“The gold is in the north where none dare openly seek treasure, or even souls, since Coronado came back broken and disgraced. I have waited for the man of wealth who dared risk it, and––at whose going the Viceroy could wink.”
“Why wink at me––rather than another?”
“That is a secret knotted in the fringes of the silken scarf there––” said Padre Vicente with a grim smile. “Cannot a way be found to clear either a convent or a palace of a trouble breeder, when the church itself lends a hand? You were plainly a breeder of trouble, else had you escaped the present need of bandages. For the first time I see a way where Church and the government of the Indies can go with clasped hands to this work. In gold and converts the work may prove mighty. How mighty depends whether you come to the Indies to kill time until the day you are recalled––or improve that time by success where Coronado failed.”
“And if we echo his failure?”
“None will be the wiser even then! You plan for a season of hunting in the hills. I plan for a mission visit by the Sea of Cortez. Mine will be the task to see how and where our helpers join each other and all the provisioning of man and beast. Mine also to make it clear to the Viceroy that you repent your––”
“Hollo!”––Don Ruy interrupted with a grimace. “You are about to say I repent of folly––or the enticing of a virgin––or that I fell victim to the blandishments of some tricky dame––I know all that cant by rote!––a man always repents until his broken head is mended, but all that is apart from the real thing––which is this:––In what way does my moment with a lady in the dark affect the Viceroy of the Indies? Why should his Excellency trouble himself that Ruy Sandoval has a broken head––and a silken scarf?”
Padre Vicente stared––then smiled. Ruy Sandoval had not his wits smothered by the cotton wool of exalted pamperings.
“I will be frank with you,” he said at last. “The Viceroy I have not yet addressed on this matter. But such silken scarfs are few––that one would not be a heavy task to trace to its owner.”