Loyal he was, and valiant in his
fashion, but old and with the habit of submission. One did not see
him standing up for long before two berserker-mad ruffians.
What to do with the pirates continued for a day and a night a
knotty problem.
It was Cuthbert Vane who solved it, and with the simplicity of
genius.
"Why not send 'em down to their chums the way we do the eats?" he
asked.
It seemed at first incredibly fantastic, but the more you thought
of it the more practical it grew. It was characteristic of
Cuthbert not to see it as fantastic. For him the sharp edges of
fact were never shaded off into the dim and nebulous. Cuthbert,
when he saw things at all, saw them steadily and whole. He would
let down the writhing, swearing Magnus over the cliff as tranquilly
as he let down loaves of bread, aware merely of its needing more
muscular effort. Only he would take immense care not to hurt him.
Dire outcries greeted the decision. Aunt Jane wept, and Chris
wept, and said this never could have happened to him if his aunt
had lived. Oaths flowed from Captain Magnus in a turgid stream.
Nevertheless the twain were led away, firmly bound, and guarded by
Dugald, Cuthbert and the negro. And the remarkable program
proposed by Cuthbert Vane was triumphantly carried out. Six
prisoners now occupied the old cave of the buccaneers.
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