He was thankful that the fellow had not asked the question he most dreaded, which was how he, a debtor, should come by the money to buy a wherry.

But this he knew was only a respite.
The question would presently be asked of a certainty, and then hell would open for him.

He cursed the hour in which he had been such a fool as to listen to Peter Blood's chatter of escape.

He thought it very likely that the whole plot would be discovered, and that he would probably be hanged, or at least branded and sold into slavery like those other damned rebels-convict, with whom he had been so mad as to associate himself.

If only he had the ten pounds for this infernal surety, which until this moment had never entered into their calculations, it was possible that the thing might be done quickly and questions postponed until later.