Part 14 (1/2)
”You have my promise!” called Zarono sardonically
”da! I want Valenso's word”
A e of authority to his voice as he answered: ”Advance, but keep your h for me,” said Stroiven, you can trust hiate, laughing at the hate-darkened visage Zarono thrust over at him
”Well, Zarono,” he taunted, ”you are a shi+p shorter than you hen last I saw you! But you Zingarans never were sailors”
”How did you save your shi+p, you Messantian gutter-scum?” snarled the buccaneer
”There's a cove soed arale,” answered Stroed, but they held me off the shore”
Zarono scowled blackly Valenso said nothing He had not known of that cove He had done scant exploring of his domain Fear of the Picts and lack of curiosity had kept hiarans were by nature neither explorers nor colonists
”I coht to trade with you save sword-strokes,” growled Zarono
”I think otherwise,” grinned Strom, thin-lipped ”You tipped your hand when you murdered Galacus,I supposed that Valenso had Tranicos's treasure But if either of you had it, you wouldn't have gone to the trouble of following et the
”Oh, don't disseer blazed blue in his eyes ”I know you have it
Picts don't wear boots!”
”But ” began the Count, nonplused, but fell silent as Zarono nudged him
”And if we have the ht require?”
”Let ested Strolance at thethe wall, but his two listeners understood And so did the aining, or battle But it would carry just so ardless of who commanded; whoever sailed away in it, there would be so the silent throng at the palisade
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”Yourboth the boat drawn up on the beach, and the shi+p anchored out in the bay
”Aye But don't get the idea that you can seize rimly ”I want Valenso's word that I'll be allowed to leave the fort alive and unhurt within the hour, whether we coe,” answered the Count
”All right, then Open that gate and let's talk plainly”
The gate opened and closed, the leaders vanished froht, and the common men of both parties resumed their silent surveillance of each other: thebeside their boat, with a broad stretch of sand between; and beyond a strip of blue water, the carack, with steel caps glinting all along her rail
On the broad stair, above the great hall, Belesa and Tina crouched, ignored by the men below
These sat about the broad table: Valenso, Galbro, Zarono and Stroulped wine and set the eested by his bluff countenance was belied by the dancing lights of cruelty and treachery in his wide eyes But he spoke bluntly enough
”We all want the treasure old Tranicos hid so the others need Valenso has laborers, supplies, and a stockade to shelter us from the Picts You, Zarono, have my map I have a shi+p”
”What I'd like to know,” remarked Zarono, ”is this: if you've had that map all these years, why haven't you come after the loot sooner?”
”I didn't have it It was that dog, Zingelito, who knifed the old miser in the dark and stole the map But he had neither shi+p nor crew, and it took hiet them When he did co, and his ara One of them stole the map froelito recognized the bay,”lead you here, Count? I uessed it Where is he?”
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”Doubtless in hell, since he was once a buccaneer The Picts slew hi in the woods for the treasure”
”Good!” approved Strom heartily ”Well, I don't kno you knewthe map I trusted him, and the men trusted himhe wandered inland with soot separated from them, and we found hione Thehim, but I showed the fools the tracks left by his slayer, and proved to them that my feet wouldn't fit them And I kneasn't any one of the crew, because none of them wear boots that make that sort of track And Picts don't wear boots at all So it had to be a Zingaran
”Well, you've got the ot the treasure If you had it, you wouldn't have let ot you penned up in this fort You can't get out to look for the loot, and even if you did get it, you have no shi+p to get away in
”Now here's ive h to scurvy after the long voyage In return I'll take you three irl, and set you ashore within reach of soaran port or I'll put Zarono ashore near some buccaneer rendezvous if he prefers, since doubtless a noose awaits hiive each of you a handsoed his mustache meditatively He knew that Strom would not keep any such pact, ifto his proposal But to refuse bluntly would be to force the issue into a clash of arile brain for a plan to outwit the pirate He wanted Strom's shi+p as avidly as he desired the lost treasure
”What's to prevent us froive us your shi+p in exchange for you?” he asked
Strohed at him
”Do you think I'm a fool? My men have orders to heave up the anchors and sail hence if I don't reappear within the hour, or if they suspect treachery They wouldn't give you the shi+p, if you skinned me alive on the beach Besides I have the Count's word”
”My pledge is not straw,” said Valenso somberly ”Have done with threats, Zarono”
Zarono did not reply, hispossession of Stro the fact that he did not have the map
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He wondered who in Mitra's name did have the accursed map