“Aha! you sink it ees like zat, eh, mon ami? Ve sall see. You vill put yourselves down to sit.”
“No, thank you,” said Vince. “We must go now.”
“To fetch ze peoples to come and fight and be killed?”
“No,” said Vince; “we will not say a word about where we have been.”
“But we must, Vince,” said Mike. “They will ask us; and what are we to say?”
“To be certain, my friend—of course,” said the captain, showing his teeth. “You see it is so. Zey vill ask vere you go all night, and you vill say to see le Capitaine Lebrun and his cargo of silk and lace and glove and scent bottaile and ze spice; and vat zen?”
Vince had no answer ready.
“You do not speak, my friend. Zen I vill. I cannot spare you to go and speak like zat. Nobodies must know that I have my leetle place to hide here. No, I cannot spare you. You will not go back chez vous—to your place vere you live. You understand?”
Vince looked at the man very hard, and he nodded, and went on:
“I am glad to see you bose. I make myself very glad of vat you call you compagnie. But I do not ask you to come; and so I say you go back nevaire more.”