"
"I... I don't think I understand." Her brows were knit. "How have
I been ungrateful and to whom?"
"To whom? To Captain Blood. Didn't he come to our rescue?"
"Did he?" Her manner was frigid. "I wasn't aware that he knew of
our presence aboard the Milagrosa."
His lordship permitted himself the slightest gesture of impatience.
"You are probably aware that he delivered us," said he. "And living
as you have done in these savage places of the world, you can hardly
fail to be aware of what is known even in England: that this fellow
Blood strictly confines himself to making war upon the Spaniards.
So that to call him thief and pirate as you did was to overstate the
case against him at a time when it would have been more prudent to
have understated it."
"Prudence?" Her voice was scornful. "What have I to do with
prudence?"
"Nothing - as I perceive. But, at least, study generosity. I tell
you frankly, ma'am, that in Blood's place I should never have been
so nice. Sink me! When you consider what he has suffered at the
hands of his fellow-countrymen, you may marvel with me that he should
trouble to discriminate between Spanish and English.
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