Сердца трех / Hearts of Three

’

�Fill away and get out of this, skipper!’ Henry broke in angrily.

�Sir, assuring you of your gratification of pardon, it is my unpleasant task to inform you of two things. Neither are you my charterer; nor are you the noble King George to whom I give ambitious allegiance.’

�Well, I’m your charterer, skipper,’ Francis said pleasantly, for he had learned to humor the man of mixed words and parentage. �So just kindly put up your helm and sail us out of this Chiriqui Lagoon as fast as God and this failing wind will let you.

’

�It is not in the charter, sir, that my Angelique shall break the laws of Panama and King George.’

�I’ll pay you well,’ Francis retorted, beginning to lose his temper. �Get busy.’

�You will then recharter, sir, at three times the present charter?’

Francis nodded shortly.

�Then wait, sir, I entreat. I must procure pen and paper from the cabin and make out the document.’

�Oh, Lord,’ Francis groaned. �Square away and get a move on first.

We can make out the paper just as easily while we are running as standing still. Look! They are beginning to fire.’

The half-breed captain heard the report, and, searching his spread canvas, discovered the hole of the bullet high up near the peak of the mainsail.

�Very well, sir,’ he conceded. �You are a gentleman and an honorable man. I trust you to affix your signature to the document at your early convenience Hey, you nigger! Put up your wheel! Hard up! Jump, you black rascals, and slack away mainsheet.

Take a hand there, you, Percival, on the boom-tackle!’

All obeyed, as did Percival, a grinning shambling Kingston negro who was as black as his name was white, and as did another, addressed more respectfully as Juan, who was more Spanish and Indian than negro, as his light yellow skin attested, and whose fingers, slacking the foresheet, were as slim and delicate as a girl’s.

�Knock the nigger on the head if he keeps up this freshness,’ Henry growled in an undertone to Francis.

�For two cents I’ll do it right now.’

But Francis shook his head.

�He’s all right, but he’s a Jamaica nigger, and you know what they are. And he’s Indian as well. We might as well humor him, since it’s the nature of the beast. He means all right, but he wants the money, he’s risking his schooner against confiscation, and he’s afflicted with vocabularies.