‘You may lower them in a collapsible boat, if you have one,’ answered Merton. ‘But, on the faintest suspicion of treachery—the faintest surmise, mark you, I switch on my torpedo.’
‘What are your terms?’ asked the pirate captain.
‘The return of the bullion, that is all,’ replied the voice of Merton. ‘I give you two minutes to decide.’
Before a minute and a half had passed the masked captain had capitulated. ‘I climb down,’ he said.
‘The boats of the Flora will come for it,’ said Merton; ‘your men will help load it in the boats. Look sharp, and be civil, or I blow you out of the water!’
The pirates had no choice; rapidly, if sullenly, they effected the transfer.
When all was done, when the coffers had been hoisted aboard the Flora Macdonald, Merton, for the first time, hailed the yacht.
‘Will you kindly send a boat round here for me, Mr. Macrae, if you do not object to my joining you on the return voyage?’
Mr. Macrae shouted a welcome, the yacht’s crew cheered as only Britons can. Mr. Macrae’s piper struck up the march of the clan, ‘A’ the wild McCraws are coming!’
‘If any of you scoundrels shoot,’ cried Merton to his enemies, ‘up you will all go. You shall stay here, after we depart, in front of that torpedo, just as long as the skipper of my vessel pleases.’