There came a night when all saw that the various cover stories made little sense in the context of so long, difficult, and expensive a voyage. This was the night when the ship’s captain, disturbed that no liquor had been put on board, asked for a delivery to await him at Colon.
–Robin W. Winks, Cloak and Gown

Hee. There are a lot of these fun, wry little moments throughout the book so far. I’m really enjoying it.