"Within reason, of course," the Governor affirmed. "What ye ask must be ours to give."
"Very well, then," Joan declared. "My price is Malden."
"Nay!" Andrew cried.
"Nay, prithee!" pleaded Ebenezer, who until then had found the discussion as embarrassing as had Anna.
" 'Tis a hard price," Burlingame observed, regarding her curiously.
"Not for doing so great a disservice to my sex," Joan replied.
Now even McEvoy was moved to join the chorus of objections. "Whate'er will ye do with this estate, my dear?" he asked gently. " 'Tis of no use to ye now. If there is someone ye wish to provide for, why, peradventure the Governor can make arrangements."
Joan turned her face to him, and her expression softened, if her resolution did not. "Ye know as well as I there's no one, John. Why d'ye ask? Can it be ye've forgot the whoremonger's first principle?" For the benefit of the others she repeated it: "Ye may ask a whore her price, but not her reasons. My price is the title to Cooke's Point, forever and aye: ye may take it or leave it."
Nicholson and Burlingame exchanged glances.
"Done," said the Governor. "Draw up the papers, Tom."
"Nay, b'm'faith!" cried Andrew. " 'Tis unlawful! When Smith gave o'er his claim, the title reverted to me!"
"Not at all," said Burlingame. "It reverted to the Province."
"Damn ye, man! Whose side are ye on?"
"On the side of the Province, for the nonce," Henry answered. "Those pages are worth a brace of Maidens."
Andrew threatened to appeal to the Lords Commissioners, but the Governor was not to be intimidated.
"I've seldom stood on firmer ground than this," he declared. "When I move to save the Province ye may appeal to the King himself, for aught ye'll gain by't, and Godspeed. Where are the papers, Mrs. Cooke?"
Not until he heard the unfamiliar mode of address did Ebenezer have the least hint of Joan's motives. Now suddenly, though a hint was all he had, his backbone tingled; his heart glowed.
"Where are thine?" she demanded in reply, nor would she stir until Sir Thomas had conveyed the title to Cooke's Point into her possession. Then she calmly reached into her bodice and withdrew a tightly folded paper which, when she handed it to Burlingame for unfolding, proved to be three missing pages of the Journall.
" 'Sheart, Eben, look here!" Henry cried. "May he look, Joan?"
" 'Tis not mine to forbid," the girl said glumly, and seemed to relapse into her former apathy.
First [read the missing fragment] he pour'd a deale of water into the dish of floure, and worked the mess to a thick paste with his fingers. Then he set the remainder of the water, in its vessell, next the smalle fyre, wch the Salvage had been Christian enough to make us, against the cold. Whenas he sawe this water commence to steem and bubble, then drewe he from his pockett (wch forsooth must needs have been a spacious one!), divers ingredients, and added them to the paste. Of these I cd name but few, forasmuch as I durst not discover to my Captain that my sleep was feign'd; but I did learn later from his boasting that it was a receipt much priz'd for a certain purpose (whereof I was as yet innocent) by the blackamoors of Africka, from whom he had learnt it. To witt: a quantitie of Tightening Wood (wch is to say, the bark of that tree, Nux vomica, wherefrom is got the brucine and strychnyne of apothecaries), 2 or 3 small dry'd pimyentoes (that the blackamoors call Zozos), a dozen peppercorns, and as many whole cloves, with 1 or 2 beanes of vanilla to give it fragrance. At the same time he boyl'd a second decoction of water mix'd with some dropps of oyl of mallow, to what end I cd not guesse. These severall herbs and spyces, I shd add, he still carr'd on his person, not alone for their present employment, but as well to season his food, wch in his yeeres of fighting the Moors he had learnt to savour hott; and for this cause he did prevaile upon the masters of vessells, to fetch him such spyces from there ports of call in the Indies.
When that the paste was done, and the water fast aboyle in both vessells, my Captain busy'd him selfe with cutting the eggplant, and this in a singular wise. For it is the wont of men to lay hold of an Aubergine and slyce across the topp, to the end of making thinne rownd sections. But my Captain, drawing his knife from his waiste, did sever the frute into halves, splitting it lengthwise from top to bottom. Next he scor'd out a deep hollow ditch in either moietie, in such wise, but when the two halves were joyn'd, like halves of an iron-mould, the effect was of a deep cylindrick cavitie in the center, perhaps 3 inches in dyameter, and 7 or 8 in profunditie, for that it was an uncommon large egg-plant. All this I did observe with mounting curiositie, yet careful not to discover my pretence of sleep.
The strange brewes having cook'd a certain time, my Captain then remov'd them from the fyre. The first, that had in it all the spyces, he stirr'd and kneaded into the paste, till the whole took on the semblance of a plaister. He next disrob'd him selfe, and before my wondering eyes lay'd hands upon his member, drawing back that part, that the Children of Israel are wont to offer to Jehovah, and exposing the carnall glans. His codd thus bar'd (wch poets have liken'd to that Serpent, that did tempt Mother Eve in the Garden), he apply'd thereto the plaister, and lay'd it within the two halves of the egg-plant. There it linger'd some minutes, notwithstanding the ordeall must needs have been painfull, for all the spyce & hott things in the receipt. His face did wrythe & twist, as though it were straight into the fyre he had thrust his yard, and whenas he at last remov'd the Aubergine, and wash'd away the plaister with his oyl-of-mallow brewe, I cd observe with ease that his part was burnt in sooth! Moreover, he did seem loath to touch it for feare of the payne thereby occasion'd.
Now albeit this spectacle was far from edifying, to a man of good conscience & morall virtue, I yet must own, I took greate interest in it, both by reason of naturall curiositie, as well as to gage for my selfe the depths of my Captains depravitie. For it is still pleasing, to a Christian man, to suffer him selfe the studie of wickednesse, that he may content him selfe (without sinfull pride) upon the contrast thereof with his owne rectitude. To say naught of that truth, whereto Augustine and other Fathers beare witnesse: that true virtue lieth not in innocence, but in full knowledge of the Devils subtile arts. .
Thus ended the fragment, having brought Sir Henry to his unintended sleep and rude awakening.
"I can do't!" Burlingame murmured. " 'Tis all I need!"
Ebenezer looked away, revolted not only by the narrative but by other, more immediate images. He observed that Anna too, though she had not read the Journall, was aware of its significance: her eyes were lowered; her cheeks aflame.
"Well, now," declared the Governor, rising from his place. "I think our business here is done, Tom. Fetch those rascals aboard my ship in the morning and see they're ferried to Pennsylvania."
The others stirred as well.
"La, Master Laureate!" Sowter jeered from across the room. "The party's done, and thou'rt still as penceless as St Giles!"
Andrew cursed, and Nicholson frowned uncomfortably.
"Thou'rt mistaken, Dick Sowter," Joan said from the couch.
Everyone turned to her at once.
"I've little time to live," she declared, "and a wife's estate passes to her husband when she dies."