“I must trade, or try to trade. I’ve told you. I’m a merchant.”
“Quite right, sir,” said Tucket. “I’m a merchant, too. I’d be only too glad to trade.”
“They won’t let you,” said Stukeley. “So why not look at the position honestly.”
“Well. Trade. Try it,” said Pain. “If you try it, you’ll get a sickener. Then you’ll fight all the better, after.”
“They used to trade,” said Cammock. “I’ve known a lot of interloping done. At Maracaibo they traded.”
“They won’t now,” Pain said. “Any man caught trading without the King’s license is up for the everlasting prison remediless. You don’t believe me. You try.”
“I shall try,” Margaret said.
“Right O,” said Pain. “Then we’ll sail to-morrow. Our two ships will keep out of sight of land. We could lie by among them Bernadoes. You can send in samples with your interpreter in Captain Tucket’s sloop. If they see a big ship standing in they’ll fire at her. So send the sloop. They’ll not listen to you. They’ll likely fire at the sloop. So the next morning we’ll land and take the town. There’s twenty pound a man in Tolu. Silver.”
Cammock, to give Margaret the cue, for he knew that Pain held the whip hand, said that he approved. “That sounds like business,” he said. “This is Tolu, Captain Margaret.” He pulled out a quarto pocket-book containing elaborate charts of many places on the Main. The book had been the work of many days, and of many hands, for some of the charts had been copied, some made on the spot, some taken in fight, others bought, or drawn from hearsay, or bequeathed. It contained manuscript notes worth a lot of money to a good many people. “This is Tolu, sir. In Morrosquillo Gulf here. This long beach runs twenty miles. It’s all hard sand, shelving, and shallowish water in the gulf. Then back of the town there’s forest. But all very flat land, as far as Cispata. Ain’t that so, Pete?”
“Flat as your palm. Them’s nice maps you got, Lion.”