Part 10 (2/2)
”I've been in a h which I could not win Strip forth your own, and haply I can do as much for you as I am wont to do for myself”
”Why, it is this wise,” said the other ”My brother will assuredly hang as you have said if he bides hi him to trial And in that case, faith, I am lost too It dishonours a ed 'Tis a horrible thing to have happen”
”Indeed, indeed!” the sailor agreed encouragingly
”I would abstract him from this,” pursued Lionel, and at the same time cursed the foul fiend that prompted him such specious words to cloak his villainy ”I would abstract hio unpunished for I swear to you, Master Leigh, that I abhor the deed--a cowardly, rientleman he made haste to add--”To be sure! To be sure!”
Master Lionel stopped and faced the other squarely, his shoulders to his horse They were quite alone in as lonely a spot as any conspirator could desire Behind him stretched the eently to the wooded heights of Arwenack
”I'll be quite plain and open with you, Master Leigh Peter Godolphin was my friend Sir Oliver is no ive a deal to the man ould abstract Sir Oliver secretly fro in such a way that Sir Oliver should not thereby escape the punishht, even as he said it, that he could bring his lips so glibly to utter words that his heart detested
The captain looked grier upon Master Lionel's velvet doublet in line with that false heart of his
”I areat Yet ye say that ye'ld give a deal”
”Yourself shall na feverishly, his cheeks white
”Oh I can contrive it, never fear,” said the captain ”I know to a nicety what you require How say you now: if I was to carry him overseas to the plantations where they lack toilers of just such thews as his?”
He lowered his voice and spoke with so that he proposed perhaps ht return,” was the answer that dispelled all doubts on that score
”Ah!” said the skipper ”What o' the Barbary rovers, then! They lack slaves and are ever ready to trade, though they be niggardly payers I never heard of none that returned once they had hi with thehts for spices and eastern carpets and the like”
Master Lionel breathed hard ”'Tis a horrible fate, is't not?”
The captain stroked his beard ”Yet 'tis the only really safe bestowal, and when all is said 'tis not so horrible as hanging, and certainly less dishonouring to aSir Oliver and yourself”
”'Tis so, tis so,” cried Master Lionel almost fiercely ”And the price?”
The searew pensive
”A hundred pound?” he suggested tentatively
”Done with you for a hundred pounds,” was the proh realized he had driven a fool's bargain which it was incumbent upon him to amend
”That is, a hundred pound for myself,” he corrected slowly ”Then there be the crew to reckon for--to keep their counsel and lend a hand; 'twill mean another hundred at the least”
Master Lionel considered a moment ”It is more than I can lay my hands on at short notice But, look you, you shall have a hundred and fifty pounds in coin and the balance in jewels You shall not be the loser in that, I pro me word that all is done as you now undertake there shall be the like again”
Upon that the bargain was settled And when Lionel came to talk of ways and means he found that he had allied hihly All the assistance that the skipper asked was that Master Lionel should lure his gentleman to soh would have a boat and his ht very safely be left to hiht hi round, and pointed across the water to Trefusis Point and the grey pile of Godolphin Court all bathed in sunshi+ne now
”Yonder, at Trefusis Point in the shadow of Godolphin Court at eight to-ht, when there will be no moon I'll see that he is there
But on your life do not h ”And the money?”