| He was Levasseur's lieutenant, and he was present on the island where the thing happened, and when Levasseur was killed." | Он служил у Левасера лейтенантом и присутствовал на дуэли, в которой был убит Левасер. |
| "And the girl? Did he say the girl was present, too?" | - А девушка была там, когда они дрались? |
| "Yes. | - Да. |
| She was a witness of the encounter. Blood carried her off when he had disposed of his brother-buccaneer." | Она тоже была там, и Блад увел ее после того, как разделался со своим товарищем корсаром. |
| "And the dead man's followers allowed it?" He caught the note of incredulity in her voice, but missed the note of relief with which it was blent. "Oh, I don't believe the tale. I won't believe it!" | - И сторонники убитого позволили ему уйти? (Он услыхал в ее голосе нотку сомнения.) О, я не верю этой выдумке и не поверю никогда! |
| "I honour you for that, Miss Bishop. | - Уважаю вас за это, мисс Бишоп. |
| It strained my own belief that men should be so callous, until this Cahusac afforded me the explanation." | Я тоже не мог поверить, пока Каузак не объяснил мне, как было дело. |
| "What?" | - Все мы сожалеем о смерти человека, которого мы уважали. |
| She checked her unbelief, an unbelief that had uplifted her from an inexplicable dismay. Clutching the rail, she swung round to face his lordship with that question. Later he was to remember and perceive in her present behaviour a certain oddness which went disregarded now. "Blood purchased their consent, and his right to carry the girl off. He paid them in pearls that were worth more than twenty thousand pieces of eight." His lordship laughed again with a touch of contempt. "A handsome price! Faith, they're scoundrels all - just thieving, venal curs. And faith, it's a pretty tale this for a lady's ear." She looked away from him again, and found that her sight was blurred. After a moment in a voice less steady than before she asked him: "Why should this Frenchman have told you such a tale? Did he hate this Captain Blood?" "I did not gather that," said his lordship slowly. "He related it... oh, just as a commonplace, an instance of buccaneering ways. "A commonplace!" said she. "My God! A commonplace!" "I dare say that we are all savages under the cloak that civilization fashions for us," said his lordship. "But this Blood, now, was a man of considerable parts, from what else this Cahusac told me. He was a bachelor of medicine." "That is true, to my own knowledge." "And he has seen much foreign service on sea and land. Cahusac said -though this I hardly credit - that he had fought under de Ruyter." "That also is true," said she. She sighed heavily. "Your Cahusac seems to have been accurate enough. Alas!" "You are sorry, then?" She looked at him. She was very pale, he noticed. "As we are sorry to hear of the death of one we have esteemed. Once I held him in regard for an unfortunate but worthy gentleman. | Когда-то я относилась к нему, как к несчастному, но достойному человеку. |
| Now..." She checked, and smiled a little crooked smile. "Such a man is best forgotten." | Сейчас... - по губам ее скользнула слабая, кривая улыбка, - сейчас о таком человеке лучше всего забыть. |
| And upon that she passed at once to speak of other things. | - И она постаралась тут же перевести беседу на другие темы. |
| The friendship, which it was her great gift to command in all she met, grew steadily between those two in the little time remaining, until the event befell that marred what was promising to be the pleasantest stage of his lordship's voyage. The marplot was the mad-dog Spanish Admiral, whom they encountered on the second day out, when halfway across the Gulf of Gonaves. | За короткое время дружба Арабеллы Бишоп с лордом Уэйдом углубилась и окрепла. Способность вызывать такую дружбу была величайшим даром Арабеллы. Но вскоре произошло событие, испортившее то, что обещало быть наиболее приятной частью путешествия его светлости. Это приятное путешествие сиятельного лорда и очаровательной девушки нарушил все тот же сумасшедший испанский адмирал, которого они встретили на второй день после отплытия из Сен-Никола. |
| The Captain of the Royal Mary was not disposed to be intimidated even when Don Miguel opened fire on him. | Капитан "Ройял Мэри" был смелым моряком. Его сердце не дрогнуло даже тогда, когда дон Мигель открыл огонь. |
| Observing the Spaniard's plentiful seaboard towering high above the water and offering him so splendid a mark, the Englishman was moved to scorn. | Высокий борт испанского корабля отчетливо возвышался над водой и представлял такую чудесную цель, что английский капитан решил достойно встретить нежданного противника. |
| If this Don who flew the banner of Castile wanted a fight, the Royal Mary was just the ship to oblige him. | Если командир этого корабля, плававшего под вымпелом Испании, лез на рожон - ну что же, капитан "Ройял Мэри" мог удовлетворить его желание. |
| It may be that he was justified of his gallant confidence, and that he would that day have put an end to the wild career of Don Miguel de Espinosa, but that a lucky shot from the Milagrosa got among some powder stored in his forecastle, and blew up half his ship almost before the fight had started. | Вполне возможно, что в этот день разбойничья карьера дона Мигеля де Эспиноса могла бы бесславно окончиться, если бы удачный выстрел с "Милагросы" не взорвал пороха, сложенного на баке "Ройял Мэри". От этого взрыва половина английского корабля взлетела на воздух еще до начала боя. |
| How the powder came there will never now be known, and the gallant Captain himself did not survive to enquire into it. | Как этот порох очутился на баке - никто никогда не узнает: храбрый капитан не пережил своего корабля и, следовательно, не смог произвести надлежащего расследования. |
| Before the men of the Royal Mary had recovered from their consternation, their captain killed and a third of their number destroyed with him, the ship yawing and rocking helplessly in a crippled state, the Spaniards boarded her. | В одно мгновение "Ройял Мэри" была изуродована, потеряла управление и беспомощно закачалась на воде, а ее капитан и часть команды погибли. И прежде чем оставшиеся в живых английские моряки могли прийти в себя, испанцы уже взяли корабль на абордаж. |
| In the Captain's cabin under the poop, to which Miss Bishop had been conducted for safety, Lord Julian was seeking to comfort and encourage her, with assurances that all would yet be well, at the very moment when Don Miguel was stepping aboard. |