Benito hardly understood this kind of jesting; but the ways of the Anglo-Saxon are often incomprehensible to the Southern American, and he did not stop to require an elucidation.
"We are quits, then; that is manifest!" said he.
"Which means we are both, with the very natural proneness of each man, to overrate his vital value infinitely, under ceaseless obligation to one another. What can I do for you?"
"Captain, you have been beating up Guaymas for a pearl fisher—a diver of the rare old sort, who could go deeper and stay under longer than the degenerate descendants of that almost forgotten man-fish Miguelillo, of Tehuantepec, who, in 1620 or so, dived an incredible number of fathoms, and brought up the 'Queen of the Gulf,' which precious pearl, worthy of being called a 'Cleopatrina,' and dissolved in an Imperator's cup, was, up to a few years ago, the largest gem in the coronet of Our Lady in Saragossa Cathedral!"
"My learned friend, I want a diver, indeed. Only I mean to fish in bulk; that is, draw up at one scoop a mass of pearls!"
"Did you never hear the men about the port mention one Benito Vázquez, of the Upper Gulf?" went on the Mexican, without reference to this announcement.
"Well, several did say that the person you name was the very man I was feeling for. But no one had seen him for some time back."
"Benito Vázquez is Benito de Bustamente! Fond of the seas, acquainted with an old Indian, one of the many who assert a descent from the early kings, I know almost every inch of water, far below the surface, too, from the mouth of the Gila to Cape Palmo. I am that diver!"
"Famous diver," said Gladsden. "My dear fellow, you will make my expedition a short and surely successful one. You are the very man I want. I won't say now, engage with me at a sum; but come, point out the spot I seek, help me to drag up the sunken treasure, and as I live, I shall turn my head whilst you dip with your cap into the chest."
"Are you speaking seriously, Captain?" demanded Benito, not surprised at the sudden friendship he had excited, that not being an unexampled event.