"Tell me, as an experienced and bloody pirate, what in my place
would you do, yourself?"
"Ah, but there is a difference." Don Diego sat up to argue the
matter. "It lies in the fact that you boast yourself a humane man."
Captain Blood perched himself on the edge of the long oak table.
"But I am not a fool," said he, "and I'll not allow a natural Irish
sentimentality to stand in the way of my doing what is necessary
and proper. You and your ten surviving scoundrels are a menace on
this ship. More than that, she is none so well found in water and
provisions. True, we are fortunately a small number, but you and
your party inconveniently increase it. So that on every hand, you
see, prudence suggests to us that we should deny ourselves the
pleasure of your company, and, steeling our soft hearts to the
inevitable, invite you to be so obliging as to step over the side."
"I see," said the Spaniard pensively. He swung his legs from the
couch, and sat now upon the edge of it, his elbows on his knees. He
had taken the measure of his man, and met him with a mock-urbanity
and a suave detachment that matched his own.
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