And this, you will admit, is a matter that asks serious thought." Captain Blood stood up.

From a shelf he took a half-hour glass, reversed it so that the bulb containing the red sand was uppermost, and stood it on the table.
"I am sorry to press you in such a matter, Don Diego, but one glass is all that I can give you.

If by the time those sands have run out you can propose no acceptable alternative, I shall most reluctantly be driven to ask you to go over the side with your friends." Captain Blood bowed, went out, and locked the door.

Elbows on his knees and face in his hands, Don Diego sat watching the rusty sands as they filtered from the upper to the lower bulb.

And what time he watched, the lines in his lean brown face grew deeper.