Aldrick surveyed their surroundings in the common room of the Red Lion, then he pointed to an empty table and said to Captain Peters, "Shall we sit over there in private to discuss our business?"
Peters nodded and led the way while Aldrick paused in his seat and whispered to Johnson, "Mick and Tim outside. Tell them to enter in two fifty or three hundred heartbeats and confront Peters about Jimmy."
Johnson smiled, then asked, "Drinks aboard this evening, Skipper?"
"A fine idea that, Captain." Aldrick picked up his tankard and followed Peters across the room. Once they had both settled into chairs, Aldrick said, "I have a sloop of a hundred and fifty tons now laying to anchor in the harbour. Still sound of hull, and she sails well, but she needs a complete re-rigging before she is fit for another crossing. Larger, I have two barks of nearly three hundred tons I use in the fair-weather seasons for trade between here, Carolina and Virginia. Larger still, I have —"
"What price for the sloop?"
"Twelve hundred and fifty pounds."
"And what would you take in Spanish coin?"
Aldrick pursed his lips. "We find it increasingly difficult to use Spanish here with the embargo. Its value has returned to the bullion content, and it has begun debasing from there as the tension continues."
Peters winced. "So, what rate for doubloons?"
"Their gold suffers the same rate of debasement as their silver, so it also now requires more than ten to make the former eight." He shrugged. "A doubloon of two escudos is now fifteen shillings thrupence."
"How many doubloons of eight to make the price?"
"We allow sixty-one shillings each unless they are from Peru. The Lima mint is less consistent with fineness, so for them, we can allow only fifty-seven." Aldrick tilted his head side-to-side while he ciphered, then he looked into Peter's eyes. "The sloop needs four hundred and ten pieces —four hundred and forty if they are Peruvian. All of them neither clipped nor heavily worn. If any are impaired, they must be weighed."
Peters smiled as he withdrew a purse from his waistcoat pocket, opened it to show the contents, then he selected one. "They are all like this." He handed the coin across the table.
Aldrick hefted it, then he dropped it on the tabletop to listen to its ring, nodding as he picked it up to examine for clipping. "This is fresh as the day it was struck half a century ago. If all are like this, there is no need to weigh. Where have you acquired these?"
"We raised..." Peters put a hand to his mouth and feigned a cough. "I raised them in a game of loo."
Aldrick examined the coin more closely, noting mintmark and the date. "This is from the lost 1676 Peru mint shipment. So, finally, San Joaquin's wreck has been discovered. Do you remember the man from whom you won these? There is a vast fortune laying where these were found. Tens of millions of reales if Spanish records are to be believed."
Peters squirmed in his chair, appearing increasingly uncomfortable, and he was about to speak when Mick and Tim approached the table. "Where's Jimmy?" Mick swung his arm around the room, his eyes following, then he continued. "What have you done with him? We went out to find a constable, but we was told there ain't none here, so we found no other way but this. Where's Jimmy?"
Someone across the room shouted, "They gagged the young lad and hustled him up the stairs. Ain't seen him since."
Then a shout came from the corner, "Men, onto them. And don't botch it this time."
Aldrick remained seated as he said in a calm, loud voice, "Lads, restrain this lot." Then he looked up at Peters who had risen. "It would be easier for you to surrender Jimmy. I have many others scattered in the room."
The old man sunk to his chair and slumped, nodding as he watched each of his men confronted quietly and held by a larger man, none of their resistance having any effect. "You have us, Sir."
"A wise choice, and for that, I thank you, Sir." Aldrick examined the disposition of each pair in the room. "Now, perhaps as we await your releasing Jimmy from illegal capture, these two gentlemen will tell you of events since you abandoned them. I would like to know myself."
Peter's eyes flared, then relaxed as he realised.
Tim began, "A ship came into the anchorage two days after you left, and the crew easily overpowered us. They loaded the treasure from Avenger, then they sailed south. I watched them from the hilltop."
Aldrick feigned surprise as he asked, "Treasure?"
"Yes, Sir. Tons and tons of gold and silver. Mostly huge, heavy bars, but a good bunch of coins, most of them from 1676. We worked for near four months to bring it up from the wrecks and load it aboard Avenger afore the storm blew us ashore. After it calmed, he..." Tim paused and pointed to Peters. "He and the others abandoned us there and took the longboat to come here to buy a ship."
Mick continued the story, "After the treasure was taken and the ship sailed away, Roberts was even worse, and we —"
Peters interrupted. "What was the name of the ship?"
"Too far away to see that from the island. Sides, the stern was always swung away in the breeze. Anyway, with the treasure gone and you..." Mick paused as he motioned to Peters and to the men in the corner. "And you all likely perished in the next storm and not coming back to rescue us, and Roberts more and more violent, and his three branded cronies supporting him, we three thought to built a sailing raft on the other side of the island..." He shrugged. "We was fortunate to be picked up by this kind captain and brung here. The treasure's gone, but we's safe, cept for Jimmy."
Tim spoke up, "We know there's some of the treasure left in the deeps up there, but we still wake in the middle of the night from the horrors Captain Roberts drug us through. We want no more of this. Alls we want is for Jimmy to be freed so we can find a way to work our way back to London."
Peters nodded as he listened, and when Tim had finished, he said to a man across the room, "Andrews, up the stairs and fetch the lad down."
"More of your daft thinking. He knows too much."
"As do these other two. But their knowledge is no longer of any worry to us. The treasure is gone." He pointed to the stairs. "Up and fetch him."
Andrews shook his head. "That's what they say. But do you believe that claptrap? The treasure is still there. This here captain wants us to think it ain't, so they can go get it without pother from us."
"But he was willing to sell us a ship. To help."
Andrews laughed. "Likely a slow ship they would chase and sink once it has sailed beyond the harbour. Why do you trust him?"
Mick spoke again. "Neither Tim nor Jimmy nor I know anything about navigation. We's shipwrights, not sailors, and we have no ideas about where that place is, nor if we did, how to find it."
Andrews laughed again, "But you navigated away from there. You know where it is."
"We's shipwrights, not sailors, and that's why you abandoned us there. We's smart enough to build a seaworthy raft with sails, but not to do no navigating. Do nothing but let the winds take us away from that place, away from the madness of Captain Roberts. Anything'd be better than staying there."
Aldrick spoke up. "Though there are no constables here, we do have a Governor and his Justices, as well as His Majesty's Comptroller of Customs and his Agents. They are all empowered to uphold the law, and they will not take kindly to your kidnapping."
Peter's eyes grew round. "Kidnapping?"
"Yes, and with the increasing abductions in London of children to work as forced servants in the colonies, the punishment now is hanging." Aldrick stood. "Shall I go down the street to the Customs House? It is only two minutes away, just around the corner. Comptroller Radford is a long-time friend, and he will quickly have you all in chains."
Peters grimaced. "Andrews! Up the stairs. Now! Bring the lad here."
Aldrick pointed to three of his stoutest crew. "Jenkins, Smith, Brock, you three go up with him to ensure it is properly done."
Two minutes later, Jenkins escorted the limping young man across the room to his smiling brothers. Aldrick still had the doubloon in his hand, and he gave it to Jimmy. "This is from Captain Peters for your troubles. Now, you lads scoot along, and mind you stay out of mischief. And Godspeed back to London."
As soon as the three brothers had left the room, Aldrick turned to Peters. "Do you still wish to purchase a ship?"