O'Donnell muttered something none too civil, but the maid bestirred herself, and her eyes examined me again with the mingling of horror and stupefaction which governed her mood.
"How come you here?" she asked. "You—you—are you also a pirate?"
"I am a captive as surely as yourself," I returned. "Aye, more so."
"A captive!" she exclaimed, her interest fanned alight. "But surely you——"
My great-uncle interrupted her.
"Please, Mistress O'Donnell! Our tale is sufficiently complicated. Let us not make it more difficult to comprehend by confusing it at the beginning with side-issues."
"Gunn!"
"Yessir!"
The steward ducked and scraped.
"Give us whatever food you have prepared, swiftly. And fetch up some wines—port, burgundy, claret, madeira."