His mind was heaving in tumult, and he was striving to calm it that he might take a proper survey of this thing flung into it to create so monstrous a disturbance.

He began where another might have ended.
"I have no money.

And for that a handsome sum would be necessary." "Did I not say that I desired to be your friend ?" "Why ?" asked Peter Blood at point-blank range.
But he never heeded the answer.

Whilst Dr.Whacker was professing that his heart bled for a brother doctor languishing in slavery, denied the opportunity which his gifts entitled him to make for himself, Peter Blood pounced like a hawk upon the obvious truth.

Whacker and his colleague desired to be rid of one who threatened to ruin them.
Sluggishness of decision was never a fault of Blood's.