At the brutal bluntness of my speech and question--for I fear I took out upon him those feelings I ventured not to exploit with Madame, recalling how this same difference of faith had come between us two with its dread shadow--a red flush sprang into the priest's thin, wasted cheeks, and I could see how tightly his hands clinched about the crucifix at his girdle.
"As to my Order, it hath little to fear from thy dislike, young man, as that is born from early prejudice, and lack of proper learning," he returned gravely, meeting I my eyes fairly with his own. "Yet, speaking as frankly as yourself, I doubt if I would prove of much assistance upon a ship's deck; such effort as you propose for this night would be wholly foreign to my habit of life."
"Spoken truly; nor would I make choice of one with muscles so inert from disuse were this to be an onset, where men give and take hard blows. I ask you not upon the ship's deck at all, my friend, nor shall I require your company one step farther than the roof of the great sugar warehouse of Bomanceaux et fils. Still, it will require steady nerve to do even what little I require, and, if you doubt your courage, say so now, and I will seek among the slaves for stouter heart and readier hand."
That my words touched his pride I could read instantly in his uplifted face.
"Nay, thou needest seek no further," he announced briefly, his thin lips tightly pressed together. "I will go, Monsieur." I knew instantly by the bold ring of the words that henceforward I might trust him to the death.
"I thought you would. Now a question more, and then I must have food. Can you prepare for my use one of your robes?"
"Easily, Monsieur; Father Cassati left one behind at the chapter-house when he went aboard ship, and you do not greatly differ in point of size. But is it possible thou proposest to turn priest, and of our Order?"
"In outward vesture merely, and that not for long. It would afford me greater liberty of movement on the 'Santa Maria' than my own garb, and may spare me some unpleasant questioning. Yet, perchance, there may be danger of my overdoing the priestly character, as well as of overestimating the privileges granted the clergy on board."
He shrugged his shoulders, nettled somewhat by my words and manner.
"I have indeed reason for gravely distrusting your naturalness in the wearing of a robe dedicated to religion," he made answer. "But as for the other matter, there can be little danger of your overstepping the mark. Father Cassati is of a somewhat roistering disposition, over-fond of the bottle, in truth,--although it giveth me pain to speak thus of one of my own Order,--and I have been informed, moveth at his own will about the ship. He is of the sort to be 'hail fellow, well met' with those roistering Spaniards, who care little for God or man, as he possesseth few scruples of his own."