Still, some opportunity may sooner or later occur; and the later
the better pleased shall I be, for it will indeed be a pleasure to
me to have you with me."
In the afternoon Geoffrey said to Stephen, "I have been thinking,
Stephen, about the men in the hold, and I should be glad for them
to return to their homes. If they go with us to Spain they will be
made galley slaves, and this I should not like, especially in the
case of the bey's superintendent. The bey was most kind to us, and
this man himself always spoke in our favour to him, and behaved
well to us. I think, therefore, that out of gratitude to the bey
we should let them go. The wind is fair, and there are, so far as
I can see, no signs of any change of weather. By tomorrow night
the coast of Spain will be in sight. I see no reason, therefore,
why we should not be able to navigate her until we get near the
land, when Mendez can engage the crew of some fishing boat to take
us into a port. If we put them into the boat with plenty of water
and provisions, they will make the coast by morning; and as I
should guess that we must at present be somewhere abreast of the
port from which we started, they will nor be very far from home
when they land."
"I have no objection whatever, Geoffrey. As you say we were not
treated badly, at any rate from the day when the bey had us up to
his house; and after ten years in the galleys, I do not wish my
worst enemies such a fate.
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