And that
is why you are accorded the three days you ask for. So about it,
Don Francisco. You shall have what mules you need. I'll see to it."
Away went Don Francisco on his errand, leaving Captain Blood to
reflect, between bitterness and satisfaction, that a reputation for
as much chivalry as is consistent with piracy is not without its
uses.
Punctually on the third day the Deputy-Governor was back in Maracaybo
with his mules laden with plate and money to the value demanded and a
herd of a hundred head of cattle driven in by negro slaves.
These bullocks were handed over to those of the company who
ordinarily were boucan-hunters, and therefore skilled in the curing
of meats, and for best part of a week thereafter they were busy at
the waterside with the quartering and salting of carcases.
While this was doing on the one hand and the ships were being
refitted for sea on the other, Captain Blood was pondering the riddle
on the solution of which his own fate depended. Indian spies whom
he employed brought him word that the Spaniards, working at low tide,
had salved the thirty guns of the Salvador, and thus had added yet
another battery to their already overwhelming strength.
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