“You can’t be sure of that,” said Buckland.
“Well, sir, put Yourself in Ortega’s position. Would you say a word about a subject of that importance if you weren’t authorised to? If you weren’t expressly ordered to, sir?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” said Buckland.
No one could doubt that who knew Buckland, and for himself it was the most convincing argument.
“Then Villanueva had capitulation in mind as soon as he knew that we had captured this fort and that Renown would be able to anchor in the bay. You can see that must be so, sir.”
“I suppose so,” said Buckland, reluctantly.
“And if he’s prepared to negotiate for a capitulation he must either be a poltroon or in serious danger, sir.”
“Well—”
“It doesn’t matter which is true, sir, whether his danger is real or imaginary, from the point of view of bargaining with him.”
“You talk like a sea lawyer,” said Buckland. He was being forced by logic into taking a momentous decision, and he did not want to be, so that in his struggles against it he used one of the worst terms of opprobrium in his vocabulary.