"But you tell me Mr.Pitt he is your navigant ?" "For lack of a better," laughed the Captain, good-humouredly contemptuous.

"Now I am ready to wager him a hundred pieces of eight that that is the North Star." And he flung out an arm towards a point of light in the heavens straight abeam.

He afterwards told Pitt that had Don Diego confirmed him, he would have run him through upon that instant.

Far from that, however, the Spaniard freely expressed his scorn.
"You have the assurance that is of ignorance, Don Pedro; and you lose.
The North Star is this one." And he indicated it.
"You are sure ?" "But my dear Don Pedro!" The Spaniard's tone was one of amused protest.
"But is it possible that I mistake?
Besides, is there not the compass?
Come to the binnacle and see there what course we make." His utter frankness, and the easy manner of one who has nothing to conceal resolved at once the doubt that had leapt so suddenly in the mind of Captain Blood.

Pitt was satisfied less easily.
"In that case, Don Diego, will you tell me, since Curacao is our destination, why our course is what it is ?" Again there was no faintest hesitation on Don Diego's part.