Returning to Noah, I laid before him our arrangements; incidentally, I would get a morsel of food, since I had had none that morning, and my stomach was much inclined to take this neglect in dudgeon.
Having a private parlor to ourselves, for Kendall and Hill would lunch with me, I sent for what we craved and urged dispatch. The repast was brought, and while we did it honor with knife and fork, Noah sipped a thimbleful of sherry, saying he accepted it to quicken the eye and give vigor and pliancy to the wrist.
As we lunched, Noah called for a messenger.
“Find Mr. Rivera,” said Noah; “bring him to me here.”
There was a question on my tongue; it covered the charge tossed over my shoulder by the man, Witherspoon, that Noah had fixed the country's status as a nation of heathen among the powers of the earth.
“The statement is true,” said Noah; “the story is brief. It was during the last war, and while I represented the country in Tunis. A Yankee privateer, little but valiant, came into port towing a hulking English merchantman, whereof, cutlass in hand, he had made prize. The Yankee would have the merchantman condemned in the courts of Tunis, and sold. The British minister objected; he recalled the Bey, before whom we both appeared, to his treaty made with England. One clause precluded the use of Tunis as a port of condemnation for English ships made prize in wars between England and any other 'Christian nation.' The phrase was 'Christian nation.' There was no going about the treaty; it stood in ink and sheepskin. Whereupon I read the learned Bey—himself a darkened pagan—our constitution. I showed him we were not a 'Christian nation,' but admitted every creed or sect or sept or faith of men, Gentile or Jew or Musselman, and all on common terms. It was impossible we should be a 'Christian nation;' the treaty with England did not in this instance tie his hands. The Bey held with me; America was not a 'Christian nation;' the prize was condemned and sold. The Bey would receive one-fifth of the proceeds of that sale; which may or may not have aided his wisdom to the decision I've described. Still, it was a decision; and since it never has been quarreled with or overturned, a heathen country we remain to this day in the eye of international law.”
As Noah ended his scrap of history, a tall young man, square and heavy of shoulders, and with every movement of his body as smoothly sure and sinuous as the movements of a cat, appeared. He was that Rivera for whom Noah had sent.
“Go to my rooms and bring me a pair of swords,” said Noah.
“The smallswords?” asked Rivera, with just a thought of interest.
“No; the Spanish swords.”