"What! Has your Prince attacked my pearl fishery with his ships?"
"No," said Master Benson negligently. "He had not his fleet with him at the time. He was accompanied only by this young gentleman here, his secretary, and enlisted temporarily the services of a few cow-killers from Hispaniola, and took a coasting pink, and with her visited the pearl fishery. He did no very great feat of arms. He was obliged to leave one of your Excellency's war-carracks ablaze, and the other on the rocks, and make a retreat with some precipitancy. But he took with him all the pearls which had been fished during the season, and those made a very pretty booty for his score and a half of men."
"No word of this has reached me. A score and a half of men against that armada? It seems, sir, that you are speaking of an impossibility."
"There were not many left to carry word," said the envoy. "But your Excellency may recognise these seals which I have brought in my pocket? His Highness cut them from the necks of the leathern pearl bags."
The Governor started, and passed a tremulous hand before his eyes. "Yes," he said after a pause, "they are my seals."
"It was a wasteful way of collecting revenue," suggested the envoy. "Much was spilled for the little that was taken away. If his Highness came here in person to levy a loan for the kingdom——"
"He would never get here," cried the Governor violently. "Carrajo! Señor, with your own eyes you must have seen the strength of the forts!"
"It was an open advertisement, your Excellency. So was the strength of your pearl-fishing armada. But as this point of ours cannot be settled without a trial (though for myself I can unhesitatingly declare that the Prince will take the city if he attempts it) let me bring to your notice another matter which we can agree upon. If Rupert did come before this place with his fleet, you would be put to heavy expense resisting him, whether his arms were successful or no. You would lose largely in both men and munitions of war; your defences would be battered, and shot-torn; there would be burning of houses and wasting of magazines; and there would occur a paralysis of trade which only years could cure. And what would the trouble be all about? To avoid the loan of a paltry ten thousand pieces-of-eight to a needy King. Why, your Excellency, it would cost you ten times that amount if you could beat Prince Rupert off, once he made an attack; and should he get foothold in Caraccas here, you would find it cheap to purchase his retirement for a thousand times ten thousand pieces."
"You put the matter very boldly, sir."
"I am a man of business, your Excellency," said the envoy. "I prefer to put things plain."