"Why," I answered, "if she prove tight and seaworthy, what but carry her home?" "What, you and I alone?" "No," said I, "certainly not; we must make shift to sail her to the nearest port, and ship a crew." He looked at me attentively, and said, "What do you mean by home?" "England," said I. He shrugged his shoulders and exclaimed in French, "'Tis natural." Then proceeding in English, "Pray," said he, showing his fangs, "do not you know that the _Boca del Dragon_ is a pirate? Do you want to be hanged that you propose to carry her to a port to ship men?" "I have no fear of that," said I; "after all these years she'll be as clean forgotten as if she had never had existence." "Look ye here, Mr. Rodney," cried he in a passion, "let's have no more of this snivelling nonsense about _years_. You may be as mad as you please on that point, but it shan't hang _me_. It needs more than a few months to make men forget a craft that has carried on such traffic as our hold represents. You'll not find me venturing myself nor the schooner into any of your ports for men. No, no, my friend. I am in no stupor now, you know; and I've slept the punch off also, d'ye see. What, betray our treasure and be hanged for our generosity?" He made me an ironical bow, grinning with wrath. "Let's get the schooner afloat first," said I. "Ay, that's all very well," he cried; "but better stop here than dangle in chains. No, my friend; our plan must be a very different one from your proposal. I suppose you want your share of the booty?" said he, snapping his fingers. "I deserve it," said I, smiling, that I might soften his passion. "And yet you would convey the most noted pirate of the age, with plunder in her to the value of thousands of doubloons, to a port in which we should doubtless find ships of war, a garrison, magistrates, governors, prisons, and the whole of the machinery it is our business to give our stern to! _Ma foi_, Mr. Rodney! sure you are out in something more than your reckoning of time?" "What do you propose?" said I. "Ha!" he exclaimed, whilst his little eyes twinkled with cunning, "now you speak sensibly. What do I propose? This, my friend. We must navigate the schooner to an island and bury the treasure; then head for the shipping highways, and obtain help from any friendly merchantmen we may fall in with. _Home_ with us means the Tortugas. There we shall find the company we need to recover for us what we shall have hidden. We shall come by our own then. But to sail with this treasure on board--without a crew to defend the vessel--by this hand! the first cruiser that sighted us would make a clean sweep, and then, ho, for the hangman, Mr. Rodney!"