Part 76 (2/2)

Winston laughed. ”Could be there're a few things about the old days we'd best let be. So maybe I'll just work on this fine brandy of yours and hear how you're getting along these days with our good friends the Spaniards.”

”Ah, Anglais, we get on very well. I have garroted easily a hundred of those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds for every one of ours they killed back then, and taken enough cargo to buy a kingdom. You know, if their Nuevo Espana Armada, the one that s.h.i.+ps home silver from their mines in Mexico, is a week overdue making the Canary Islands, the King of Spain and all his creditors from Italy to France cannot s.h.i.+t for worrying I might have taken it. Someday, my friend, I will.”

”Good. I'll drink to it.” Winston lifted his tankard. ”To the Spaniards.”

Jacques laughed. ”_Oui_. And may they always be around to keep me rich.”

”On that subject, old friend, I had a little project in mind. I was thinking maybe I'd borrow a few of your lads and stage a raid on a certain Spanish settlement.”

”Anglais, why would you want to bother? Believe me when I tell you there's not a town on the Main I could not take tomorrow if I choose.

But they're mostly worthless.” He drank again, then rose and strolled over to the edge of the platform. Below, mast lights were speckled across the harbor, and music drifted up from the glowing tavern windows. ”By the time you get into one, the Spaniards have carried everything they own into the forest and emptied the place.”

”I'll grant you that. But did you ever consider taking one of their islands? Say . . . Jamaica?”

”_Mon ami_, the rewards of an endeavor must justify the risk.” Jacques strolled back and settled heavily into a deep leather chair. ”What's over there? Besides their militia?”

”They've got a fortress and a town, Villa de la Vega, and there's bound to be a bit of coin, maybe even some plate. But the harbor's the real .

”_Oui, peut-etre_. Perhaps there's a sou or two to be had there somewhere. But why trouble yourself with a d.a.m.ned militia when there're merchantmen plying the Windward Pa.s.sage day in and day out, up to their gunwales with plate, pearls from their oyster beds down at Margarita, even silks s.h.i.+pped overland from those Manila galleons that put in at Acapulco . . .?”

”You know an English captain named Jackson took that fortress a few years back, and ransomed it for twenty thousand pieces-of-eight? That's a hundred and sixty thousand _reals_. ”

”Anglais, I also know very well they have a battery of guns in that fort, covering the harbor. It wouldn't be all that simple to storm.”

”As it happens, I've taken on a pilot who knows that harbor better than you know the one right down below, and I'm thinking I might sail over and see it.” Winston took another swallow. ”You're welcome to send along some men if you like. I'll split any metal money and plate with them.”

”Forget it. Anglais. None of these men will . . .”

”Wait a minute, Jacques. You don't own them. That was never the way. So if some of these lads decide to sail with me, that's their own affair.”

”My friend, why do you think I am the _commandant de place_ if I do not command? Have you seen those culverin just below us, trained on the bay? No frigate enters Ba.s.se Terre--or leaves it--against my will. Even yours, _mon ami_. Don't lose sight of that.”

”I thought you were getting smarter than you used to be, Jacques.”

”Don't try and challenge me again, Anglais.” Jacques's hand had edged slowly toward the pistol in his belt, but then he glanced at Atiba and hesitated. ”Though it's not my habit to kill a man while he's drinking my brandy.” He smiled suddenly, breaking the tension, and leaned back.

”It might injure my reputation for hospitality.”

”When I'm in the fortress overlooking Jamaica Bay one day soon, I'll try and remember to drink your health.”

”You really think you can do it, don't you?” He sobered and studied Winston.

”It's too easy not to. But I told you we could take it as partners, together.”

”Anglais, I'm not a fool. You don't have the men to manage it alone. So you're hoping I'll give you some of mine.”

”I don't want you to 'give' me anything, you old wh.o.r.emaster. I said we would take it together.

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