Fra Diavolo took the cue instantly. “A-i, mis muchachos!” he called, and the little demons came hurrying back, like a damned host with a new hope of heaven.
If there were any police about, or had been, they were mysteriously indifferent. But Jacqueline did just as well. No one had thought to put her back in the café, and she promptly took a hand in the man’s game.
“Michel Ney,” she commanded, “do you hear me; lower that pistol!”
“You, you wish me to surrender, mademoiselle?”
“You know I don’t! If anyone even asks it, I will go back to the ship with you, at once.”
“But I, I don’t understand.”
“You understand that I want your escort overland. Is it gallant, then, to disappoint me by getting yourself killed?”
“But all your trunks are on the ship.”
Jacqueline turned to her Fra Diavolo. He could answer that? To be sure he could, and he was honored. He suggested, with her permission, that she spend the night on shore, she and her maid, since the café was also a hotel. Meantime, the sailors could bring what she needed from the boat.
As he listened, Ney’s slow thoughts came to a focus. And when Jacqueline turned to him again, he gave way graciously, which brought on him a sharp scrutiny from the ranchero. However, the truce between the two antagonists was patched up with a readiness on both sides. Ney restored to Fra Diavolo his pistol, and had his own weapons back in exchange. Next he took the ship’s steward aside, apparently to instruct him about bringing the trunk. “And steward,” he whispered, “don’t forget to make it urgent. The skipper must land all 52the troops on board at once.” He decided that meantime he would stroll up to the fort on his own account, and bring down more aid from there.