Not until he was back aboard his own ship did Captain Pike release the rage from which he all but bursted. And the sound of it, the tale he told in the ship's waist with the survivors of his crew about him, aroused in his violent followers a rage to match his own. Trenam added fuel to the flames by the views he expressed.
«If the swine means to break faith is it likely he'll stop half–way? Depend on it, if we accept this tenth, he'll find a pretext to cheat us of all. Captain Blood was in the right. We should never ha' put our trust in that son of a dog.»
One of the hands spoke up, voicing the feelings of all. «But since we've put it, we've got to see he keeps it.»
Pike, who was leaning by now to Trenam's despondent view of their case, waited for the chorus of angry approval to subside.
«Will you tell me how we are to do it? We are some forty men against three hundred. A twenty–gun brig against two frigates with fifty guns of heavier weight between them.»
This gave them pause until another bold one spoke. «He says a tenth or naught. Our answer is a third or naught. There's honour among buccaneers, and we hold him to his pledge, to the articles upon which the dirty thief enlisted us.»
As one man the crew supported him. «Go you back with that answer, Captain.»
«And if he refuses?»
It was Trenam who now thought he held the answer.
«There's ways of compelling him. Tell him we'll raise the whole Brotherhood of the Coast against him. Captain Blood will see that we have justice. Captain Blood's none so fond of him, as he well knows. Remind him of that, Captain. Go you back and tell him.»
It was a powerful card to play. Pike realized this: yet he confessed that he did not relish the task of playing it. But his men turned upon him with up–braidings. It was he who had persuaded them to follow Easterling. It was he who had not known how to make a stand against Easterling's encroachments from the outset. They had done their part. It was for him to see to it that they were not cheated of their pay.
So back from the Valiant at her anchorage in the very neck of the harbour went Captain Pike in the cockboat to convey his men's answer to Captain Easterling, and to hoist the bogey of Captain Blood and the Brethren of the Coast, upon which he depended now for his own safety.
The interview took place in the waist of the Avenger before an audience of her crew and in the presence of Captain Galloway, who was still aboard her. It was short and violent.
When Captain Pike had stated that his men insisted upon the fulfilment of the terms of the articles, Easterling laughed. His crew laughed with him; some there were who cheered Pike ironically.
«If that's their last word, my man,» said Easterling, «they can up anchor and away to the devil. I've no more to say to them.»
«It'll be the worse for you, Captain, if they go,» said Pike steadily.
«D'ye threaten, by God!» The man's great bulk seemed to swell with rage.
«I warn you, Captain.»
«You warn me? Warn me of what?»
«That the Brethren of the Coast, the whole buccaneering fraternity, will be raised against you for this breach of faith.»
«Breach of faith!» Easterling's voice soared in pitch. «Breach of faith, ye bastard scum! D'ye dare stand before my face and say that to me?» He plucked a pistol from his belt. «Be off this ship at once, and tell your blackguards that if the Valiant is still there by noon I'll blow her out of the water. Away with you.»
Pike, choking with indignation, and made bold by it, played his master card.
«Very well,» said he. «You'll have Captain Blood to deal with for this.»
Pike had reckoned upon intimidating, but neither upon the extent to which his words would achieve it, nor the blind fury that follows panic in such natures as that of the man with whom he dealt.
«Captain Blood?» Easterling spoke through his teeth, his great face purple. «You'll go whining to Captain Blood, will you? Go whine in Hell, then.»
And on the word, at point–blank range, he shot Pike through the head.
The buccaneers standing about them recoiled in momentary horror as the man's body went backwards across the hatch coaming. Easterling jeered coarsely at their squeamishness. Galloway looked on, his little eyes glittering, his face inscrutable.
«Take up that carrion.» Easterling pointed with his still smoking pistol. «Hang it from the yard–arm. Let it serve as a warning to those swine on the Valiant of what happens to them as gets pert with Captain Easterling.»
A long–drawn cry, in which anger, fear and pity were all blended, went up from the deck of Pike's ship when her crew, crowding the larboard bulwarks, perceived through the rigging of the Hermes, the limp body of their captain swinging from the yardarm of the Avenger. So intent were these men that they paid no heed to the two long Indian canoes that came alongside to starboard, or even to the tall gentleman in black and silver who stepped from the accommodation ladder to the deck behind them. Not until his crisp dry voice rang out were they aware of him.
«I arrive a trifle late, it seems.»
They turned and beheld him on the hatch–coaming, his left hand on the pummel of his rapier, his face in the shadow of his broad plumed hat, his eyes hard and cold with anger. Asking themselves how he came there, they stared at him as if he were an apparition, mystified, incredulous, doubting their vision.
At last young Trenam sprang towards him, his eyes blazing with excitement in his grey face. «Captain Blood! Is it indeed you? But how — ?»
Captain Blood quieted him by a wave of the long supple hand emerging from the foam of lace at his wrist. «I've never been far from you ever since you landed on Darien. I know your case, and this is no more than I foresaw. But I had hoped to avert it.»
«You'll call a reckoning from that treacherous dog?»
«To be sure I will, and at once. That hideous gesture demands an instant answer.» His voice was as grim as his countenance. «You have men here to lay the guns. Get them below at once.»
The Valiant had been swinging with the first of the gentle ebb when Blood stepped aboard; she stood now. In the line of the channel, so that the operation of opening the gun–ports could not be discerned from the other ships.
«The guns?» gasped Trenam. «But, Captain, we're in no case to fight. We've neither the men nor the metal.»
«Enough for what's to do. Men and guns are not all that count in these affairs. Easterling gave you this station so that you should cover the other ships.» Blood uttered a short stern laugh. «He shall learn the strategic disadvantages of it, so he shall. Get your gun crew below.» Then he gave other orders briskly. «Eight of you to man the longboat. There are two canoes astern well–manned to assist you warp your ship broadside when the time comes. The ebbing tide will help you. Send aloft every man you can spare, to loose sail once we're out of the channel. Bestir, Trenam! Bestir!»
He dived below to the main deck, where the gun crew was already at work clearing the guns for action. He stimulated the men by his words and manner, and received unquestioning obedience from them; for, without understanding what might be afoot, they were stirred almost to enthusiasm by their confidence in him and their assurance that he would avenge upon Easterling their captain's murder and their own wrongs.
When all was ready and the matches glowing he went on deck again.
The two canoes manned by Mosquito Indians and the Valiant's longboat were astern under her counter and invisible to those aboard the other two ships. Towing–ropes had been attached, and the men waited for the word of command.
At Blood's suggestion Trenam, did not wait to take up anchor, but slipped his cable, and the oarsmen bent to their task of warping the ship round. Labours which would not in themselves have sufficed were made easy by the ebb, and slowly the brigantine began to swing broadside across the channel. Already Blood was below again, directing the hands that manned the starboard guns. Five of these were to be concentrated on the rudder of the Hermes, the other five were to sweep her shrouds.