According to how one looked at it the story was either one of high loyalty, brilliant planning, courage and daring, or of the basest treachery, despicable cunning, villainy and murder; but, from the tremendous ovation Lucette received, there could be no doubt about the view that the Vicomte and his followers took of it.
She then played the part of presenter, or accuser and witness, against her companions of the past few days. Those who had given her willing aid were suitably rewarded, those who had had to be won over were detailed for the gruelling work of careening, and four pirates of the prize-crew who had stood out against her till overcome were sentenced to slavery for life.
Finally the Vicomte dealt with those prisoners originally taken from the Circe who had refused to join his following. The seamen, and young Tom, were condemned to slavery, the rest to death.
Herault pere had already entered all the decisions in his ledger, and on de Senlac's rising from the table the crowd began to disperse. Neither Georgina nor her friends had been able to find Monsieur Pirouet in it; so, stepping forward, she enquired what had become of him.
"In him, Madame la Comtesse," the Vicomte informed her, "I have to thank you for presenting me with a most admirable chef. He is at this moment cooking our dinner."
"I am delighted to hear it," Georgina replied, and added quickly: "But why, then, do you throw away an equally excellent valet?
"I fail to comprehend.."
"Tom Jordan was my husband's valet. Although he is quite young, he is highly proficient in his work; yet you have condemned him to slavery in the cane fields."
"I was not aware that he is a valuable servant; but in any case he is one of the recalcitrants who refused to accept me as his master."
"'Send for him, I beg, and offer to take him into your service. He would, I think, feel quite differently about that to becoming a pirate."
With a smile, de Senlac told Jean Herault to fetch Tom to him; then Georgina went on:
"And Doctor Fergusson. During our voyage he proved himself to be both a surgeon and physician of considerable merit You have told us that you lose many of your men from wounds and sickness; so surely...’
"Enough, Madame!" de Senlac cut short her plea harshly. "He is. of the very type most likely to attempt something against me; so better dead." Yet when Jean brought Tom to him he spoke kindly to the young man, and on Georgina's expressing her wish that the valet should enter his service Tom replied at once:
"Since you advise it, m'lady, I'm agreeable to do so."
At that moment one of the negro footmen announced dinner and the Vicomte offered her his arm. Her distress at the brutal sentences he had inflicted lightened a little by the thought that she had at least prevented one of them from being carried out, she took it and, followed by the others, they went into the house.
The dining-room lay on the opposite side of the hall to the row of bedrooms, and on entering it Roger saw that the table had been laid with ten covers. A quick count of heads confirmed his impression that this was one short of their number, and it suddenly occurred to him that, although the Vicomte had said nothing of it, Jenny being a servant he would not expect her to dine with them. From a similar observation Jenny had reached the same conclusion, and, like the sensible girl she was, had backed away into the passage; but, not knowing where to go, now stood there looking decidedly embarrassed. Fortunately, Tom, having been left without orders, had followed them in and was standing just behind her; so Roger stepped over to them and said with a reassuring smile:
"Go to the kitchens and find Monsieur Pirouet. He will give you as good a dinner as we get, and later find somewhere for Tom to sleep."
As Roger turned away from the door he saw that de Senlac had just finished seating the party, and thought his arrangement of it seemed very peculiar. He had taken the top of the table and placed all four women in a row on his left, with the two Heraults and his two Lieutenants opposite to them. Roger was evidently expected to take the bottom of the table, between Philo and Lucette, as that was the only place remaining unoccupied. Quietly he slipped into it, and it was not long before he was able to guess the reason for this unusual placing of the ladies all together.
If the Vicomte had separated them it would have appeared even more odd had he not placed one on either side of him; so he had evaded a deliberate rudeness to Amanda, who should have sat on his right, by seating the sexes on opposite sides of the table. That enabled him to have Jean Herault on his right; and, as the meal progressed, it became obvious that he had a special affection for the young sangmele..
Being a man of the world Roger observed it only with calculated interest Ordinarily, his own instincts being entirely normal, it was only when unnatural relationships between others were particularly blatant that he even noticed them; but, when he saw de Senlac passing the blond Jean titbits off his plate, he hid a smile of cynical satisfaction. It explained why the Vicomte had refrained from claiming a 'Captain's privilege' with Amanda, Georgina or Clarissa, and was a reasonable guarantee that while they remained on Tortuga he was unlikely to force unwelcome attentions upon them.
For the prisoners it was the strangest dinner party they had ever attended, and at times seemed quite unreal. On the one hand the table appointments were elegant, the food excellent, the service of the negro footmen, under the supervision of a mulatto major-domo,everything that could be desired. In fact the setting could not have been more civilized and luxurious had they been in the house of a nobleman who owned great estates in one of the sugar islands. On the other the presence of Philo, Cyrano and Lucette was a constant reminder that they were sitting at table with men steeped in the blackest villainy and a woman who only that morning had strangled her lover.
Yet the Vicomte seemed quite unconscious of this anomaly and now gave the impression that he would not willingly have harmed a rabbit. He was telling Georgina something of the history of that part of the world, and how the French had first secured a foothold there.
Columbus, he said, had formed his first settlement in the great Carib island of Haiti, as Santo Domingo was then called. He had christened it Hispaniola, or Little Spain, and claimed for the Spanish crown all the islands in the Caribbean. But even after the Spaniards had subdued the fierce Caribs in Haiti they had not bothered to colonize its little neighbour, Tortuga. French outlaws and castaways had been the first to do so, and as in the island there were great herds of wild cattle and wild hogs, they had made a living by hunting them and selling the smoked meat to passing ships. It was from their daring handling of the wild bulls that they had got the name Buccaneers.
After some years the Spaniards had sent an expedition to turn them out; so they had taken refuge in the uninhabited parts of Santo Domingo, where, as there were even greater herds, they had re-established themselves in their occupation. Later, learning that the Spaniards had vacated Tortuga, some of the Buccaneers returned there. Again the Spaniards despatched troops to dislodge them, but by then the French had.greatly increased in numbers, and they proved the better men. Not only had they remained masters of Tortuga, but they wrested the most fertile third of Santo Domingo from their enemies.
Meanwhile, the number of pirates sailing the Spanish Main had increased exceedingly, and before proceeding on a voyage they had formed the habit of raiding the stockyards of the Buccaneers to provision their ships. This constant menace to the living of the Buccaneers caused many of those in Santo Domingo to become planters, which led to their descendants making great fortunes; but on Tortuga the area of cultivable land was negligible, so the Buccaneers there had abandoned their hunting and turned pirate, thus giving the latter their alternative name.