All things considered, there is not a doubt that it would have done so had not Captain Blood intended otherwise.

“And if you should die before you have earned it?  Ours is a calling fraught with risks, my Captain.”

“Damn you!” Levasseur flung upon him livid with fury.  “Will nothing satisfy you?”

“Oh, but yes.  Twenty thousand pieces of eight for immediate division.”

“I haven’t got it.”

“Then let some one buy the prisoners who has.”

“And who do you suppose has it if I have not?”

“I have,” said Captain Blood.

“You have!” Levasseur’s mouth fell open.  “You... you want the girl?”

“Why not?  And I exceed you in gallantry in that I will make sacrifices to obtain her, and in honesty in that I am ready to pay for what I want.”

Levasseur stared at him foolishly agape.  Behind him pressed his officers, gaping also.

Captain Blood sat down again on the cask, and drew from an inner pocket of his doublet a little leather bag.  “I am glad to be able to resolve a difficulty that at one moment seemed insoluble.”  And under the bulging eyes of Levasseur and his officers, he untied the mouth of the bag and rolled into his left palm four or five pearls each of the size of a sparrow’s egg.  There were twenty such in the bag, the very pick of those taken in that raid upon the pearl fleet.  “You boast a knowledge of pearls, Cahusac.  At what do you value this?”

The Breton took between coarse finger and thumb the proffered lustrous, delicately iridescent sphere, his shrewd eyes appraising it.

“A thousand pieces,” he answered shortly.

“It will fetch rather more in Tortuga or Jamaica,” said Captain Blood, “and twice as much in Europe.  But I’ll accept your valuation.  They are almost of a size, as you can see.  Here are twelve, representing twelve thousand pieces of eight, which is La Foudre’s share of three fifths of the prize, as provided by the articles.  For the eight thousand pieces that go to the Arabella, I make myself responsible to my own men.  And now, Wolverstone, if you please, will you take my property aboard the Arabella?” He stood up again, indicating the prisoners.

“Ah, no!” Levasseur threw wide the floodgates of his fury.  “Ah, that, no, by example!  You shall not take her....”  He would have sprung upon Captain Blood, who stood aloof, alert, tight-lipped, and watchful.

But it was one of Levasseur’s own officers who hindered him.

“Nom de Dieu, my Captain!  What will you do?  It is settled; honourably settled with satisfaction to all.”

“To all?” blazed Levasseur.  “Ah ca!  To all of you, you animals!  But what of me?”

Cahusac, with the pearls clutched in his capacious hand, stepped up to him on the other side.  “Don’t be a fool, Captain.  Do you want to provoke trouble between the crews?  His men outnumber us by nearly two to one.  What’s a girl more or less?  In Heaven’s name, let her go.  He’s paid handsomely for her, and dealt fairly with us.”