Fontaine himself. And what proof do you offer of all this, my man?"

"Truly none, monsieur, except myself--that I am here for knowing it."

"And Main Rouge knew that you knew it?"

"That is why I am here, monsieur."

"And alive! Main Rouge is no old woman, my man."

"It is a surprise to me that I still live, monsieur, and I cannot explain
it. He has had me in confinement for three weeks, expecting to die each
day, since he sank our schooner and shot our men in the water as they swam
for their lives. Why, of all our crew, I live, I do not know."

"It is the strongest proof we have that what you tell me is untrue."

"And yet I tell it at risk of more than my life, monsieur. Torode's last
words to me were that if I opened my mouth he would smite my kin in Sercq
till not one was left."

"And he told me you were such an inveterate liar and troublesome fellow
that he had had enough of you, and only did not kill you because of your
people, whom he knows," he said, with a knowing smile.

Torode's forethought staggered me somewhat, but I looked the captain
squarely in the face and said, "I am no liar, monsieur, and I have had no
dealings with the man save as his prisoner." But I could not tell whether
he believed me or not.