I'm glad you find it matter for laughter. Since for my sins I
happen to be with you, I'm damned if I do."
"There's a misapprehension, if I may make so bold as to point it
out," put in Blood quietly. "You are not captured, gentlemen; you
are rescued. When you realize it, perhaps it will occur to you to
acknowledge the hospitality I am offering you. It may be poor, but
it is the best at my disposal."
The fierce little gentleman stared at him. "Damme! Do you permit
yourself to be ironical?" he disapproved him, and possibly with a
view to correcting any such tendency, proceeded to introduce himself.
"I am Lord Willoughby, King William's Governor-General of the West
Indies, and this is Admiral van der Kuylen, commander of His
Majesty's West Indian fleet, at present mislaid somewhere in this
damned Caribbean Sea."
"King William?" quoth Blood, and he was conscious that Pitt and
Dyke, who were behind him, now came edging nearer, sharing his own
wonder. "And who may be King William, and of what may he be King?"
"What's that?" In a wonder greater than his own, Lord Willoughby
stared back at him.
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