ea. "There she go," he said.

"There!" The Frenchman gazed and stared, his face growing white. The
man's wicked temper awoke, and turned to vent itself upon the messenger.
"And where have you been that you come here only now with this? Answer
me!"

The half-caste shrank terrified before his fury. His explanation, if he
had one, was paralyzed by fear. Levasseur took him by the throat, shook
him twice, snarling the while, then hurled him into the scuppers. The
man's head struck the gunwale as he fell, and he lay there, quite still,
a trickle of blood issuing from his mouth.

Levasseur dashed one hand against the other, as if dusting them.

"Heave that muck overboard," he ordered some of those who stood idling
in the waist. "Then up anchor, and let us after the Dutchman."

"Steady, Captain. What's that?" There was a restraining hand upon his
shoulder, and the broad face of his lieutenant Cahusac, a burly, callous
Breton scoundrel, was stolidly confronting him.

Levasseur made clear his purpose with a deal of unnecessary obscenity.

Cahusac shook his head. "A Dutch brig!" said he. "Impossible! We should
never be allowed."

"And who the devil will deny us?" Levasseur was between amazement and
fury.

"For one thing, there's your own crew will be none too willing. For
another there's Captain Blood."

"I care nothing for Captain Blood...."

"But it is necessary that you should. He has the power, the weight of
metal and of men, and if I know him at all he'll sink us before
he'll suffer interference with the Dutch. He has his own views of
privateering, this Captain Blood, as I warned you."

"Ah!" said Levasseur, showing his teeth. But his eyes, riveted upon that
distant sail, were gloomily thoughtful. Not for long. The imagination
and resource which Captain Blood had detected in the fellow soon
suggested a course.

Cursing in his soul, and even before the anchor was weighed, the
association into which he had entered, he was already studying ways
of evasion. What Cahusac implied was true: Blood would never suffer
violence to be done in his presence to a Dutchman; but it might be done
in his absence; and, being done, Blood must perforce condone it, since
it would then be too late to protest.

Within the hour the Arabella and La Foudre were beating out to sea
together. Without understanding the change of plan involved, Captain
Blood, nevertheless, accepted it, and weighed anchor before the
appointed time upon perce