He stooped to give his attention to the lamp, pulling up the wick and trimming it, so that the light in the shabby little room was suddenly increased.
«C'est ça!» said Cahusac. «And Don Miguel, no doubt, he'll intend to hang you from the yardarm.»
«So Don Miguel's in this, is he? Glory be! I suppose it's the bloodmoney that's tempted ye. Sure now, it's the very work that ye're fitted for, devil a doubt. But have ye considered all? There are reefs ahead, my lad. Hayton was to have met me with a boat at the mole at eight bells. I'm late as it is. Eight bells was made an hour ago and more. Presently they'll take alarm. They knew where I was going. They'll follow and track me. To find me, the boys will be turning Tortuga inside out like a sack. And what'll happen to ye then, Cahusac? Have you thought of that? The pity of it is that ye're entirely without foresight. It was lack of foresight that sent ye away emptyhanded from Maracaybo. And even then, but for me, ye'd be hauling at the oar of a Spanish galley this very minute. Yet ye're aggrieved, being
a poorspirited, crossgrained cur, and to vent your spite you're running straight upon destruction. If ye've a spark of sense you'll haul in sail, my lad, and heaveto before it's too late.»
Cahusac leered at him for only answer, and then in silence went through the Captain's pockets. The other, meanwhile, sat down on a threelegged stool of pine.
«What's o'clock, Cahusac?» he asked.
Cahusac consulted the Captain's watch.
«Near halfpast nine, Sam.»
«Plague on it!» grumbled Sam. «Three hours to wait!»
«There's dice in the cupboard,» said Cahusac, «and here's something to be played for.»
He jerked his thumb towards the yield of Captain Blood's pockets, which made a little pile upon the table. There were some twenty gold pieces, a little silver, an onionshaped gold watch, a gold tobaccobox, a pistol, and, lastly, a jewel which Cahusac had detached from the lace at the Captain's throat, besides a sword and rich balrick of grey leather heavily wrought in gold.
Sam rose, went to a cupboard, and fetched thence the dice. He set them on the table, and drawing up his stool, again resumed his seat. The money he divided into two equal halves. Then he added the sword and the watch to one pile, and the jewel, the pistol, and the tobaccobox to the other.
Blood, very alert and watchful so concentrated, indeed, upon the problem of winning free from this trap that he was hardly conscious of the pain in' his head from the blow that had felled him began to speak again. Resolutely he refused to admit the fear and hopelessness that were knocking at his heart.
«There's another thing ye've not considered,» said he slowly, almost drawlingly, «and that is that I might be willing to ransom myself at a far more handsome price than the Spanish Admiral has offered for me.»
But they weren't impressed. Cahusac merely mocked him.
«Tiens! And your certainty that Hayton will come to your rescue then? What of that?»
He laughed, and Sam laughed with him.
«It's probable,» said Blood, «most probable. But not certain; nothing is, in this uncertain world. Not even that the Spaniard will pay you the ten thousand pieces of eight they tell me he has been after offering for me. You could make a better bargain with me, Cahusac.»
He paused, and his keen, watchful glance observed the sudden gleam of covetousness in the Frenchman's eye, as well as the frown contracting the brow of the other ruffian. Therefore he continued.
«You might make such a bargain as would compensate you for what you missed at Maracaybo. For every thousand pieces that the Spaniard offers, sure now I'll offer two.»
Cahusac's jaw fell, his eyes widened.
«Twenty thousand pieces!» he gasped in blank amazement.
And then Sam's great fist crashed down upon the rickety table, and he swore foully and fiercely.
«None of that!» he roared. «I've made my bargain, and I abides by it. It'll be the worse for me if I doesn't ay, and for you, Cahusac. Besides, are you such a gull that you think this pretty hawk'll keep faith with you?»
«He knows that I would,» said Blood, «he's sailed with me. He knows that my word is accounted good even by Spaniards.»
«Maybe. But it's not accounted good by me.» Sam stood over him, the long, evil face, with its sloping brows and heavy eyelids, grown dark and menacing. «I'm pledged to deliver you safely at midnight, and when I pledges myself to a job I does it. Understand?»
Captain Blood looked up at him, and actually smiled.
«Faith,» said he. «You don't leave much to a man's imagination.»
And he meant it literally; for what he had clearly gathered was that it was Sam who had entered into league with the Spanish agents, and dared not for his life's sake break with them.
«Then that's as well,» Sam assured him. «If you want to be spared the discomfort of a gag for the next three hours, you'll just hold your plaguey tongue. Understand that?»
He thrust his long face forward into his captive's, sneering and menacing.
Understanding, Captain Blood abandoned his desperate clutch of the only slender straw of hope that he had discovered in the situation. He realized that he was to wait here, helpless in his bonds, until the time appointed for his delivery to someone who should carry him off to Don Miguel de Espinosa. Upon what would happen to him then he scarcely dared to dwell. He knew the revolting cruelties of which a Spaniard was capable, and he could guess what a spur of rage would be the Spanish admiral's. A sweat of horror broke upon his skin. Was he indeed to end his gloriously hazardous career in this mean way? Was he, who had so proudly sailed the seas of the Main as a conqueror, to founder thus in a dirty backwater? He could found no hope upon the search