Meanwhile it's
your surrender I require, my man, not your impudence."
Captain Blood appeared surprised, pained. He turned in appeal to
Lord Julian.
"D'ye hear that now? And did ye ever hear the like? But what did
I tell ye? Ye see, the young gentleman's under a misapprehension
entirely. Perhaps it'll save broken bones if your lordship explains
just who and what I am."
Lord Julian advanced a step and bowed perfunctorily and rather
disdainfully to that very disdainful but now dumbfounded officer.
Pitt, who watched the scene from the quarter-deck rail, tells us
that his lordship was as grave as a parson at a hanging. But I
suspect this gravity for a mask under which Lord Julian was secretly
amused.
"I have the honour to inform you, sir," he said stiffly, "that
Captain Blood holds a commission in the King's service under the
seal of my Lord Sunderland, His Majesty's Secretary of State."
Captain Calverley's face empurpled; his eyes bulged. The buccaneers
in the background chuckled and crowed and swore among themselves in
their relish of this comedy.
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