Читать «Cup of Gold (Золотая чаша)» онлайн - страница 113

Truly I love you, Elizabeth."

"Oh!" she stammered. "O-oh! I cannot think of it. I mean, I am-ill; I mean-my head whirls. You act so suddenly, Henry-so unexpectedly. Oh, please let me go. I must talk about it to Lady Moddyford.

She will know what to say."

King Charles the Second and John Evelyn were sitting in a tiny library. A bright fire crackled on the hearth, throwing its flickerings on the books which lined the walls. On a table beside the two men were bottles and glasses.

"I knighted him this afternoon," the King was saying. "He got pardon and a knighthood for two thousand pounds."

"Well, two thousand pounds-" murmured John Evelyn. "Certain tradesmen will, perhaps, bless his knighthood."

"But that's not it, John. I could have got twenty. He took about a million out of Panama."

"Ah, well; two thousand pounds-"

"I ordered him to come in here tonight," said the King. "These sailors and pirates sometimes have a tale or two worth repeating. You'll be disappointed in him. He is-lumpish, I think is the word. You get the impression that a great mass is planted before you; and he moves as though he pushed this own invisible cage ahead of him."

"You might create a title," John Evelyn suggested. "It seems wasteful to let a million get away without even trying."

Sir Henry Morgan was announced.

"Step in, sir. Step in!" The King saw that he had a glass of wine in his hands. Henry seemed frightened.

He gulped the wine.

"Good job of yours in Panama," the King observed. "It was better to burn it now than later, and I have no doubt we should have had to do it later."

"I thought of that when I set the torch, Sire. These hoggish Spaniards want to overrun the world."

"You know, Captain, piracy-or, to be delicate, free-booting-has been a good thing for us, and a bad thing for Spain. But the institution grows to be a nuisance. I spend half of my time making excuses to the Spanish Ambassador.

I am going to commission you Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica."

"Sire! "

"No thanks! I am acting on the advice of an adage. Piracy must be stopped now. These men have played at little wars long enough. "

"But, Sire, I myself was a buccaneer. Do you want me to hang my own men? "

"That is what I inferred, sir. Who can track them down better than you who know all their haunts? "

"They fought with me, Sire. "

"Ah; conscience? I had heard that you were able to do about as you pleased with your conscience. "

"Not conscience, Sire, but pity. "

"Pity is misplaced in a public servant or a robber. A man may do what it is profitable to do. You yourself have demonstrated two of these premises. Let us see you labor with the third," the King said acidly.

"I wonder if I can. "

"If you wonder, then you can," John Evelyn put in.

The King's manner changed.

"Come! drink!" he said. "We must have life, and perhaps later, song. Tell us a tale, Captain, and drink while you tell it. Wine adds capitals and asterisks to a good tale-a true story. "