"Skin you!" the dark man repeated drunkenly. "We'll skin you alive! There's gold. I know there is gold."
"There is no gold," the prisoner replied calmly. He had a fine look of contempt for them. "I am a merchant venturer. We have cloth for trading with the Indians, and we hope to obtain furs. We have some knives, some tools. We are none of us wealthy men."
I had walked quietly forward. "I believe you, my friend, and I shall be content with your cargo. You may keep your vessel and your hide."
"Wha-what?" One of the men came to his feet, the others just stared. But their captain did not move. His back to me, he simply spoke quietly.
"Whoever you are, you had best leave. The ship is mine, the cargo is mine, and this man's skin is mine."
"Yes?" I touched the back of his neck with my sword point, denting the skin.
"Yes," he repeated, and he moved not a hair. "And your skin, too, if you do not put that sword aside. You see," he said calmly, "I know who you are, I know what ship you had, I know what you plan to do ... and you are now my prisoner. Though it is possible," he added, "that we might reach an agreement, Barnabas Sackett.
We just might."
For once I knew not what to say, nor which way to move. A quick glance toward the pirate ship ... no white flag.
A glance back toward the opening of the cove, and my vessel was not there, either.
Blue was with me, but where were the others?
"Taking over a pirate ship," the captain continued, "is never as simple as it seems. You see, your man Handsel used to sail with me. He knew I used this island, knew what ship you had seen, and saw a chance to become master of a vessel serving under me. When you came ashore the first time, he sent a message to me, and since then we have been simply waiting. Surrender. Surrender now, or die."
"You have nerve, my friend, but nerve is not enough when I have a sword. If one wrong move is made, I'll lean on this blade. Will you but feel the needle point?
It is razor sharp. One move, and no matter what happens after, your spinal cord is severed."
He held very still, but he laughed softly. "So what do you do now?" he asked.
"Kill me, and you die next. If you do not kill me, my men will surround you and take you. What will you do now?"
With my left hand I drew a pistol from my waistband. Was Blue with me or against me? I gambled that I had judged him right.
"Blue, keep them covered with your pistol and shoot the first one who twitches.
And cut loose the unfortunate captain."
Chapter 12
Blue did not hesitate, but moved swiftly behind the prisoner and cut him loose.
The man stood, tottered, and almost fell, then braced himself, chafing his wrists to restore circulation. "Thank you," he said quietly. "I am grateful."
"You have a crew?"
"Yes ... a few are left. They are prisoners aboard my ship."
"We must free them." I glanced toward the pirate ship ... and still no white flag fluttered from the masthead, nor had my vessel appeared off the cove.
And what of Lila, still aboard the fluyt? She was a strong, capable young woman, but there were evil men aboard the Dutch ship, and Lila was alone. What would the Newfoundlanders do?
"Take that line, Blue, and let's put some lashings on our friend here."
"You're acting the fool," the pirate said calmly. "I am the only one who can help you now. You live or die as I decide. As for the gentleman you so kindly released, do you suppose he will help you? He wishes only to take his ship and escape. You can expect no help from him, and your own crew have sold you out."
"One of them has," I said, "or so it seems. But I had no ship or crew when first I came upon them, and what I've done once I can do again."
Blue lashed the pirate's wrists snug and tight, and then those of the other two, who sat quietly under the muzzle of my pistol and the threat of my blade.
"My name is Duval," the pirate said. "You have heard of me?"
"I have not," I replied shortly, "but no doubt there's a noose waiting for you somewhere."
"If you've not heard of me," he spoke contemptuously, "you're no seaman."
"I know little of pirates," I said, "except for one called the Claw."
He gave me a sharp look. "Talon, you mean. That is what they call him now. Ah, yes! He was the one. But he has retired now. He swallowed the anchor and built himself a place ashore."
"He still has ships on the sea."
Duval shrugged. "It may be true. How do you know of him?"
I ignored his question, gathering up the weapons that lay about. There were several pistols and cutlasses.
The sky was growing gray in the east. There was no sign of the fluyt and I knew I must do what had to be done without her.
And whatever could be done must be done at once, swiftly. I glanced upward and the thought came to me with the wind.
"We should fly our flag," I said, "and that will be our mast." I indicated a tall, almost bare pine that towered high.
They stared at me, unsure of what I meant. "We will use Duval for our flag," I said. "Get a line over that big bough and we'll hoist him up there."
Duval's face went white. "You can't-"
"Oh, we're not going to string you by the neck," I said. "We'll just hang you up there out of harm's way. Of course," I added, "if you struggle too much you might work yourself loose, and if you do that, you'll fall."
From the ship's stores brought ashore from the captured vessel, Blue took a heaving line. Bending the end of it to a stronger line, he threw the heaving line over the branch on the second try, then pulled the heavier line over.
Rudely he pulled Duval around and, taking a turn around his ankles and another around his bound arms, they laid hold of the line and hoisted him aloft, nearly fifty feet in the air, hanging face down from a limb.
At the last minute Duval twisted, turned, and tried to fight. "Damn you! Turn me loose and I'll give you a thousand in gold! Two thousand! Anything! I'll get your ship back!"
"Hoist away," I said, and we hoisted.
"Looks right pretty up there," I commented. Then I glanced at the others. "Will you lie quiet or shall we hoist you aloft?"
"We ain't makin' no trouble. Just leave us be."
Thrusting two spare pistols in my waistband, I led the way toward the water.
There was in my mind no thought of what might be done, only that somehow I must have the men free who were in that vessel, and somehow I must come by a ship.
Such carrion as Duval interested me not, nor his talk of gold or ships. I would be a trader in a new land, and perhaps at a later day, a farmer. Many a pirate had I known of, and most found their way to a gibbet. I had no such wish to be dancing on air at the end of it all. What was it Black Tom had called it? "The steps and the string." And well he might, for that was it.
Drunken men sprawled upon the sand, and we looked at them from a distance off.
There were not enough of them.
"They be waiting aboard there," I told my companions. "Waiting for us, belike."
"Aye," Blue chuckled, "I wonder if they've sighted our colors yon."
"If they have," I said, "it will give them something to think on."
I turned on the man we had freed. "And your name is what?"
"My name is Hanberry. James Hanberry. English to my father's side, Dutch on my mother's, and I live mostly in the Netherlands. I've a good cargo aboard there," he said, "one I'll fight to keep."
"You lost it," I replied coolly, "and if we get it back, I shall claim a part."
"Then do what you have to do by yourselves! I'll be damned if-"
"Be damned then," I said cheerfully. "You'd be skinned alive by now had it not been for me. You will either help or go your own way."
We walked, and when we had gone some thirty yards, he ran to catch up. "You shall be damned, Sackett! The Good Lord will send you to the lowest hell!"