"Ja," nodded Peter. "We don't trust 'em. But we know dot, Bob. We don't be fooled. Andt now anyway we get off alive. Afterwards——"
He shrugged his mountainous shoulders.
"If we do but get off this terrible island we are that much improved in our circumstances!" exclaimed Moira. "Glory, but I'll wear the skin from me knees when I see another woman's face—not that I'm ungrateful to the two of ye here, that are as brave cavaliers as any maid ever owed her all to."
What she said set me to pondering again, and I called to Flint——
"Mistress O'Donnell must have every consideration she is accustomed to, with decent lodging in the cabin and we two to attend her."
"Gut me!" roared Flint. "D'ye think we conduct a nunnery aboard the Walrus?"
"I am thinking she is a young maid by her lone, which is hard enough, let be she must dwell with pirates," I answered.
"There's Rule Four of our Articles," he sneered. "Ye will ha' heard it before. It should be assurance for any maid."
"You have heard my terms," I said. "Take them or leave them. There's eight hundred thousand pounds to be gained from treating us kindly. If you do not so, as sure as I am here we will die, the three of us, before we yield you the secret—and you should know the years 'twill require to dig over the Dead Man's Chest."
"We'll take you," he replied ill-naturedly. "And such a argufying swab I never listened to or will again, —— my eyes. Are ye fixed in your mind, Buckskin?"