Anne of the Indies Page #5

We don't fear any ordinary purchase.

But the 'Sheba Queen' is...

If I told you she carried...

...a rich treasure.

Does she, in truth, Captain?

I give you my oath.

She carries a treasure for which

I would gladly lay down my life.

But if you gentlemen are afraid...

Not me.

Very well. Tonight we lie off Nassau...

...where I hope to learn news of her...

...I will ask for volunteers

to go ashore with me...

...I will need twenty men.

Gentlemen.

Keep your seats.

Put your hands on the table...

...and don't move.

Take their weapons, Mr. Backett.

So you're alive.

I'll hang that surgeon from a yardarm.

He knows his trade too well.

I have no quarrel with

you, Captain Teach...

...nor with any gentlemen here.

I seek word for the 'Sheba Queen'.

I will give fifty English guineas to

any man who has fresh news of her.

What'd he say?

Fifty guineas for news

of the 'Sheba Queen'.

What do you want with the 'Sheba Queen'?

That's my affair, Captain.

Well? Surely someone

here has word of her.

Fifty guineas.

You're wasting your time, Frenchie.

I'd gladly otter five hundred

guineas for the same information...

...five thousand and cheap at the price.

She must have touched here

or somewhere for supplies.

No? No one knows.

Very well.

I apologize for interrupting

your pleasure, gentlemen.

Pray proceed with your diversions.

It will be unhealthy for any man

to put his head outside the door.

Wait.

We're followed.

Easy, Captain, easy. I mean you no harm.

What do you want?

Did I hear right?

You'd give fifty guineas for

word of the 'Sheba Queen'?

Do you know where she is?

Yes. She...

Blackbeard offered five hundred.

Why don't you tell him?

They calls me cracked...

...but I'm not as cracked as all that.

Blackbeard never pays his promises.

So I otters the information to you.

Where is she?

I was on the Tortuga a week since...

...when she touched in

there for meat and water.

Yes?

The crew said she was

bound for Maracaibo...

...to pick up what prizes

they might on the way.

Maracaibo?

Yes, for the opening of the slave

markets there this month.

Now, I'll take this guineas

if you don't mind.

Thank you very kindly, Captain.

You'd better get some sleep.

You were up all night.

Come in.

No, thank you.

In a few hours we drop

anchor in Maracaibo Harbour...

...the filthiest hole in the Caribbean.

I'll welcome it after your ship.

A poor piece of good, Doctor.

I'm almost ashamed

to otter her for sale.

I've got my reputation to think of.

Doesn't it make you sick to think of it?

Here...

...put that on.

I'll cheat the Arabs

and sell you for a lady.

In this harlot's trumpery?

Don't turn up your nose at it.

Your husband chose it for you.

Then he changed his

mind and gave it to me.

You mean you stole it.

He'd give you nothing of mine.

Put it on.

Put it on, or do I call my company

to put it on for you?

Charming.

The Arabs love such a

display of white skin...

...though it puts me in

mind of the belly of a fish.

You'll fetch at least a hundred

English pounds...

...ninety-nine more than you're worth.

Were you born in the gutter,

or did you choose it?

Take her out...

...before I forget myself and

damage the merchandise.

You'd better take to your bunk.

Today? Never.

This is the day we market

Captain La Rochelle's treasure.

Remember, Doctor?

He promised us treasure.

Treasure.

Your attention, gentlemen.

What am I offered for this rare beauty?

Now, this is not an ordinary savage...

...but a proud daughter

of the Aztecs...

...a princess of the New World.

One thousand drachmas

from Yussef Ibn Ibrahim.

Any other otters?

Sold to the noble

sheik for thirty pounds.

Move up. Up with the others.

Wait till he learns of this.

Move up.

Gentlemen, and now I otter

three sisters from Trinidad.

Born in the same hour and perfectly

matched in beauty and...

Do you consider yourself a woman?

You plead with me now.

Only for your own sake.

Someday he'll find you.

Senor de Silva, right there.

I take the stand myself

to make you a rare otter.

You all know me, Captain Providence

of the 'Sheba Queen'.

I cheat no man and deal only

in the finest of merchandise.

Here is one fit for

the noblest among you.

A woman of breeding and temper...

...spirited like the fine

mares of Arabia...

...smooth like the silks of Cathay.

You, sir? Two thousand drachmas?

Surely you jest.

You, sir, do I hear three? Stop.

Stop it.

This is a decent woman,

an honest woman...

...stolen from her husband

by a woman gone mad.

Captain, we are

peaceful men of affair...

...and if this woman was truly

taken from her husband...

Pierre.

Captain, you must take

your ship and leave the harbour.

And take that woman with you.

We don't care to be

entangled in this affair.

Leave at once.

Come here, you fool.

Go to your cabin.

I'll deal with you later.

We're caught fair with

no sea room to maneuver.

He can rake us with his

and never an answer from us.

Maybe we have an answer.

Take the woman forward.

Aye, Captain.

Stand by to fire, Mr. Hackett.

Aim high to dismast her.

Aye, sir.

Wait.

On the fore shrouds, see?

Hold your fire.

What do you intend, Captain?

Close her and take her

with pike and cutlass.

She'll blow us out of the water first.

Do as I say!

The woman is my wife.

Starboard a point.

-Starboard.

Easy.

What does this mean, Mr. Hackett?

Captain, we signed honest,

for gold or peg.

We won't risk ourselves

for the Captain's wench...

...wife or no wife. Get forward.

You've tricked us, Captain.

Now, you'll yield the ship to us.

I'll yield nothing. Get forward.

Then let us fight.

The first man who fires

I'll blow his head off.

Back on course. Steer on.

Bring her to the wind.

Mr. Dougal, put a boat over the side.

I want him, and I want him alive.

Pierre!

Take her below.

No. No!

Bring him to my cabin.

Leave us alone.

Well, Pierre?

I don't ask mercy for myself.

I only beg you to spare my wife.

Why should I spare her?

Why shouldn't I give myself the

pleasure of watching you face while...

...I let the men of my company

throw dice for her?

She's done you no harm.

Give me a better reason than that.

You're a woman.

You taught me to be a sort of woman.

I told you I'm sorry for that.

It was not part of the plan.

What are your present plans,

Captain La Rochelle.

Well, I would say...

...they're in your hands, Captain.

Then I must think of

something diverting.

Would you crawl on your

knees for her for instance?

I would do anything.

Anything for her.

Nothing for me.

Nothing at all, Pierre?

Is there no memory, nothing?

I lied to you once. I cannot lie again.

Then it was all lies, every word of it.

Mr. Dougal, take him forward

and lock them up together.

Together? You are generous.

I wish to encourage so true love.

The only kind I've known

was made of lies.

In the old days when the

Spanish treasure fleets...

...passed by here from the Isthmus...

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