"What was your plan?" he asked.
"You have heard that Sharkey's barque, the "Happy Delivery", came from this very port of Kingston?"
"It belonged to Mr. Codrington, and it was taken by Sharkey, who scuttled his own sloop and moved into her because she was faster," said Sir Edward.
"Yes; but it may be that you have never heard that Mr. Codrington has a sister ship, the 'White Rose', which lies even now in the harbour, and which is so like the pirate, that, if it were not for a white paint line, none could tell them apart."
"Ah! and what of that?" asked the governor keenly, with the air of one who is just on the edge of an idea.
"By the help of it this man shall be delivered into our hands."
"And how?"
"I will paint out the streak upon the 'White Rose', and make it in all things like the 'Happy Delivery'. Then I will set sail for the Island of La Vache, where this man is slaying the wild oxen. When he sees me he will surely mistake me for his own vessel which he is awaiting, and he will come on board to his own undoing."
It was a simple plan, and yet it seemed to the governor that it might be effective. Without hesitation he gave Craddock permission to carry it out, and to take any steps he liked in order to further the object which he had in view. Sir Edward was not very sanguine, for many attempts had been made upon Sharkey, and their results had shown that he was as cunning as he was ruthless. But this gaunt Puritan with the evil record was cunning aid ruthless also.
The contest of wits between two such men as Sharkey and Craddock appealed to the governor's acute sense of sport, and though he was inwardly convinced that the chances were against him, he backed his man with the same loyalty which he would have shown to his horse or his cock.