He addressed them in the purest Castilian.
"You will save yourselves pain and trouble by regarding yourselves my prisoners, and suffering yourselves to be quietly bestowed out of harm's way." "Name of God!" swore the gunner, which did no justice at all to an amazement beyond expression.
"If you please," said Mr.Blood, and thereupon those gentlemen of Spain were induced without further trouble beyond a musket prod or two to drop through a scuttle to the deck below.
After that the rebels-convict refreshed themselves with the good things in the consumption of which they had interrupted the Spaniards.

To taste palatable Christian food after months of salt fish and maize dumplings was in itself a feast to these unfortunates.

But there were no excesses.
Mr.Blood saw to that, although it required all the firmness of which he was capable.
Dispositions were to be made without delay against that which must follow before they could abandon themselves fully to the enjoyment of their victory.

This, after all, was no more than a preliminary skirmish, although it was one that afforded them the key to the situation.

It remained to dispose so that the utmost profit might be drawn from it.
Those dispositions occupied some very considerable portion of the night.