Macartney, purple in the face, was fingering his swordhilt. But it was the Colonel, livid with passion, who answered, waving one of his bony, freckled hands.
«You infamous pirate scoundrel! You damned escaped convict! You've forgot one thing: that until you can get back to your pestilential buccaneers, none of this can happen.»
«We have to thank him for the warning, sir,» Captain Macartney jeered.
«Ah, bah! Ye've no imagination, as I suspected yesterday. Your muleteer gave me a glimpse of what to expect from you. I took my measures accordingly, so I did. I left orders with my lieutenant to assume at twelve o'clock that war had been declared, and to land the guns and haul them to the fort, whence they command the town. I left your mules with him for the purpose.» He glanced at the timepiece on the overmantel. «It's nearly halfpast twelve already. From your windows here you can see the fort.» He stood up and proffered his telescope. «Assure yourself that what I have said is happening.»
There was a pause in which the CaptainGeneral considered him with eyes of hate. Then in silence he took the telescope and went to the window. When he turned from it again, he was fierce as a rattlesnake. «But you forget one thing still. That we hold you. I'll send word to your pirate scum that at the first shot from them I'll hang you. The guard, Macartney. There's been talk enough.»
«Oh, a moment yet,» Blood begged. «Ye're so plaguily hasty in your conclusions. Wolverstone has my orders, and no threat to my life will swerve him from them by a hair's breadth. Hang me if you will.» He shrugged. «If I set great store by life, I should hardly follow the trade of a buccaneer. But when you've hanged me, be sure that not one stone of Saint John's will be left upon another, not man, woman, or child will my buccaneers spare in avenging me. Consider that, and consider at the same time your duty to this colony and to your king this duty by which you rightly set such store.»
The Governor's pale eyes stabbed him as if they would reach his soul. Calm and intrepid he stood before them, so calm in all the circumstances as almost to intimidate.
The Colonel looked at Macartney, as if for help. He found none there. Irritably he broke out at last: «Oh, stab me! I am well served for dealing with a pirate! To be rid of you, I'll pay you your twenty thousand pieces, and so farewell and be damned to you.»
«Twenty thousand pieces!» Blood raised his eyebrows in surprise. «But that was whilst I was your ally; that was before ye declared war upon me.»
«What the devil do you mean now?»
«That since ye admit defeat, we will pass to the discussion of terms.»
«Terms? What terms?» The CaptainGeneral's exasperation was swiftly mounting him.
«You shall hear them. First, the twenty thousand pieces of eight that you owe my men for services rendered. Next, thirty thousand for the redemption of the town from the bombardment that is preparing.»
«What? By God, sir »
«Next,» Captain Blood pursued relentlessly, «ten thousand pieces for your own ransom, ten thousand for the ransom of your own family, and five thousand for that of other persons of consequences in Saint John's, including Captain Macartney
here. That makes seventyfive thousand pieces of eight, and they must be paid within the next hour, since later will be too late.»
The CaptainGeneral looked unutterable things. He tried to speak. But speech failed him. He sat down heavily. At last he found his voice. It came thick and quavering.
«You you abuse my patience! You surely You think me mad?»
«Best hang him, Colonel, and have done,» Macartney exploded.
«And thereby destroy the colony it is your duty at all costs at all costs, mark you to preserve.»
The CaptainGeneral passed a hand across his wet, pallid brow, and groaned.
They talked, of course, for some time yet; but ever within the circle of what had been said already, until in the end Colonel Courtney broke into a laugh that was almost hysterical.
«Stab me, sir! It only remains to marvel at your moderation. You might have asked seven hundred thousand pieces, or seven millions »
«True,» Blood interrupted him. «But then I am by nature moderate, and also I have a notion of the resources of your treasury.»
«But the time!» cried the Governor desperately, to show that he had yielded. «How can I collect the sum within an hour?»
«I'll be reasonable. Send me the money to the bluff by sunset, and I'll withdraw. And now I'll take my leave at once, so as to suspend the operations. It's a very good day I'll be wishing you.»
They let him go, perforce. And at sunset Captain Macartney rode out to the gun emplacements of the buccaneers followed by a Negro leading a mule on which the gold was laden.
Captain Blood came forward alone to receive him.
«It isn't what you'ld have got from me,» said the choleric captain through his teeth.
«I'll remember that in case you should ever command a settlement. And now, sir, to business. What do these sacks hold?»
«You'll find five thousand pieces in each.»