"I do. You may fully trust in my promise to reward and protect any one who puts me on the track of that leader of the villains."
"Your Excellency, I must have special assurance of this. Do you give me your knightly word that you will grant me a free pardon for all offences against the customs, if I tell all you wish to know, even to the most secret hiding-places of the rovers?"
"I pledge you my full word of honor for that," said the governor, now deeply interested.
"You will grant me full pardon, under the king's seal, no matter how great my offences or crimes, if you call them so, may have been?"
"If what you reveal is to the purpose," said Tacon, wondering why his visitor was so unduly cautious.
"Even if I were a leader among the rovers myself?"
Tacon hesitated a moment, looking closely at the stalwart stranger, while considering the purport of his words.
"Yes," he said, at length. "If you will lead our ships to the haunts of Marti and his followers, you can fully depend on the reward and the pardon."
"Excellency, I know you well enough to trust your word, or I should never have put myself in your power."
"You can trust my word," said Tacon, impatiently. "Now come to the point; I have no time to waste."