“‘Where could they have got ’em, sir?’ said little Mr Johnson to me, he and Captain Alphonse and myself being in counsel together at the time, it being the watch below of Don Miguel and Basseterre and the sailor Duval, all three of whom were asleep in the wheel-house, recruiting for their night duty. ‘They didn’t have no firearms yesterday, colonel, I’ll swear. Do you think they’ve murdered the mate and bo’sun forrads, and robbed ’em?’
“As a similar idea flashed through my mind, that devil, the ‘marquis,’ answered the little Englishman’s question as I, too, had feared!
“‘Oh! my friend,’ he called out, as I covered him with my revolver from my rampart behind the poop-rail on the top of the ladder, where a roll of tarpaulin served us for shelter. ‘Don’t be too handy with your pistol. We have got firearms too, now. Stop a minute. I have got something to say to you.’
“‘You had better make haste with your speech, then,’ said I. ‘My finger is itching to pull the trigger, and you know, to your cost, I’m a dead shot!’
“‘You will not do much good by killing me,’ he retorted with that mocking hyena laugh of his, which always exasperated me so much. ‘I want to tell you that we know you have got three more men with you now than you had yesterday, for we searched the hold this morning and found the nest empty and the birds flown. But recollect, my friend, we can get to you aft through the cargo, in the same way as those white-livered wretches have done!’
“‘Bah! I’m not afraid of your threats, you black devil,’ I replied, although my heart went down to my boots at the thought of my darling child being caught unawares and being left to the mercy of such demons. ‘We have scuttled the after part of the ship, and at the least noise being heard in the hold we will let in the water and drown you all like rats in a hole, and see how you like that!’
“This idea, which occurred to me on the spur of the instant, evidently impressed the scoundrel, for I could see a change come over his ugly face.
“‘Let us make a compromise,’ he suggested after a pause, during which he whispered to his companion, the giant negro, both keeping much behind the mainmast. ‘You can take that boat you have there at the stern, the lot of you, if you like, and leave us the ship.’
“‘My word, that’s a very good proposal, marquis,’ said Captain Alphonse, coming to my side. ‘You won’t interfere with us, I suppose, if we go away and give you absolute power to do what you please with the Saint Pierre, eh?’
“‘Assuredly not, my friend; we promise that,’ eagerly replied the scoundrel, deceived by the manner of my poor friend. ‘You can take anything you like of your personal effects too; you and the other whites.’