She was unconscious of the
loathly business the Colonel was transacting. Was she, wondered
Blood, indifferent to it?
Colonel Bishop swung on his heel to pass on.
"I'll go as far as twenty pounds. Not a penny more, and it's twice
as much as you are like to get from Crabston."
Captain Gardner, recognizing the finality of the tone, sighed and
yielded. Already Bishop was moving down the line. For Mr. Blood,
as for a weedy youth on his left, the Colonel had no more than a
glance of contempt. But the next man, a middle-aged Colossus named
Wolverstone, who had lost an eye at Sedgemoor, drew his regard, and
the haggling was recommenced.
Peter Blood stood there in the brilliant sunshine and inhaled the
fragrant air, which was unlike any air that he had ever breathed.
It was laden with a strange perfume, blend of logwood flower,
pimento, and aromatic cedars. He lost himself in unprofitable
speculations born of that singular fragrance. He was in no mood for
conversation, nor was Pitt, who stood dumbly at his side, and who
was afflicted mainly at the moment by the thought that he was at
last about to be separated from this man with whom he had stood
shoulder to shoulder throughout all these troublous months, and
whom he had come to love and depend upon for guidance and sustenance.
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