“He warned me of another traveller, and I play with this same other man and lose good gold, seeking to delay him. I do delay him—to find I have hindered the Governor’s good messenger and given aid to the renegade. And you ask me why I want to see him? Hah! Where is he to be found?”
“Answer me that, good pirate, and I bless you! My blade waits for him!”
“After I am through,” Gonzales suggested.
“I have first claim,” Cassara declared.
“The man is mine, I say. If he dares show his face, all must stand aside and let me at him!”
“Hah! Stand aside for you, pirate?” Cassara cried. “Captain Fly-by-Night comes to me, and I would have all men know it!”
“Now, by all the good saints, this passes a jest! I say the man comes to my blade. Have I not the better right?”
“There are three of us,” Cassara said. “The comandante here at San Diego de Alcalá has a score to settle with the rogue. Yet I think I shall spit him——”
“By what right? Wherein has he put shame upon you?” demanded Gonzales.
“Hah! As to that——”