"How could I know it was you? I hit hard enough to crack the skull of any other man."
"What do you mean? What do you know about my skull? What are you driving at? I don't know you, you white-headed villain, going about at night knocking people on the head from behind. Did you do for our officer, too?"
"Oh yes! Your officer. What was he up to? What trouble did you people come to make here, anyhow?"
"Do you think they tell a boat's crew? Go and ask our officer. He went up the gully and our coxswain got the jumps. He says to me: 'You are light-footed, Sam,' says he; 'you just creep round the head of the cove and see if our boat can be seen across from the other side.' Well, I couldn't see anything. That was all right. But I thought I would climb a little higher amongst the rocks. . . ."
He paused drowsily.
"That was a silly thing to do," remarked Peyrol in an encouraging voice.
"I would've sooner expected to see an elephant inland than a craft lying in a pool that seemed no bigger than my hand. Could not understand how she got there. Couldn't help going down to find out – and the next thing I knew I was lying on my back with my head tied up, in a bunk in this kennel of a cabin here. Why couldn't you have given me a hail and engaged me properly, yardarm to yardarm? You would have got me all the same, because all I had in the way of weapons was the clasp-knife which you have looted off me."
"Up on the shelf there," said Peyrol, looking round. "No, my friend, I wasn't going to take the risk of seeing you spread your wings and fly."
"You need not have been afraid for your tartane. Our boat was after no tartane. We wouldn't have taken your tartane for a gift. Why, we see them by dozens every day – those tartanes."
Peyrol filled the two mugs again. "Ah," he said, "I daresay you see many tartanes, but this one is not like the others. You a sailor – and you couldn't see that she was something extraordinary."