Part 12 (1/2)
”We must run for shelter there, and careen her,” said Levasseur ”I do not trust this oppressive heat A stormelse,” said Cahusac grimly ”Have you noticed that?” He pointed away to starboard
Levasseur looked, and caught his breath Two shi+ps that at the distance see towards them some five miles away
”If they follohat is to happen?” deht whether we're in case to do so or not,” swore Levasseur
”Counsels of despair” Cahusac was conteoing to sea with a lovesick madman Now, keep your temper, Captain, for the hands will be at the end of theirs if we have trouble as a result of this Dutchman business”
For the re but love He remained on deck, his eyes now upon the land, now upon those two slowly gaining shi+ps To run for the open could avail hi, and in his leaky condition would provide an additional danger He , ithin three ive the order to strip for battle, he almost fainted from relief to hear a voice froer of the two shi+ps was the Arabella Her companion was presumably a prize
But the pessi
”That is but the lesser evil,” he growled ”What will Blood say about this Dutchhed in the immensity of his relief
”And what about the children of the Governor of Tortuga?”
”He must not know”
”He'll come to know in the end”
”Aye, but by then, morbleu, the matter will be settled I shall have made my peace with the Governor I tell you I know the way to coeron to come to terms”
Presently the four vessels lay to off the northern coast of La Virgen Magra, a narrow little island arid and treeless, some twelve miles by three, uninhabited save by birds and turtles and unproductive of anything but salt, of which there were considerable ponds to the south
Levasseur put off in a boat accompanied by Cahusac and two other officers, and went to visit Captain Blood aboard the Arabella
”Our brief separation has been”It's a busy ood-hu of accounts
The tall shi+p that accouns, the Santiago froht of cacao, forty thousand pieces of eight, and the value of ten thousand more in jewels A rich capture of which two fifths under the articles went to Levasseur and his crew Of the money and jewels a division was reed should be taken to Tortuga to be sold
Then it was the turn of Levasseur, and black grew the brow of Captain Blood as the Frenchman's tale was unfolded At the end he roundly expressed his disapproval The Dutch were a friendly people whom it was a folly to alienate, particularly for so paltry a matter as these hides and tobacco, which at most would fetch a bare twenty thousand pieces
But Levasseur answered him, as he had answered Cahusac, that a shi+p was a shi+p, and it was shi+ps they needed against their projected enterprise Perhaps because things had gone ith hi the matter aside Thereupon Levasseur proposed that the Arabella and her prize should return to Tortuga there to unload the cacao and enlist the further adventurers that could now be shi+pped Levasseur meanwhile would effect certain necessary repairs, and then proceeding south, await his admiral at Saltatudos, an island conveniently situated - in the latitude of 11 deg 11' N - for their enterprise against Maracaybo
To Levasseur's relief, Captain Blood not only agreed, but pronounced himself ready to set sail at once
No sooner had the Arabella departed than Levasseur brought his shi+ps into the lagoon, and set his creork upon the erection of temporary quarters ashore for hi and repairing of La Foudre
At sunset that evening the wind freshened; it grew to a gale, and from that to such a hurricane that Levasseur was thankful to find himself ashore and his shi+ps in safe shelter He wondered a little how itwith Captain Blood out there at the mercy of that terrific storm; but he did not permit concern to trouble hilory of the following orating, briny tang in the air from the salt-ponds on the south of the island, a curious scene was played on the beach of the Virgen Magra, at the foot of a ridge of bleached dunes, beside the spread of sail from which Levasseur had improvised a tent
Enthroned upon an empty cask sat the French filibuster to transact i hiuard of honour of a half-dozen officers hung about him; five of them were rude boucan-hunters, in stained jerkins and leather breeches; the sixth was Cahusac Before hieron, in frilled shi+rt and satin small-clothes and fine shoes of Cordovan leather He was stripped of doublet, and his hands were tied behind hiard Near at hand, and also under guard, but unpinioned, mademoiselle his sister sat hunched upon a hillock of sand She was very pale, and it was in vain that she sought to veil in a ance the fears by which she was assailed
Levasseur addressed hith In the end - ”I trust, monsieur,” said he, with mock suavity, ”that I have made s, I will recapitulate Your ransoht, and you shall have liberty on parole to go to Tortuga to collect it In fact, I shall provide the means to convey you thither, and you shall have a o Meanwhile, your sister ree Your father should not consider such a sum excessive as the price of his son's liberty and to provide a dowry for his daughter Indeed, if anything, I aeron is reputed a wealthy er raised his head and looked the Captain boldly in the face
”I refuse - utterly and absolutely, do you understand? So do your worst, and be damned for a filthy pirate without decency and without honour”
”But ords!” laughed Levasseur ”What heat and what foolishness! You have not considered the alternative When you do, you will not persist in your refusal You will not do that in any case We have spurs for the reluctant And I warn you against givingme false I shall kno to find and punish you Meanwhile, remeet to return with the dowry, you will not consider it unreasonable that I forget toeyes, intent upon the young eron cast a wild glance at rey despair that had alust and fury swept across his countenance
Then he braced hi! A thousand times, no!”
”You are foolish to persist” Levasseur spoke without anger, with a coldlyknots in a length of whipcord He held it up ”You know this? It is a rosary of pain that has wrought the conversion ofthe eyes out of ahith of knotted cord to one of the negroes, who in an instant made it fast about the prisoner's brows Then between cord and craniuth of metal, round and slender as a pipe-ste the Captain's signal
Levasseur considered his victiard face of a leaden hue, beads of perspiration glinting on his pallid brow just beneath the whipcord
Madeuards restrained her, and she sank down again,that you will spare yourself and your sister,” said the Captain, ”by being reasonable What, after all, is the suatelle I repeat, I have been too ht, 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, see 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 theainst the deep cobalt of the sky, they beheld a tall, lean figure scrupulously dressed in black with silver lace, a crimson ostrich plu the only touch of colour Under that hat was the tawny face of Captain Blood
Levasseur gathered himself up with an oath of amazement He had conceived Captain Blood by noell below the horizon, on his way to Tortuga, assu hiht's stor sand, into which he sank to the level of the calves of his fine boots of Spanish leather, Captain Blood ca erect to the beach He was followed by Wolverstone, and a dozen others As he came to a standstill, he doffed his hat, with a flourish, to the lady Then he turned to Levasseur
”Good-, my Captain,” said he, and proceeded to explain his presence ”It was last night's hurricane compelled our return We had no choice but to ride before it with stripped poles, and it drove us back the e had gone Moreover - as the devil would have it! - the Santiago sprang her lad to put into a cove on the west of the island a couple of s, and to give you good-day But who are these?” And he designated the ed his shoulders, and tossed his long arnantly, to the fired colour But he controlled himself to answer civilly: ”As you see, two prisoners”
”Ah! Washed ashore in last night's gale, eh?”
”Not so” Levasseur contained himself with difficulty before that irony ”They were in the Dutch brig”