CHAPTER 36 “Our tails in a crack.”
“My patience grows thin,” Captain Bentley patted the barrel of Medusa’s 18-pounder, now trained to blow a swath across L’Intrepide’s deck. “Surrender your captain or die.”
Renato’s pistol was slick with sweat. He tightened his grip and jammed the barrel deeper into Lieutenant Goble’s neck. “Steady, men,” he told his rogues. “It’s a bluff. A gentleman such as he would never sacrifice members of his own crew.”
Renato spoke with a conviction he did not feel. The American captain was precisely the type of prig who would sacrifice all to an abstract principle of law.
“No! He’ll do it!” Faraday stood white-faced near the foremast, several of his toadies around him. “What are we waiting for? Renato would throw us over in an instant to save his own precious h
