as if to strike the Frenchman, who was
exposing them to mutiny. But Cahusac was not daunted. The mood of the
men enheartened him.

"You think, perhaps, this your Captain Blood is the good God. That he
can make miracles, eh? He is ridiculous, you know, this Captain Blood;
with his grand air and his...."

He checked. Out of the church at that moment, grand air and all,
sauntered Peter Blood. With him came a tough, long-legged French
sea-wolf named Yberville, who, though still young, had already won fame
as a privateer commander before the loss of his own ship had driven him
to take service under Blood. The Captain advanced towards that disputing
group, leaning lightly upon his long ebony cane, his face shaded by a
broad-plumed hat. There was in his appearance nothing of the buccaneer.
He had much more the air of a lounger in the Mall or the Alameda--the
latter rather, since his elegant suit of violet taffetas with
gold-embroidered button-holes was in the Spanish fashion. But the long,
stout, serviceable rapier, thrust up behind by the left hand resting
lightly on the pummel, corrected the impression. That and those steely
eyes of his announced the adventurer.

"You find me ridiculous, eh, Cahusac?" said he, as he came to a halt
before the Breton, whose anger seemed already to have gone out of him.
"What, then, must I find you?" He spoke quietly, almost wearily. "You
will be telling them that we have delayed, and that it is the delay that
has brought about our danger. But whose is the fault of that delay? We
have been a month in doing what should have been done, and what but for
your blundering would have been done, inside of a week."

"Ah ca! Nom de Dieu! Was it my fault that...."

"Was it any one else's fault that you ran your ship La Foudre aground on
the shoal in the middle of the lake? You would not be piloted. You knew
your way. You took no soundings even. The result was that we lost three
precious days in getting canoes to bring off your men and your gear.
Those three days gave the folk at Gibraltar not only time to hear of our
coming, but time in which to get away. After that, and because of it,
we had to follow the Governor to his infernal island fortress, and a
fortnight and best part of a hundred lives were lost in reducing it.
That's how we come to have delayed until this Spanish fleet is fetched
round from La Guayra by a guarda-costa; and if ye hadn't lost La Foudre,
and so reduced our fleet from three sh