"
"Taking with you as captives upon the pirate ship that lady and that
nobleman?"
"Yes."
"You proceeded to ravage the dominions of the King of Spain,
with whom his Majesty is at peace" -
"Like Drake and Raleigh, - yes," I said.
He smiled, then frowned "Tempora mutantur," he said dryly. "And
I have never heard that Drake or Raleigh attacked an English
ship."
"Nor have I attacked one," I said.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at me. "We saw the flame
and heard the thunder of your guns, and our rigging was cut by the
shot. Did you expect me to believe that last assertion?"
"No."
"Then you might have spared yourself - and us - that lie," he said
coldly.
The Treasurer moved restlessly in his seat, and began to whisper to
his neighbor the Secretary. A young man, with the eyes of a hawk
and an iron jaw, - Clayborne, the surveyor general, - who sat at the
end of the table beside the window, turned and gazed out upon the
clouds and the sea, as if, contempt having taken the place of
curiosity, he had no further interest in the proceedings. As for me,
I set my face like a flint, and looked past the man who might have
saved me that last speech of the Governor's as if he had never
been.
There was a closed door in the cabin, opposite the one by which I
had entered. Suddenly from behind it came the sound of a short
struggle, followed by the quick turn of a key in the lock.
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