“I’ll come in to report, sir, if I may,” he hailed.
“Very well, Mr. Hornblower.”
Bush went down to the courtyard to meet him. Hornblower touched his hat and waited to be asked before he began his report.
“He’s Colonel Ortega,” said Hornblower in reply to the “Well?” that Bush addressed to him. “His credentials are from Villanueva, the CaptainGeneral, who must be just across the bay, sir.”
“What does he want?” asked Bush, trying to assimilate this first rather indigestible piece of information.
“It was the prisoners he wanted to know about first, sir,” Bud Hornblower, “the women especially.”
“And you told him they weren’t hurt?”
“Yes, sir. He was very anxious about them. I told him I would ask your permission for him to take the women back with him.”
“I see,” said Bush.
“I thought it would make matters easier here, sir. And he had a good deal that he wanted to say, and I thought that if I appeared agreeable he would speak more freely.”