man in the crow’s-nest, then to the men on deck. That shrill horse call! Again it filled the air about him with a wild ring. Without the ponies to work the mines, there will be no more gold.” Then he clenched his fists. “The Viceroy of Peru sets great store by the ponies, and well he may. “Think of trading twenty ponies for their weight in gold!” He clasped his hands behind him and resumed his pacing and muttering. He could almost feel the smooth, hard gold in the packs on the donkeys’ backs. He could see it snaking its way along the Gold Road from Panama to the seaport of Puerto Bello. In his mind’s eye he could see the mule train coming to meet him when he reached land. The captain’s eyes were fixed on his men, but his thoughts raced ahead to the rich land where he was bound. They fell to work furiously, carrying out orders. From forward and aft all hands came running. “We must shorten sail,” he made up his mind.Ĭupping his hands to his mouth, he bellowed orders: “Furl the topgallant sail! Furl the coursers and the maintopsail! Shorten the fore-topsail!” “When the wind does strike, it will strike with fury.” His steps quickened. “We lie in the latitude of white squalls,” he said, a look of vexation on his face. He plucked nervously at his rusty black beard as if that would help him think. And now this sudden calm, this heavy warning of a storm. The Moor ponies to be delivered to the Viceroy of Peru could not be kept alive much longer. And if he did not get there, and get there soon, he was headed for trouble. He could feel his flesh creep with the sails.
It was spilling out of the sails, causing them to quiver and shake. “Cursed be that stallion!” he muttered under his breath as he stamped forward and back, forward and back.
The captain of the Santo Cristo strode the poop deck. It was not the cry of an animal in hunger. A WILD, ringing neigh shrilled up from the hold of the Spanish galleon.
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