Porto Bello gold

CHAPTER VI

TALL SHIPS AND LAWLESS MEN

There was a noticeable tightening of discipline after my great-uncle's admonition to Bones, and Peter and I were let severely alone, except by Silver, who, I think, found satisfaction in annoying the mate by the effusiveness of his cordiality to us. A second lookout was sent into the foretop, and the watch on deck were continually on the alert. But nothing untoward happened that day. The brig held on her course to the southeast, and the sea surrounded us with the immensity of its restless waters. One moment the land was a faint, hazy streak in the distance; the next it was gone.

My great-uncle paced the deck with measured strides throughout the afternoon, his head bent upon his chest, not a word for anybody. He ignored me as thoroughly as the members of the crew, who treated Silver and Bones with offhand familiarity, but scurried from his path if he came near them and were quick to bob their heads and tug at forelocks. When night came he supervised the hoisting of two lanthorns, red and green, one above the other, to the main truck; and he ate very little of the excellent meal which Silver cooked in the galley and Darby served us in the cabin. Nor, contrary to his usual mood as I had read it, was he inclined for conversation.

He returned immediately to the deck, leaving Peter and me to an exchange of casual remarks with the Irish boy before we went early to our stateroom, full sleepy with the heavy sea-air. Peter was almost himself again, although he dared eat but little and suffered qualms when the brig rolled much from the perpendicular. He was asleep as soon as he lay down, but I drowsed lightly for some hours, and all that time I could hear overhead the tap-tap-tap of footfalls in even cadence as my great-uncle strode from the stern railing to the cabin companionway and back again.

Yet when I went on deck in the morning it was to discover Murray already there, dressed with his customary immaculate precision, his face fresh and unfatigued. He stood astraddle close by the wheel, hands clasped behind him. his gaze fixed upon the tossing waters ahead. The wind had backed around several points during the night, so that we were making more difficult weather of it; and the easy, gliding motion of the previous day had been changed to a choppy roll.

Peter was not communicative; and as I was in no mood for Silver's hypocrisy or Darby's wild talk I strode up to my great-uncle.

"You seem perturbed," I said.

"I am," he returned frankly. "I have two problems upon my mind."

"Unfortunately, I see no signs of pursuit," I answered.

He smiled.

"Nor will you, Nephew Robert. No, my problems are connected with the difficult task of attaining an imaginary spot in this trackless waste and puzzlement as to whether I have correctly estimated an equation of human values. You are not, perhaps, mathematical? Ah, too bad! There is no mental exercise so restful and diverting to the mind as algebra. But figures lack the warm interest of human equations. As, for instance, the exact degree of trust to be imposed in untrustworthy persons."

"Sail ho!" shouted the lookout in the main crosstrees.

Murray's calm face flushed with sudden emotion, and he took a step forward.

"Where does she lie?" he trumpeted through his clasped hands.

"Maybe one, two points to larboard, sir."

"Can you make her out?"

"Only tops'ls, sir; big 'uns."

"Let me know as soon as you make her," said Murray, and turned back to me.

But almost at once the other lookout in the foretop sang out—

"Second sail to larboard, sir, comin' up arter t'other chap!"

Murray rubbed his hands together with every evidence of satisfaction.

"Ah!" he exclaimed. "It appears that my estimation of the safe degree of trust to be imposed in the given situation was within the bounds of accuracy."

"I don't understand you."

"No? In plain English let us say then that my own vessel and consort are meeting me according to plan."

"The sea is wide. How can you be sure 'tis they?"

"I can not. Yet the balance of probability is in my favor."

"Why do you speak of trust?" I challenged. "Can not you trust your own people?"

"I trust nobody farther than I must," he retorted.

And without another word he produced a patent folding spyglass from his pocket and clapped it to his eye. Silver, who had been an interested witness to the scene from his aerie atop of the cabin skylight, hopped across the deck to my great-uncle's side.

"Beggin' your pardon, captain," he said. "But I'd make oath that tops'l is the canvas you took out o' the Mogul's ship off Pondicherry. Mind it, sir? 'Twas uncommon bleached and looked whiter'n our cloth."

Murray handed him the glass.

"Stap me, Silver, but I believe you are right," he returned. "What a hawk's eye you must have! Here, see what you can make of it with this."

Long John peered through the glass, steadying his crutch against the butt of the mizzen.

"Aye, 'tis——"

"R'yal James to leeward!" hailed the foretop.

And the main crosstrees echoed, not to be outdone—

"Walrus comin' up astarn o' her!"

"'Tis they, never a doubt," assented Silver as he lowered the glass. "Diggin' into it they are, too, and a lusty show o' canvas to both o' them. If you was to ask me now, captain, I'd say Flint isn't willing to plow your wake."

If there was a hint of an indicated threat in this remark Murray ignored it.

"Master Martin knows his ship," he answered, "as doth Captain Flint his. You lads are forever pondering why certain men rise to command. There lies the answer, Silver. 'Tis knowledge of how to handle your ship; aye, and to fight her, and to plan at need how not to fight her."

Silver knuckled his forehead, handing back the glass.

"Sure, sir, they all says a good captain is born and never made, and we be main fortunate as has two that can't be beat or took or harried from their ways."

My great-uncle indulged in a pinch of snuff, a mildly cynical smile upon his handsome features.

"I thank you," he acknowledged. "And now I would have the men tumble up their gear from below and make ready the boats. I shall also leave it to you, Silver, to lay the powder-train. How much have you?"

"Three casks, sir."

"Excellent. But allow us ample time to get free."

"Why do you give your orders to Silver and not to Bones?" I inquired curiously after the one-legged man had gone for'ard.

My great-uncle lowered his glass with a benevolent smile.

"I rejoice to perceive that you have an observant tendency," he commented. "Why do I single out Silver for orders? Ah! The reasons are quite obvious. To begin with, he is gifted with a personality which enables him to secure the accomplishment of tasks; but perhaps as important as that consideration is the parallel fact that it lies to my interest to develop the seed of dissension in the Walrus' crew. The future contains infinite possibilities. Who knows what trifling factor may influence the dictates of fate?"

"They must be a strange crowd aboard the Walrus," I said.

"They are," assented my great-uncle. "In piracy, Robert, as in politics and business, he wins who plays the opposing factions against each other. I am, you may say, in a minority of one among some hundreds of headstrong, wilful, intemperate men. United, they would crush me like a fly on the wall. Divided, and kept divided, they are so many instruments for the fulfilling of my desires."

"How if I handed on your precept to them?" I gibed.

"They would not believe you. Their vanity would prohibit it. And even though they did, I would divide them upon the very point you raised."

The amazing ingenuity and fertility of resource of this heartless old rogue who was my relative began to compel me to a reluctant admiration of him. Perhaps some trace of this was revealed in my face, for his own eyes brightened and he dropped one hand lightly upon my coat sleeve.

"We shall yet come to an understanding, Robert. All is not so black as is painted. But my design is to induct you into the scope of my plans at one sitting, seeing that in such a manner I can most clearly present to you my reasons for requiring your assistance and the importance of the stake I play for."

"I know not of the blackness," I answered; "but I require no clearer understanding. Here on these decks have been murder and robbery, and in your ranks, if I mistake not, breed treachery and hate. 'Tis a sorry outlook. I would gladly be gone from it."

His face fell a little.

"Tut," he said. "We disposed of that before. Wait until we are aboard the Royal James, Robert. Then you will realize what I offer you."

"I have heard much of it already," I agreed dryly.

"Anon you shall hear all," he answered. "Let us get Flint across-table from us in the James' state cabin with a beaker of rum at his elbow. Then you shall hear me talk."

Bones came up to speak to him; and I rejoined Peter, who was glumly watching the unlashing of the small boats and the rigging of the falls by which they were slung overside.

"Now I get more sick again," he grunted.

"Cheer up," I told him. "You shall soon have a more substantial craft beneath you."

And I pointed to the two strange ships which had risen over the horizon line until the towering piles of their bellying sails were clearly visible. Like us, they rather quartered the wind; but they were of far heavier build, and they seemed to crash through seas that we were tossed over. While we watched, their upper works came into view, and I descried a long band of painted gunports on the leader's starboard side.

"She's a thirty-six, no less!" I exclaimed. "Can she be Murray's ship?"

"Whatefer she is, I be sick," rejoined Peter unhappily.

John Silver stumped up to where we leaned upon the larboard bulwarks.

"Sightly, ain't they?" he said. "Nothin' like a fine ship wi' canvas drawin' for a picture, is there?"

His face shone with what, I am persuaded, was entirely honest emotion.

"They are big as frigates," I answered. "How did your company come by such craft?"

He chuckled.

"I ha' heard tell the captain had the James from the Frenchies in some funny way. A Injyman she was—the Esperance. But Flint and a few o' us took the Walrus with our own hands on the Smyrna v'yage. She's better nor she was then, but she can't sail wi' the James yet."

"Is she as heavy armed as the James?" I asked, for the leading ship partly blanketed her from our view.

"Pierced the same, she is, Master Ormerod, and both has eighteen-pounder carronades below, but where the Walrus carries long twelves on the main deck, the James has long eighteens."

As Murray nodded dismissal to Bones, Silver left us and hopped up to him.

"All set and ready below, captain," he announced.

My great-uncle cast his eye at the approaching ships, now so near that we could make out quite distinctly the contour of their hulls, painted yellow, with a white band delimiting the ports, man-o'-war fashion. The James was already beginning to take in some of her top canvas.

"Very good, Silver," he answered. "Master Bones! You will bring the ship to and put over the boats."

There was a great flapping and banging as the brig rounded to, and with much yo-ho-hoing the boats were lowered into the water.

"You will go off first, Master Bones," ordered Murray. "Kindly present my compliments to Captain Flint and say that I should like to have a word with him aboard the James at his early convenience."

Bones sullenly touched his cap and led better than half the crew into one of the two longboats the brig had carried. Murray nodded to Silver as they cast off.

"Start your train," he said shortly. "Nephew Robert, I wish you and Peter to go into the second boat. At once, please!"

"Plenty o' time, captain," said Silver with a grin. "You can lay to it I'm a-goin' to give myself a chance to hop up from below."

The suspicion of a smile dawned in my great-uncle's eyes.

"It is barely possible that your disability is a factor in my arrangements," he answered.

Peter and I climbed clumsily down the ladder of cleats nailed to the brig's hull and dropped into the bobbing longboat. Peter groaned as we crawled over the thwarts.

"Like der waves is my stomach—oop—andt down. Now I be sick, ja!"

And he was.

Presently Murray descended the brig's side with an agility which put me to shame and took his seat in the stern sheets. Darby swarmed down like a monkey and ensconced himself beside us in the bow. Silver was slung over in the bight of a rope, and the last of the crew tumbled after him, one upon the other's heels. Oars were thrust out, and we pulled rapidly toward the Royal James, wallowing in the trough of the sea, a quarter-mile away. The Walrus, foaming up under a cloud of canvas, was almost as near, and on our weather board.

Darby crouched at my knees, drinking in the spectacle.

"Oh, the tall ships, Master Bob! Look to the water dripping from their bows, and the lordly way they stand up like the towers of churches or maybe a castle. Did ye ever see the beat of it? And the guns that are like to the grinning teeth in an ogre's head!"

Boom! The roar of an explosion behind us was as sharp as the smack of an open hand. I turned my head. So did the others. Murray was looking back, too, and the rowers rested on their oars.

A cloud of smoke jetted up from the brig's hatches. She heeled over to starboard as we watched, gave a quivering lurch and commenced to slide under by the head. We could hear the slap of the sails as they struck the waves. In two minutes she was gone.

"That was well-contrived, Silver," remarked my great-uncle. "'Sdeath, but you are a man of parts. Give way, lads!"

He nodded the length of the boat to me.

"I trust you perceive the significance of that, Nephew Robert. A certain young man, we will say, disappears from New York. A certain brig disappears simultaneously. Some might go so far as to associate the two disappearances. Frigates put to sea in search of a certain brig—but the brig is no more."

The men at the oars laughed loudly, and I made no answer. What could I say? I felt very hopeless.

The bulwarks of the James were lined with heads and faces as we pulled under her counter and made fast, and even at that distance the complexity of her crew was apparent. I saw Portuguese, Finns, Scandinavians, French and English cheek by jowl with negroes, Moors, Indians and slant-eyed yellow men. But what impressed me most was the absolute silence which greeted us, a silence all the more impressive because the wind carried to our ears the bedlam of shouts, cheers, oaths and imprecations with which the Walrus was receiving Bones' boat several hundred yards away.

Murray waved me to the ladder as he set foot on the first cleat.

"Up with you, Nephew! Peter, also. The rest go to the Walrus."

Darby snatched at my hand as I rose.

"Whirra, whirra, but there's an ache in my heart to be parted from ye, Master Bob!" he cried. "And if we was to be pirates it do seem we might be together on the same ship!"

He made to follow me, indeed, but Silver pulled him back.

"You stays wi' us, Darby," growled the one-legged man. "Blast ye, lad, you're our good luck. Flint'll douse the ship in rum after one look at ye."

"We'll meet again, Darby," I said. "Never you fear."

He dashed the tears from his eyes.

"Sure, there's never a fear in me heart," he denied. "But I'm all broke up from the parting with ye. God be good to us, and the blessed saints spread their wings over your head! I'm thinking you're like to need it more than me. Yes, yes, John, I'll be settin'; but——"

He was still jabbering in a mixture of grief and joy when I climbed over the bulwarks and dropped beside my great-uncle into the midst of another world.

Fore and aft from poop to fo'csle stretched the wide deck from which the lofty spars rose like forest giants. The massive bulwarks were shoulder-high, and inboard everything was painted red exactly as in a King's ship. The deck was remarkably clean and in order, ropes coiled, spare spars stowed and lashed, boats in their chocks, crates and other gear secured. A few cannon were lashed to their ringbolts, but the greater part of the battery was mounted on the lower deck under cover. The hundreds of men who had watched us from the bulwarks had all sifted for'ard. We stood in the midst of an open space, with only three others.

One of these three was a very small old man with wispy gray hair and deeply bronzed face, from which his eyes peered intensely blue and childishly simple. He had gold rings in his ears, and his dress was neat and plain.

"My sarvice, captain," he greeted Murray. "Ship's in order, I hope. —— my eyes if we've had so much as a —— o' genuine wind since the —— hussy bore away from ye off the Hook."

The effect of the unspeakable blasphemies which poured with mild intonation from his lips was ridiculous, but nobody appeared to notice it, and I learned afterward that his habit of swearing by the anatomy of the twelve apostles and various saints and sacred figures was the quaintest of several quaint characteristics of an unusual personality.

"We won't complain about that, Master Martin," replied my great-uncle. "I have brought back my grandnephew to be the mainstay of my old age. Here he is—Master Ormerod, Martin. Ah, and this is a friend of his and an old enemy of mine, Peter Corlaer," as Peter rolled over the top of the bulwarks. "He is more to be reckoned with than you might suppose, is Peter.

"Master Martin, Nephew Robert, is my mate, and as such, my right hand and arm."

Martin stepped back, and the second of the three men confronting us touched his cap. This was a square, heavy-built fellow with a dour glint to his eye, who wore a decent blue cloth coat and small clothes.

"And here is Saunders, Master Martin's second," continued my great-uncle. "A Scot like myself. My nephew should make a fine Scotsman; eh, Saunders?"

"He's a braw-lookin' laddie in seemin'," Saunders agreed cautiously.

"Your meaning is that we must prove him?" responded Murray. "Quite true. We shall. Hola, Coupeau!"

And he rattled into a string of French which I could not follow as the third man met him with a bow and a scrape of one foot. Coupeau was as brutal in looks and manner as Black Dog or Bill Bones, but without the sinister implications of speech and action that made me shudder whenever the blind man Pew approached me or spoke in my hearing. He had been branded on the cheek, and an attempt to obliterate the brand—or perhaps 'twas the superimposed scar of a wound—had made that side of his face a very nightmare. His wrists and forearms showed gouges that wound upward like snakes and suggested what other torments his gaudy clothing concealed.

"Coupeau," remarked my great-uncle, turning again to me, "is our gunner. I saved him from the French galleys, and he is not without devotion to me, that quality of devotion tinged by self-interest which is to be preferred above all.

"And now we will go aft and prepare to receive Captain Flint. Master Martin, we shall probably lie here for several hours. Have all the tops manned and a vigilant watch maintained. I have every reason to suppose we need fear no intruders, but we must be on the edge of the cruising-course of the King's ships, and I'll take no risks."

"Aye, aye, sir," assented Martin. "We ha' not sighted a sail this twenty-four hours gone."

"And before?"

"A Philadelphia packet. Captain Flint made signal to chase; but I held off as you directed, and he turned back."

"You did well, Martin. I'll not forget. Conduct Captain Flint to us when he comes aboard."

CHAPTER VII

MURRAY'S PLAN

Murray led us to a door in the break of the poop which was opened for us by a stalwart black in a red livery coat, who ushered us along a companionway lined with stateroom doors into a spacious state cabin stretching the width of the stern. The walls were paneled in mahogany; silver sconces were fastened at intervals, and a wondrous luster chandelier was pendant from the ceiling, itself uncommonly lofty for shipboard; several paintings in the French school hung at the sides; and there were trophies of peculiar arms and armor. Underfoot were Eastern rugs, thick-piled and soft of hue. The furniture was of mahogany, and a service of massy plate appeared upon the table that was set under the range of windows which formed the rear wall of the room.

My great-uncle surveyed this magnificence with pardonable pride. 'Twas evident it meant something to him.

"Diomede," he said to the negro, "where is Master Gunn?"

A high, piping voice answered him from the companionway.

"Coming, worshipful sir. Ben Gunn's a-coming. I jest stopped by the galley to fetch up your chocolate, a-sayin' to myself as the captain would be sharp-set account o' early business in the morning."

The man who followed the voice trotted in bearing a silver pitcher of steaming chocolate, Murray's favorite drink; aye, and food. He was a slender fellow, with a simple, open face, clad in plain black as became an upper servant. He stopped dead at sight of us.

"Set your tray on the table, Gunn," instructed my great-uncle. "This is my grandnephew, Master Ormerod, and his friend, Master Corlaer. They are to sail with us a while."

Gunn pulled his forelock and ducked.

"Sarvant, gentlemen," he acknowledged. "Allus glad to please, is Ben Gunn. Bound to oblige ye, gentlemen. You jest name your drinks, and I'll fetch 'em up from the wine-bins."

"Food as well, Gunn," said Murray. "And Captain Flint is coming aboard."

Ben Gunn cocked his head on one side.

"That means rum," he commented. "Plenty o' rum, says you. Jest leave it to Ben, captain."

He ducked and scraped again and skipped off into the companionway with a kind of wiggle like a self-conscious child.

"My steward," remarked my relative. "He will be at your disposal for anything you require, Robert—yours, too, friend Peter. You will find the negroes equally anxious to please."

"The man is a half-wit, is he not?" I asked.

"A natural, yes," assented Murray, tasting the chocolate.

"I should think it would be dangerous to have one so simple in such close proximity to you."

My great-uncle smiled.

"You are quite, quite wrong, my boy. It is for the very reason that the man is incapable of spying that I use him. He is more valuable for my purposes than the most intelligent member of the crew."

He broke off.

"This chocolate is by no means so well brewed as Silver's. An extraordinary fellow, that, monstrously clever—exactly the sort of man, Robert, I never permit to remain near me. Indeed, if you possess the patience and the interest to analyze the composition of my officers and crew you will observe, I believe, that there is not an independently clever man amongst them. Aye, and if you find me a clever man aboard the Royal James—yourself and friend Peter excepted, of course—I will thank you to point him out to me, and I will straightway make a present of him to Flint, who must have half a dozen of the Walrus' crew who esteem themselves equally capable with him of commanding her."

"Yet the James was able to get along without you for several days," I remarked.

"Ah! A shrewd thrust! I am bound to admit, my dear Robert, that I regarded my recently concluded expedition as a dubious experiment. 'Twas in the light of reflections identical with those you have just detailed that I spoke of it as a problem in human equations. I was reasonably convinced that I could depend upon my men, but I should not have been greatly surprized had they abandoned me.

"I am not—by necessity I am not—regarded with affection by my followers. And on the whole, I think, I have gotten along better by means of fear than I might have by means of affection. Fear is a natural element in a pirate's career. What place has he in his life for affections?

"But we are faring far afield, Robert, into realms of philosophy in no way affiliated with our problems of the immediate moment. Hark! Do I not hear something?"

He did beyond question—an uproar of curses and shouts upon the deck outside.

"Perhaps your crew have decided to spring their revolt after your return, instead of during your absence," I suggested.

He shook his head, smiling.

"No, no. It is only that Captain Flint has come aboard. Pray take your seats. I promise you an interesting episode."

The door to the deck banged open, and a harsh, domineering voice bellowed in the companionway.

"—— me, Martin, what the —— —— —— —— d'ye think ye are? By the —— —— —— ——, ye lousy, slack-bellied swab, ye made us——"

"Stow that, ye —— —— —— apology for a —— —— —— ——," interrupted Martin mildly from the deck. "Why, any —— —— would ha' had more sense than you!"

"Like ——! I'm my own master, I am. I——"

"Ye may be when ye stand on the Walrus' deck, but here you're only another —— as doesn't know better'n to veer after——"

"Belay for a —— —— lackey, ye slab-faced chunk o' rotted sea-horse! I'll talk to your master!"

Slam went the door, and a mutter of curses rumbled from the companionway, preceding a tall, blue-jowled man in a flaming red coat all cobwebbed over with gold lace. He halted in the cabin entrance, hands on his hips, feet planted wide, close-set green eyes flickering balefully on either side of a long nose that seemed to poke out from a tangle of lank, black hair.

"Back, eh, Murray?" he snarled. "Two men the richer for your effort. Gut me, 'twas a fool's errand!"

"Pardon me," objected Murray, "but I am considerably more than 'two men the richer' in consequence of my run ashore—although I would not appear by these words to deprecate the importance to be attached to the acquisition of my grandnephew and Master Corlaer. Permit me, Captain Flint! Master Ormerod, my grandnephew, and Peter Corlaer."

And to me, aside:

"I fear these introductions must become boring. We shall require no more."

Flint scowled at us, flinging himself into a chair at the opposite end of the table from my great-uncle.

"A youth and a fat man!" he ejaculated. "And unwilling at that, so Bones tells me."

"Master Bones was correct in that statement," my great-uncle assented cheerfully; "but I fancy he neglected to add that the 'fat man' took his knife away from him and must have hanged him had I not intervened."

An appreciable degree of respect dawned in Flint's eyes.

"He is no butter-tub if he bested Bill," conceded the Walrus' captain. "Curse me, though, if I see why you should add a cub to your crew."

"Tut, tut, captain," remonstrated Murray. "'A cub!' Think again. The boy is my heir."

"All he'll fall heir to will be the rope that hung you," returned Flint. "But I'll own I did you wrong when I accused you of being but two men the better by your shore expedition. I was forgetting the red-headed mascot John Silver fetched aboard. 'Tis the first promise o' luck we ha' had! I'd never have lost that Philadelphia packet t' other day with him aboard."

"I believe I overheard something of a dispute with Martin on that point," commented my great-uncle dryly. "He obeyed my orders in calling you off, and you broke our agreement when you would have given chase."

"And why not?" roared Flint. "A —— —— fool agreement, if you broach it now! A —— —— of a —— —— piece of —— —— —— idiocy! Curse me for a lubber if I see the sense in letting a fat prize slip through our fingers. And so I told Martin. Let me have him on my deck, and I'd use my hanger to him."

My uncle took snuff with much delicacy and rang a silver bell in front of him.

"Gunn is late with the liquor. I must ask your indulgence, captain, for compelling you to talk dry. But as to Martin and the prize. Indeed, you wrong the good fellow. As I have already said, he did no more than carry out my orders, and while you may experience difficulty in comprehending my reasons for stipulating that no prizes were to be taken in my absence, I am so vain as to suppose that a few moments' conversation will clear all doubts from your mind."

Ben Gunn bustled into the cabin in the course of this harangue and deposited a trayful of decanters, bottles and flasks before us. Captain Flint, without awaiting an invitation, seized upon an earthen receptacle labeled "Gedney's Jamaican Rum," pried out the cork with the point of a knife, tilted it to his mouth and drained a mighty dram. Then he set it down beside him, wiped his mouth on his coat-cuff and cleared his throat.

"Humph," he growled. "I'm listening."

My uncle looked distressed.

"Gunn," he said, "how often have I asked you to supply Captain Flint with a goblet, beaker or some other drinking-utensil?"

The steward wiggled abjectly and pulled his forelock.

"Oft and often you has, captain, but 'taint no manner o' use—leastways not the fust time. Captain Flint says as how he always has to take the flavor of a new flask straight from the neck."

"And so I do," agreed Flint. "Rum don't taste the same in a cup. Ye drink coffee or tea in a cup—but rum! —— my eyes if I ever see so much fuss over drink and victuals as you make. But anything to oblige, Murray. I don't ha' to eat with ye every day, thank God!"

Gunn produced a large silver goblet from a wall-cupboard, and Flint straightway filled it to the brim. I pushed a cut-glass carafe of water toward him, supposing he would wish some dilution, and he laughed jarringly.

"You ha' much to learn, my lad," he jeered. "We don't spoil good rum wi' water aboard the Walrus. There's a cask broached this minute on the spar-deck, and all hands fillin' their pannikins as fast as they can empty 'em, wi' red-headed Darby astride the butt for luck."

"Which means you will be in no condition to make sail a few hours hence," deplored my great-uncle, wagging his head. "'Tis foolishness, Flint. This rum-swigging will yet prove the undoing of you and every man of your crew. I am no upholder of imaginary virtues, as you know, but unbridled indulgence must ultimately defeat its own ends."

"Look to your ship, and I'll look to mine," snapped Flint, quaffing a wineglassful of the goblet's contents.

My uncle stared him straight in the eye with a hard, direct thrust of power which stirred my unwilling admiration.

"To whom do you owe your present position?" he asked coldly.

Flint made a patent attempt to stare him down, but abandoned the effort and looked away.

"Some might say one thing and some another," he muttered.

"To whom do you owe your present position, Flint?" repeated Murray.

"Oh, to you, most like," admitted Flint. "Blast you!"

"Have I ever led you into difficulties?" continued my great-uncle.

"Not if——"

"Have I ever led you into difficulties?"

"No."

"Have we failed in any important venture since our association began?"

"Not yet," admitted Flint sourly.

"Very well. Now I ask you: When I promise a certain accomplishment am I to be relied upon?"

"You ha' a head on your shoulders," conceded Flint.

"And you have not," amended Murray. "No, do not say any more. You are an excellent man to handle your ship, Flint, and as fearless as any of our ruffians; but you are no more capable of looking ahead a week or two than Ben Gunn."

"I take much from ye, Murray," snarled Flint, half-rising; "but think not ye can humble me before——"

"Sit down," ordered Murray. "You'll take what you deserve, which in this instance is a plain statement that you would ha' made a fool of yourself by chasing the Philadelphia packet. I doubt if you could have taken her, for your bottom is foul; but if you had, her loss must have aroused comment, and with New York already apprised that we are in these seas we should ha' had every frigate on the North American and West Indian stations a-hunting us. And what then?"

"We could lie up safe enough at the Rendeyvoo."

"Spyglass Island? I dare say—although some day 'twill be blundered upon, if not discovered. But I ask you to recall that we take no prizes when we hole up. 'Tis a losing game."

"Well, what would you?" Flint flung at him with an air of defiance, which Murray ignored.

"I would make the greatest coup we have attempted."

Flint laughed disagreeably.

"So you said when you arranged to go into New York, but you have carried back no treasure with you."

My uncle regarded him with what, under other circumstances, I should describe as honest indignation.

"You fool!" he said with a rasp in his voice—and I did not wonder that Flint pulled sidewise in his chair as if to avoid a stab. "Did you think I was to go into that huddle of a town, with its wealth in furs and groceries, and fetch out a treasure?"

"What, then?" demanded Flint, moistening his lips.

My uncle leaned forward across the table, lips drawn tight over his teeth. His eyes shot sparks.

"Knowledge, fool! Intelligence! That which wise men labor a lifetime to secure and the ignorant pass by in the gutter."

"It may be knowledge to you," protested Flint childishly; "but how'm I to know of it as never heard it?"

Murray rose from the table and commenced to stroll the length of the cabin, hands clasped under the skirts of his coat. And as he strolled he talked. Flint followed his every move uneasily, with occasional drafts of rum. Peter and I watched the two of them, fascinated by this conflict of wills, which was to exert a vital influence upon our lives—yes, and upon those of hundreds of others.

"I must speak in simple terms, I perceive, Flint," began my great-uncle.

The passion was out of his voice, and the sentences trickled from his lips slowly, with an air of detachment.

"And that I may speak simply and present adequately an important subject, I must ask you to indulge me at length."

Flint nodded sullenly, seeing that an answer was required.

"We have frequently discussed the possibility of taking one of the Spanish treasure-ships," continued Murray. "But we have never attempted the project because we could not discover the date of sailing or the port wherein the treasure was embarked. It hath been the custom of the Spaniards in recent years—in fact, since the depredations of Morgan and his brethren—to shift arbitrarily the port of embarkation from year to year, as likewise to change the date of sailing. One year the port would be Cartagena, the next Chagres, the next Porto Bello, the next even Vera Cruz. They have been known to ship the year's produce of the mines around Cape Horn. And similarly the treasure ships, which used formerly to sail invariably in the Fall of the year, now depart whenever it pleases the fancy of the Council of the Indies to fix a date."

He paused, and Flint rasped——

"So much is known to all of us."

"I conceded as much," answered Murray smoothly. "What follows you do not know. When we returned from Madagascar——"

"'Twas against my advice," growled Flint. "Ye play too much wi' politics."

"With politics! Exactly," agreed my great-uncle. "Well, perhaps I do. 'Tis true that so far I have obtained trifling advantage from the sport, excluding one substantial fortune, this vessel we are in and the information which makes it possible for me to take this year's treasure-ship."

Flint sat erect. I caught my breath. Peter, too, showed a gleam of excitement in his little eyes that twinkled from behind the ramparts of flesh that masked his solemn face.

"—— me, Murray!" swore Flint. "Do you say that in sober earnest?"

"I do. Do you remember that we cruised off the Spanish coast last Spring and Fall, and that two months since I sent a periague into the Havana? During our Spanish cruises I established connections with a group of Jacobite gentlemen who know me and placed before them the outline of a plan, the acceptance of which they communicated to me in dispatches the periague fetched to Spyglass Island. In those dispatches I was notified to meet my principal confederate in New York on a certain date. I met him. The necessary arrangements were consummated, and it simply remains for us to execute the plan."

Flint clutched at his beaker of rum and emptied it shakily into his throat.

"How—how much?" he quavered.

"One million five hundred thousand pounds."

There was a moment of silence. The clean, golden sunlight flooded through the stern windows and dappled the polished surface of the table with darting molts and beams. Flint's jaw dropped on his chest. His green eyes glared. Peter and I were as dazed as himself. Only my great-uncle remained calm, pacing quietly up and down the carpeted deck, eyes fixed upon some vision of the future.

"All—that?" stammered Flint. "'Sdeath! 'T would be the greatest haul in our time, Murray.

"It is ours," affirmed Murray. "Upon terms."

"Terms?" echoed Flint. "What terms? Who can compel us to terms?"

My great-uncle came to a stop in front of him.

"My terms, let us say," he answered.

"Oh, aye," mumbled Flint. "But if 'tis there for the taking——"

"It will be there for the taking, as you put it, upon the terms I lay down," stated my great-uncle.

"But if ye know of yourself where it can be taken why must we bother wi' terms, Murray?" clamored Flint. "What's riches for us can be pared down to short cuts if it must be shared out right and left."

My great-uncle's laughter was wholly contemptuous.

"Observe, Robert," he appealed to me, "here was a man, who, a half-hour past, knew naught of this treasure we are discussing. It meant nothing to him. He never dreamed of obtaining it. And now that he has held out to him the possibility of looting a measure of it he waxes indignant lest that measure be too small!"

Flint refilled the beaker with rum.

The stuff seemed to heighten the uncanny blue pallor of his face, and the pupils of his eyes dwindled to pin-pricks, whether from the strong drink or excitement I can not say. But his manner was steadier than it had been.

"Why not?" he flared in reply to my relative's mockery. "If we take it, why not take all?"

"Because," retorted Murray with a burst of terrible energy, "I have passed my word as to the terms upon which the treasure is to be taken."

"What's your word?" rapped Flint.

For a moment I thought my great-uncle would strike him. He made to draw back his arm, and perspiration stood out in white beads upon his forehead. Flint feared it, too, but did not raise a hand to protect himself, charmed to immobility by the virulence of the basilisk's stare which Murray directed at him.

"It is my word," said Murray finally in a very soft voice. "No more, Flint. A poor thing, as the poet hath said, yet my own! Also—that I may chime in harmony with your mental processes—it happens that my personal interests are bound up with the observance of these terms."

"I thought so," sneered Flint.

"Ah! Did you?"

My great-uncle's tones continued dulcet.

"It is a matter we will not discuss further, since it is beyond the range of your comprehension. I shall merely say that the terms are fixed, and that you will either accept or reject them."

"What are they?"

"As to division of the spoils? One hundred thousand pounds to myself as author and architect of the plan; seven hundred thousand to our two ships; and seven hundred thousand to my friends who coöperated with me to make it possible."

Flint brought his fist crashing down upon the table.

"I'll be —— if I accept!" he shouted. "What? Less than half to our company? And you sneaking off with a cool hundred thousand pounds in your pockets, and your friends, as like as not, splitting secretly with you!"

My great-uncle refreshed himself with snuff, contriving to invest the ceremony with an effect of distaste which I found amusing.

"Stap me, but you have a low mind!" he drawled. "Allow me to direct your attention to the fact that the plan amounts to my friends and I undertaking voluntarily to present you an opportunity to participate in the division of seven hundred thousand pounds, for which you will be called upon to do nothing except agree to follow out several stipulations I shall lay down."

"Let's hear 'em."

My great-uncle ticked off the items upon his finger-tips.

"First, 'tis highly desirable that we should lie low during the ensuing months. Activities such as we usually conduct would tend to affright the Council of the Indies and bring about a change in plan for the treasure-ship's sailing."

"What shall we do, then?"

"My counsel is to bear up for Spyglass Island and careen there. Both ships are foul, and 'twill prove an excellent opportunity to make all clean and right."

Flint nodded.

"We shall need our speed against the Spaniard," he commented.

"I shall," returned my great-uncle with some emphasis. "This brings me to my second point. 'Tis advisable that we do not cruise in company for the treasure. I aim to intercept the Santissima Trinidad before she passes from the Caribbean into the Atlantic, and to that end I shall hover on a particular meridian awaiting secret intelligence notifying me when she puts forth from her port."

The blue look became intensified in Flint's face.

"You'd leave the Walrus behind?" he demanded.

"I must. Figure it for yourself," argued my relative. "Two tall ships plying the narrow seas, within easy sail of Jamaica and the Havana and Martinico! We should have the frigates after us in no time. My plan is to masquerade as a King's ship, running from any ugly customers who show themselves."

"Aye," said Flint. "And after you'd taken the treasure and stowed it all below hatches what thought would you give to us aboard the Walrus, eh? You'd be up and off, and we might whistle for our share."

"You wrong me, Captain Flint," replied my great-uncle simply.

But Flint gave an ugly laugh. It might be the rum or the stimulus of the debate or a gradual access of self-reliance; but he was no longer to be cowed by moral suasion. If I had doubted this, the suave diplomacy with which my great-uncle proceeded to treat him must have convinced me to the contrary.

"If I wrong you, Murray, 'twould be the first time without valid cause," Flint rejoined. "Come, come! You must think of me better than that."

"I have thought of the best terms possible," answered Murray. "Mark me, 'twould be perfectly feasible for me to give you the slip any dark night, take the Santissima Trinidad by my lone and never account to you for a doubloon. I do not for two reasons: First, I have a feeling of common loyalty to you and your men; we have worked and fought together in the past, and I would give them their share in this haul. Second, I wish to use the Rendezvous in connection with the coup, and if you choose to look at it so, you can set down your inclusion as payment for that, as well as for your sacrificing chances at other prizes by keeping under cover."

"It won't wash," denied Flint. "What you say sounds well enough. It may be true. But I couldn't go back and report it to a fo'csle counsel on the Walrus and expect to have it believed. I have to blink myself when I think of it. ——!" He grinned evilly. "I know what I'd do in your shoes."

My great-uncle regarded him speculatively.

"What, then, is your answer?" Murray inquired.

"I don't play on those terms," returned Flint with decision. "Let me cruise with you, have a share in taking the prize, and I'll talk differently."

Murray shook his head.

"'Twould ruin the plan. I know you, Flint. 'Tis not in you to cruise for days and forego fat merchants that cross your bows, ripe to be plucked. The Philadelphia packet you were fuming over when you came in here is a case in point! Man, there'd be a dozen such chances while we awaited the Spaniard, and one of them you'd go for. No, I can't risk it. Alone, I can contrive not to attract attention. In company, we should stir up a hornet's nest."

"Curse me for a canting mugger, then, if I'll trade on it," snarled Flint. "I'll not trust you, Murray, and that's flat."

"Suppose that I gave you a hostage?" suggested my great-uncle tentatively.

"Hostage? Who could ye give me for hostage whose life would mean aught to you? No, no! Martin or any man you'd see with his throat cut, and never bat an eye."

My esteemed relative's shrug was as complete a repudiation of such a charge as might be desired. I enjoyed it with mixed feelings because I was beginning to see the writing on the wall.

"I had not Martin in mind," he replied now; "but one whose life means to me more than my own."

"The man does not live," Flint swore roundly.

"He sits across the table," returned Murray. "My grandnephew and heir. I will go so far as to assert that the only reason I concern myself with this exploit is that I may secure estate and preferment for him."

Flint eyed him shrewdly, looked from him to me and from me to him.

"Your grandnephew, you say? Humph! Long John says you're choice o' him. Still— No, I like not your terms, Murray. They offer too little."

"They are the best I can offer," answered Murray definitely. "I will add, that there may be no misunderstandings, Flint, that the odd seven hundred thousand pounds goes to promote the interest of a cause, and not to line the pockets of Spanish officials, as you may suspect; and it is highly probable that considerable of my share will follow it."

The captain of the Walrus wiped a rumspot from the table and tipped the earthen flask bottom up above his beaker.

"'Tis a heavy commission to pay," he said. "Eight hundred thousand pounds out of a million and a half."

"That or nothing," declared Murray.

"And I must lose how many months' cruising the while you wait for the treasure-ship?"

"Six or more."

"Gut me, but ye bargain like a Jew, Murray!"

"And like a Jew I pay well and surely, offering good security."

"I see it not," fended Flint, and drained the last of his rum.

"I pay seven hundred thousand pounds, to be divided share and share by the two ships' companies, and your company will incur no risk to win it."

Flint rose and settled his belt.

"I accept, for that I can do no better," he said. "But I must have the hostage. He's the weak point of it all; but I must take some chance, and curse me if seven hundred thousand pounds be not worth the gamble."

He snapped his finger toward me.

"Come on, my lad. We'll show you the life of real gentlemen adventurers aboard the Walrus."

"I'm no negro man to be bargained over and passed from owner to owner!" I exclaimed hotly. "You can make me go, but I'll not step willingly."

Flint was about to answer with a spurt of oaths when Murray interrupted.