“Then,” said the skipper, as the President ceased, “you feel that if you marched for San Cristobal you would gain an easy victory there?”
“I know my people so well, sir,” replied the President proudly, “that I can say there will be no victory and no fight. Villarayo would not get fifty men to stand by him, and he would either make for the mountains or come to meet me, and throw himself upon my mercy. And all this is through you. How great—how great the English people are!”
Poole jumped and clapped his right hand upon his left arm, while Fitz turned scarlet as he looked an apology, for as the middy heard the President’s last words and saw him rise, a thrill of horror had run through him, and he had thrown out one hand, to give his companion a most painful pinch.
But the President resumed his seat, and feeling that there was for the moment nothing to mind, the boy grew calm.
“Ah,” said the skipper gravely. “Then but for one thing, Don Ramon, you feel now that you can hold your own.”
“Yes,” was the reply bitterly. “But I shall not feel secure while that gunboat commands these seas. It seems absurd, ridiculous, that that small armour-plated vessel with its one great gun should have such power; but yet after all it is not absurd. It is to this little State what your grand navy is to your empire and the world. While that gunboat commands our bays I cannot feel safe.”
“But you don’t know yet,” said the skipper quietly. “How will it be when her captain hears of Villarayo’s defeat? He may declare for you.”
“No,” said the President. “That is what all my friends say. He is Villarayo’s cousin, and has always been my greatest enemy. He knows too that my first act would be to deprive him of his command.”
“Then why do so?” said the skipper. “He need be your enemy no longer. Make him your friend.”
“Impossible! I know him of old as a man I could not trust. The moment he hears of the defeat he will be sending messages to Villarayo bidding him fortify San Cristobal and gather his people there, while at any hour we may expect to see him steaming into this bay. That is the main reason of my coming to tell you now to be on your guard, and that I have been having the guns you brought mounted in a new earthwork on the point yonder, close to the sea.”