‘That also needs no consideration,’ said Lancelot.
Mr. Ebrow nodded.
‘Of course not, of course not. Then, in the third place, they call upon you to throw down your weapons and to surrender yourselves to them as prisoners of war, in which case they pledge themselves to respect your lives and preserve you all as hostages for their own safety.’
‘And if we refuse even this offer,’ Lancelot asked, ‘what is to happen then?’
‘In that case,’ said Mr. Ebrow, ‘they declare war against you; they will give you no quarter——’
‘Let them wait till they are asked!’ I broke in; but Lancelot rested his hand restrainingly upon my arm.
‘As for the matter of quarter,’ he said, ‘it may prove in the end more our business to give it than to seek for it. Quarter we may indeed give in this sense, that even those villains shall not be killed in cold blood if they are willing to surrender. But every man that we take prisoner shall most assuredly be tried for his life for piracy and murder upon the high seas. Will you be so good as to tell those men from me that if they at once surrender the person of Cornelys Jensen and their own weapons they shall be treated humanely, kept in decent confinement, and shall have the benefit of their conduct when the time for trial comes? But this offer will not hold good after to-day, and if they attempt again to approach the island they shall be fired upon.’
‘Well and good, sir,’ said Mr. Ebrow. ‘Have you anything more to say, for my masters did but give me a quarter of an hour, and I feel sure that my time must be expired by now?’
‘Only this,’ answered Lancelot, ‘that if they want to fly their black flag over this island they must come and take it from us.’