“Impossible or not, liar or none, we went there, sir.”
“Question him, Amyas, lest he turn out to have been beforehand with you.”
The man looked inquiringly at Amyas, who said—
“Well, my man, of the Gulf of Panama I cannot ask you, for I never was inside it, but what other parts of the coast do you know?”
“Every inch, sir, from Cabo San Francisco to Lima; more is my sorrow, for I was a galley-slave there for two years and more.”
“You know Lima?”
“I was there three times, worshipful gentlemen, and the last was February come two years; and there I helped lade a great plate-ship, the Cacafuogo,' they called her.”
Amyas started. Sir Richard nodded to him gently to be silent, and then—
“And what became of her, my lad?”
“God knows, who knows all, and the devil who freighted her. I broke prison six weeks afterwards, and never heard but that she got safe into Panama.”