Читать «Cup of Gold (Золотая чаша)» онлайн - страница 104

And all this pile of golden vessels, these crosses and candlesticks and pearl vestments, would be money like this. These bars of gold and silver would be cut into round flakes and each flake stamped with a picture. The picture would be more than a picture. Like the kiss of a saint, it would endow the flake with power; the picture would give it a character and a curious, compelling soul. He flung the coins into a heap and patiently set about to rebuild them. Enough towers for Jerusalem!

Now Ysobel came from the patio and stood beside him.

"What an amount of money," she said. "Is that my ransom?"

"Yes; it is the gold which purchases you."

"But what a very great deal! Am I worth that much, do you think?"

"To your husband you are. He paid it for you." He moved ten towers into a line.

"And to you-how much? How many of these golden chips?"

"You must have been worth that much to me. I stated the price."

"Wouldn't they skip well on the water!" she said. "How they would skip! Do you know, I can throw like a boy, with my arm bent."

"It was said you were capable," he announced.

"But am I really worth that much?"

"The money is here, and you are to go. It has bought you. A thing must be worth what is paid for it, or there could be no trade."

"It is good," she said. "It is comforting to know one's value to a real. Have you any idea of your worth, Captain?"

Henry Morgan said, "If I were ever captured and a ransom demanded for me, I would not be worth a copper penny. These dogs of mine would laugh and shrug. A new captain would raise to lead them, and I-well, I would be subject to the pleasure of my captors, and I think I could foretell their pleasure. You see, I have been at revaluing myself in the last few days. I may have some value to historians because I have destroyed a few things. The builder of your Cathedral is forgotten even now, but I, who burned it, may be remembered for a hundred years or so. And that may mean something or other about mankind."

"But what is there about me that is worth all this gold?" she insisted. "Is it my arms, do you suppose?

My hair? Or is it that I am the embodiment of my husband's vanity?"

"I do not know," said Henry. "With the revaluation of myself, the whole economic system of emotions and persons has changed. Today, were I to demand a ransom, perhaps you would not be flattered."

"Do you so hate me, Captain Morgan?"

"No, I do not hate you; but you are one of the stars of my firmament which has proven to be a meteor."

"That is not gallant, sir. That is quite different from your speech of a few days past," she observed spitefully.

"No. It is not gallant. I think that hereafter I shall be gallant for two reasons only-money and advancement. I tried to be gallant for the pure, joyous looks of things. You see, I was honest with myself before and I am honest with myself now. These two honesties are antithetical."

"You are bitter."

"No; I am not even bitter. The food that bitterness feeds on is gone out of me."

"I am going now," she said softly and wistfully. "Have you nothing more to say to me about myself?