What, after all, is the sum I have named?
To your wealthy father a bagatelle.

I repeat, I have been too modest.

But since I have said twenty thousand pieces of eight, twenty thousand pieces it shall be." "And for what, if you please, have you said twenty thousand pieces of eight ?" In execrable French, but in a voice that was crisp and pleasant, seeming to echo some of the mockery that had invested Levasseur's, that question floated over their heads.
Startled, Levasseur and his officers looked up and round.

On the crest of the dunes behind them, in sharp silhouette against the deep cobalt of the sky, they beheld a tall, lean figure scrupulously dressed in black with silver lace, a crimson ostrich plume curled about the broad brim of his hat affording the only touch of colour.

Under that hat was the tawny face of Captain Blood.
Levasseur gathered himself up with an oath of amazement.