The Admiral with us! Come aboard, your commander!" That was Luis Mendez, and in the boat with him went Juan Lepe.

The ships were the _Esperanza_, the _San Sebastian_ and the _San Martin_, the first fairly large and well decked, the others small.

They who looked overside and shouted welcome seemed a medley of gentle and simple, mariners, husbandmen, fighting men and hidalgos.
The Admiral! His hair was milk-white, his tall, broad frame gaunt as a January wolf.

Two years had written in his face two years' experience--fully written, for he was sensitive to every wind of experience.

"Excellency!"-- "Juan Lepe, I am as glad of you as of a brother!--And what do you do, senors, here ?" Luis Mendez related.