The privateer sloop was the _Happy Return_ of Jamaica, Captain Tucket, bound on a roving cruise with twenty men and a French commission. She carried six small guns, and her men wore arms, all of the very choicest make; but her hold was full of goods which Captain Tucket wished to sell. From Jamaica he had brought beads and coloured cloths, with which he was buying gold-dust, wax, and bird-peppers from the Indians. He had also several tons of Guiaquil chocolate and sweetmeats lately taken on the sea. He had come to Springer’s Key, he said, to fill water, before going east along the coast, as far as the ’Seniqua, looking for logwood. Things were quiet, he said, along the Main; there was nothing doing; only a few barcalongas taken. There had been talk at La Sound’s Key of combining and going to the Santa Maria gold-mines, but it had come to nothing. The French and English would not agree upon a leader. For his own part, he said, he believed there was logwood along some of these rivers east there, and he was going to look for it. He was a shrewd, but frank, elderly man. “Look here,” he said, taking out a handkerchief. “There’s some of it. I dyed that of a slip I cut. None of your business where. There’s a pretty red for you. And I got another dodge I’m working at. Here. What d’you make of these?” He flung upon the table a few little sticks, some of them crimson, some blue. “What are these?” said Margaret, examining them. “Are they wax?” “Yes, sir. Ordinary beeswax.” “You’ve got them a very beautiful clear colour. Look, Edward. Did you learn the secret yourself?” “You wouldn’t learn to do them at one of your English colleges, sir.” “No. Will the colour stand fire?” “They’re very good coloured wax anyway,” said Captain Tucker, putting them away. “We was thinking of trying to trade at Tolu,” Cammock said. “Would you care to stand in with us?” “At Tolu?” “They may not trade, of course; but----” “I’ve come here,” Margaret said, “to establish a trade, Captain Tucker. If I’m not allowed to trade with the Spanish towns, I shall trade here, like you, and defend such traders as come to me. All this coast is going to waste. I want to see all you roving traders banded together to make use of it. The Spanish can’t work it. Why should not you join us, with your men, for a beginning?” “The jackal went a-hunting with the lion, sir. But it wasn’t him got the tender-loin,” said Tucket. “You mean you’re afraid that my men might impose on yours?” “Ah come, come, Abel,” said Cammock. “We’re old hands, you and I. It’s all a matter of articles.” “I must talk it over,” said Abel. “I’ll run over to La Sound’s Key and talk it out with my mates. I won’t say. No, sir. I won’t say. Not one way or the other.” He left soon after breakfast, and, having now filled his water, sailed from the key. “He’s afraid of me,” said Margaret. “He’s afraid that I come from the Government, to put down privateering. Isn’t that what’s in his mind?”