"Come back, amigos. Let us not decide thus a matter of grave importance. Come, talk further in retirement, and then make another appointment, if necessary." This from the Captain.
The Indian stamped in fury.
"Come back, you say—always come back to the other chamber. You haggle as do market-women over eggs. I know the vastness of the prize you seek. As superintendent of the Mission vessels have I sold wheat to English dogs in the north and Mexican friends in the south, so do I know of what I speak. Its coast line alone marks a thousand miles. Itself is an empire ten times the area of your petty island. I say I am willing to help you make your own this territory, still you haggle, haggle. Huh!"
"But, my friend, we must keep these matters——"
"But, my friend—my friend!" the Indian mocked. "Men unnumbered are at my command. Still, you have only words, words, words."
"At the proper time and place——"
"The proper time and place is now and here. One hundred thousand pesos' value in your English gold notes—you claim you have the money in Monterey—place you in my hand the day the next new moon is born. Then, when you wish, my subjects in the inland—I am their king—declare Great Britain's flag to be their own, and I will hold them your loyal subjects."
Brown threw some wood on the embers. "That Injun is yelpin' back talk at the Cap'n any fool can see. I never could stand much sass from sech people myself," in an aside to Carmelita.
"Come, friend, we may not deliberate here for others to overhear. Come with me. I have your point of view——"
"Yes, or no, señor. You have my point of view, you say. Then, accept or refuse. You are not the only bidder."