"I'll pay you well," Francis retorted, beginning to lose his temper. "Get busy."
"You will then recharter, sir, at three times the present charter?"
Francis nodded shortly.
"Then wait, sir, I entreat. I must procure pen and paper from the cabin and make out the document."
"Oh, Lord," Francis groaned. "Square away and get a move on first. We can make out the paper just as easily while we are running as standing still. Look! They are beginning to fire."
The half-breed captain heard the report, and, searching his spread canvas, discovered the hole of the bullet high up near the peak of the mainsail.
"Very well, sir," he conceded. "You are a gentleman and an honorable man. I trust you to affix your signature to the document at your early convenience Hey, you nigger! Put up your wheel! Hard up! Jump, you black rascals, and slack away mainsheetf Take a hand there, you, Percival, on the boom-tackle!"
All obeyed, as did Percival, a grinning shambling Kingston negro who was as black as his name was white, and as did another, addressed more respectfully as Juan, who was more Spanish and Indian than negro, as his light yellow skin attested, and whose fingers, slacking the foresheet, were as slim and delicate as a girl's.
"Knock the nigger on the head if he keeps up this freshness," Henry growled in an undertone to Francis. "For two cents I'll do it right now."
But Francis shook his head.