Captain Blood

are windows astern. Then he uttered a moan, and closed his eyes again, impelled to this by the monstrous ache in his head. Lying thus, he attempted

him to open his eyes again, and onc

be. The low position of the sun, flooding the cabin with golden light from those square ports astern, suggested to him at first that it was early morning, on the assumption that the vessel was headed westward. Then the alternative occurred to him. They might be sailing eastward, in which cas

asily successful raid upon the Island of Barbados; every detail stood vividly in his memory up to the moment at

st suit of clothes step into the cabin. It was a singularly elegant and characteristically Spanish suit of black taffetas with silver la

ded, and inside the suit came a tall, slender gentleman of about Don Diego's own height and sha

?" said he

yes that regarded him out of a tawny, sardonic face set in a clust

op of Don Diego's head, whereupon Do

iego's wrist between thumb and second finger.

ou a d

udy of the patient's pulse. "Firm and regular," he announced

into a sitting position

"And what the devil are you doing

nt up, a faint smile curled

This is not your ship. This is m

then...." Wildly his eyes looked about him. They scanned the cabin once again, scrutinizin

co Llaga

troubled. "Valga me Dios!" he cried out, like a man in angui

p, like this handsome suit of clothes, is mine by right

soothing to Don Diego, being so much less startl

you not Sp

rish. You were thinking that a miracle had happened. So it

and white by turns the Spaniard's countenance. He put a hand to the back of his head, and there discovered, in conf

he cried out. "He was in the

rew together with your gunner and his

er all, he possessed the stoicism proper to his desperate trade. The dice had fallen against him in this venture. The ta

most calm h

, Senior

humane man, I am sorry to find that ye're not dead from the tap we gave yo

h. "But is that necessary?" he as

yourself," said he. "Tell me, as an experienced and b

sat up to argue the matter. "It lies in the

your ten surviving scoundrels are a menace on this ship. More than that, she is none so well found in water and provisions. True, we are fortunately a small number, but you and your party inconveniently increase it. So

his elbows on his knees. He had taken the measure of his man, and met him with a mock-urbanity and a su

lly since I and my friends owe you so very much. For, whatever it may have been to others, to us you

d, I did not a

that you can suggest, I shall

ked his pointe

ches so damnably that I am incapable of thought. And thi

hour glass, reversed it so that the bulb containing

ve you. If by the time those sands have run out you can propose no acceptable alternativ

sat watching the rusty sands as they filtered from the upper to the lower bulb. And what time he watche

t to face the returning Captain Blo

your charity. It is that you put us ashore on one of the islands o

lips. "It has its diffi

on Diego sighed again, and s

played over him li

afraid to die

back his head, a fr

on is offen

er way-perhaps more happily:

on may live. But the desire shall not make a coward of me for your amusement, ma

answer. As before he perched hi

e and liberty-for yourself, your son, a

s the quiver that ran through him. "To earn it, do you say? Why, if

, almost out of sight of land, we are in a difficulty. The only man among us schooled in the art of navigation is fevered, delirious, in fact, as a result of certain ill-treatment he received ashore before we carried him away with us. I can handle a ship in action, and there are one or two men aboard who can assist me; but of the higher mysteries of seamanship and of the art of finding a way over the trackless wastes of ocean, we k

e-his ship, which these English dogs had wrested from him; his ship, which he was asked to bring safely into a port where she would be completely lost to him and refitted perhaps t

ing to the light, the Captain could

ept,"