"You cannot suppose that I came to Sandtoft with any ill intent."
"By heaven and hell, but I can suppose it, and be sure of it. Thousand devils, yes. You are a spy, a traitor, a Judas."
Then he turned to his men, gabbling fast them in Dutch, finally issuing an order to one of the men, which he went out to execute.
"These hurts got in defending your people should certify you, M. Vliet," I said, pointing t my shoulder.
"Ah! you are crafty, Mister-Judas. You fight a little in the daylight for us, that you may plot against us in the dark. You designing devil!"
Although I knew, looking at Vliet's countenance, in which raging hatred was no less visible than drunkenness, that there was but a step between me and death, I could not refrain from smiling at the character he gave me.
"You laugh! You will look very funny when you are hanged!" he said.
"Be sure of this," I said, speaking slowly, and as plainly as I could, if perchance some of the Dutchmen, might have English enough to take my meaning: "if you hang me, you will be hanged, and every man who aids you."
I saw by the look of one of the fellows that he understood me. He whispered to Vliet, who looked up and asked—
"What lie have you to tell why you came here?"