But when the buccaneer had departed, he checked the satisfaction of his followers.
«I was warned that Captain Easterling is a dangerous man. That's to flatter him. For to be dangerous a man must be clever, and Captain Easterling is not clever.»
«What maggot's burrowing under your periwig, Peter?» wondered Wolverstone.
«I'm thinking of the reason he gave for desiring our association. It was the best he could do when bluntly asked the question.»
«It could not have been more reasonable,» said Hagthorpe emphatically. He was finding Blood unnecessarily difficult.
«Reasonable!» Blood laughed. «Specious, if you will. Specious until you come to examine it. Faith, now, it glitters, to be sure. But it isn't gold. A ship as strong as a fort in which to stow a half–million pieces of eight, and this fortress ship in the hands of ourselves. A trusting fellow this Easterling for a scoundrel.»
They thought it out, and their eyes grew round. Pitt, however, was not yet persuaded. «In his need he'll trust our honour.»
Blood looked at him with scorn. «I never knew a man with eyes like Easterling's to trust to anything but possession. If he means to stow that treasure aboard this ship, and I could well believe that part of it, it is because he means to be in possession of this ship by the time he does so. Honour! Bah! Could such a man believe that honour would prevent us from giving him the slip one night once we had the treasure aboard, or even of bringing our weight of metal to bear upon his sloop and sinking her? It's fatuous you are, Jeremy, with your talk of honour.»
Still the thing was not quite clear to Hagthorpe. «What, then, do you suppose to be his reason for inviting us to join him?»
«The reason that he gave. He wants our ship, be it for the conveyance of his treasure, if it exists, be it for other reasons. Didn't he first seek to buy the Cinco Llagas? Oh, he wants her, naturally enough; but he wants not us, nor would he keep us long, be sure of that.»