Jimmy the Hand Read Online Free PDF Page A

treatment! I am a gentleman, sir, and I was brought here
under protest! I was given a missive summoning me to a meeting with
the acting governor, but no sooner did we make dock than this—’
he sneered at the fellow he had shoved, ‘— brigand tells me that I am under arrest and seized my sword. My sword, sir!
What possible excuse could there be for such an action?’
    He stopped and
stared at the man behind the desk. ‘And who , if I may
ask, are you, sir?’
    Del Garza stared
at him while the other two guards took up position behind the
Captain. Captain Alan Leighton was indeed a gentleman, the third son
of a very minor nobleman whose family were willing to pay to get him
out of the ancestral home; in other words, someone of less real use
than the average dock-walloper or ditch-digger. And he would have
been dismissed from either position for incompetence within a week.
His commission and his ship had been bought for him, not earned,
while better men had to wait. The Baron knew his type and despised
him. He was a man who was just important enough to be a nuisance, and
not important enough to have any real value.
    ‘I am the Governor,’ he said, his voice as flat and cold as a window
in midwinter.
    The captain
shifted his feet and looked at him uncertainly. Del Garza was an
ordinary enough looking man; rat-faced, and his dress was of simple
if expensive weave.
    ‘Indeed?’
the Captain said dubiously.
    ‘Indeed,’
del Garza confirmed quietly. ‘Be seated, Captain Leighton.’
His nod indicated a stool in front of the desk.
    The Captain
looked at it, then at the acting governor in disbelief. ‘On that? ’ he sneered. ‘The thing will collapse.’
Leighton turned to one of the guards. ‘You there, bring me a
proper chair.’
    Del Garza leaned
forward. ‘Sit,’ he clipped out. ‘Or be seated.’
    The two guards
moved a step closer to the blustering seaman, ready to reach out and
slam him down. For the first time Leighton actually looked at their
faces; he blinked, and slowly sat down, his gaze moving from each of
the men in the room to the next. ‘What is the meaning of this?’
he asked. His voice tried to carry the bluster, but there was a
quaver in it now.
    In answer, del
Garza rubbed one hand over the stubble on his jaw and gave him the
glance that a tired man would give a buzzing fly. Every irritation
and annoyance from the day he had set foot in Krondor until this
morning rose up and seemed to resolve itself in the person of this
pitiful excuse for a sea captain. Del Garza decided at that instant
that Leighton needed to pay for them all. ‘Can’t you
guess?’ he asked through clenched teeth. ‘Can’t you
even begin to guess?’
    Leighton gazed
at him like a mouse fascinated by a snake. ‘No,’ he said
at last. He leaned back, remembered just in time that he was on a
stool and frowned. Leaning forward, the Captain went on the attack.
‘I say, is this some form of joke? If so it is in very poor
taste and I assure you I shall complain of it to your superior.’
    ‘Do I look
as if I’m joking?’ del Garza asked. ‘Am I smiling?
Am I, or my men, laughing? Does this seem to be an atmosphere of
mirth and good-fellowship to you?’
    Nervous
perspiration dewed the Captain’s broad brow, his eyes shifted
left and right. ‘No,’ he said and shook his head. ‘I
suppose not.’ He straightened. ‘But I still do not know
why I am here.’
    ‘You have
been arrested for treason.’
    Leighton shot to
his feet, ignoring the guards who moved yet another step closer. ‘How
dare you, sir? Do you know who I am?’
    ‘You are
the noxious toad who took a bribe to break the blockade,’ del
Garza said. ‘During wartime such an act can be nothing less
than treason.’
    ‘I did no
such thing!’ the captain insisted.
    The Baron
smiled. ‘Do you know how many fools have tried to lie to the
Duke’s agents?’ he asked. He waved his hand casually at
the two burly guards and at several other men whom he knew