"Then you think," says he eagerly, "that they are pirates who came hither?"
"Ay, and not honest men; that is my fear," says I.
"And I trust they be pirates, and not honest men, if they are to come here again," says he; "for then may I get back all I have lost, and more to boot."
"As how?" says I, not without trouble in my mind.
"By the same means my fortune was taken from me—by strategy and force."
"Surely you would not become a pirate—you, a gentleman of birth and breeding?"
"And what was Drake but a gentleman?" says he; "and Candish: what of him?"
I shook my head, and heaved a sigh to hear this argument from the lips of my friend, which I had listened to from such a rascal as Rodrigues.
"Why," says he, in a rallying tone, "you were not so squeamish aboard the Sure Hawk."
"No," says I; "but I thank the Lord I have not taken his warning in vain."