«It will be Hagthorpe and Yberville returning!» he cried.
«Pray God they've got the gold at last!» said Wolverstone.
They dashed out into the open and made for the parapet, to which the men were already swarming. As Blood reached it, the first of the returning canoes swung alongside of the jetty, and Hagthorpe sprang out of it.
«Ye're soon returned,» cried Blood, leaping down to meet him. «What luck?»
Hagthorpe, tall and square, his head swathed in a yellow kerchief, faced him in the dusk.
«Certainly not the luck that you deserve, Captain.» His tone was curious.
«Do you mean that you didn't overtake them?» Yberville, stepping ashore at that moment, answered for his fellow–leader.
«There was nobody to overtake, Captain. He fooled you, that treacherous Spaniard; he lied when he told you that he had sent off the gold; and you — you believed him — you believed a Spaniard!»
«If ye'd come to the point now!» said Captain Blood. «Did I hear ye say he had not sent off the gold? D'ye mean that it is still here?»
«No,» said Hagthorpe. «What we mean is that, after he had so fooled you with his lies that ye didn't even trouble to make search, you allowed them to go off scot–free, taking the gold with them.»