I do not rob for greed, like Calvert and Williams, or kill for lust, like the departed Cosh.

To me it's a game, which I play by honest rules.

I never laid finger on a bodle's worth of English stuff, and if now and then I ease the Dons of a pickle silver or send a Frenchman or two to purgatory, what worse am I doing than His Majesty's troops in Flanders, or your black frigates that lie off Port Royal?
If I've a clear conscience I can more easily take order with those that are less single-minded.

But maybe the chief reason is that I've some little skill of arms, so that the lad that questions me is apt to fare like Cosh." There was a kind of boastful sincerity about the man which convinced me.

But his words put me in mind of my own business.
"I came seeking you to ask help.