took her from Abraham’—­ah, little one, excellent!—­’Jacob sent to see his brother’—­body of Christ! that upstroke of thine, Paquita, is marvelous; the Governor shall see it!” A film of honest pride dimmed the Commander’s left eye—­the right, alas! twenty years before had been sealed by an Indian arrow.  He rubbed it softly with the sleeve of his leather jacket, and continued:  “’The Ishmaelites having arrived—­’”

He stopped, for there was a step in the courtyard, a foot upon the threshold, and a stranger entered.  With the instinct of an old soldier, the Commander, after one glance at the intruder, turned quickly toward the wall, where his trusty Toledo hung, or should have been hanging.  But it was not there, and as he recalled that the last time he had seen that weapon it was being ridden up and down the gallery by Pepito, the infant son of Bautista, the tortilla-maker, he blushed and then contented himself with frowning upon the intruder.

But the stranger’s air, though irreverent, was decidedly peaceful.  He was unarmed, and wore the ordinary cape of tarpaulin and sea boots of a mariner.  Except a villainous smell of codfish, there was little about him that was peculiar.

His name, as he informed the Commander, in Spanish that was more fluent than elegant or precise—­his name was Peleg Scudder.  He was master of the schooner general court, of the port of Salem in Massachusetts, on a trading voyage to the South Seas, but now driven by stress of weather into the bay of San Carlos.  He begged permission to ride out the gale under the headlands of the blessed Trinity, and no more.  Water he did not need, having taken in a supply at Bodega.  He knew the strict surveillance of the Spanish port regulations in regard to foreign vessels, and would do nothing against the severe discipline and good order of the settlement.  There was a slight tinge of sarcasm in his tone as he glanced toward the desolate parade ground of the Presidio and the open unguarded gate.  The fact was that the sentry, Felipe Gomez, had discreetly retired to shelter at the beginning of the storm, and was then sound asleep in the corridor.

The Commander hesitated.  The port regulations were severe, but he was accustomed to exercise individual authority, and beyond an old order issued ten years before, regarding the American ship Columbia, there was no precedent to guide him.  The storm was severe, and a sentiment of humanity urged him to grant the stranger’s request.  It is but just to the Commander to say that his inability to enforce a refusal did not weigh with his decision.  He would have denied with equal disregard of consequences that right to a seventy-four-gun ship which he now yielded so gracefully to this Yankee trading schooner.  He stipulated only that there should be no communication between the ship and shore.  “For yourself, Senor Captain,” he continued, “accept my hospitality.  The fort is yours as long as you shall grace it with your distinguished presence”; and with old-fashioned courtesy, he made the semblance of withdrawing from the guardroom.