"Well," said Rupert, "it's a hard thing to do, gentlemen, but I must avow myself to you as a coward. Transit of goods in these seas seems so perilous and so expensive that really I have been frightened out of risking it. There's some small fortune which it may come to your memory I earned a few days back—and for half of which I am responsible to Master Simpson, my matelot in Hispaniola. Gentlemen, believe me, my nervousness about that fortune is so great that I have decided to bank it with Mother Earth in this island of Curassou. And indeed, whilst you were having your frolic with the rum casks, I found a spade, and myself put the deposit in that good banker's safekeeping. We contrived matters, Mother Earth and I, that none should steal the key."
The buccaneers bore no resentment at being further tricked. Indeed they let off their guns in compliment to their quartermaster's acuteness, and bade him now that he had taken up a new service, attend to the joint interest as cleverly as he had done before for his own.
The Prince took them pleasantly. "If appetite gives wit," said he, "I should be a clever fellow just now. There isn't a buccaneer more greedy for plunder along all the Spanish Main. And for advice, there seems to me that only one course is open to us. Here is this ship that we have put in trim. You will note that four days ago she was a mere salt-gatherer."
"We all know that."
"Assuredly. I was but marshalling my arguments. Now salt is a very vulgar commodity, but it has its merchants and dealers, and this ship will have her proper port. I do not know what's the port, or what's its armament, but according to me, brethren, it's clearly indicated that this ship's port is the point for our attack. We sail there, arriving openly and in broad daylight. There's nothing hid. We'll set her old crew (who are luckily none the worse for their whistling) to work her into anchorage in their usual clumsy fashion, and for ourselves, we'll sit genteelly down in the hold as passengers and while the time (if it please you) with the dice. Then, when the moment comes, we can walk in and take possession before they have made any preparations for our reception. Come now, brethren, how does my scheme taste to your judgments?"
"We should manage a surprise that way, my lord quartermaster," said Wick. "The question is, whether the place is worth it."
"Ah, that point," said the Prince, "must be left to Captain Wick, who is geographer to this crew."
"The truth is," said Wick, rubbing his chin, "the salt merchant belongs to Cumarebo, and it's a place I never heard that buccaneers visited."
"There must be a beginning to every kind of experience," said Stephen Laughan modestly.
"Quite so, my lad, but let me tell you your cleverness is more pert than longheaded. News always seems to get about if a town on the Main contains treasure, and Cumarebo makes its boast principally of a very vast cathedral and several barracks full of greasy priests."