Part 14 (1/2)
Aboard the rudely awakened galleon all was confused hurrying, scurrying, tru At first there had been a desperately hurried atte already too late; and conceiving the boarded, the Spaniards stood to arued the so different froued were they by the sight of the gigantic Wolverstone speeding naked along his deck with a great flah Not until he had coin to suspect the truth - that he was lighting slow-matches - and then one of their officers rendered reckless by panic ordered a boarding-party on to the shop
The order came too late Wolverstone had seen his six fellows drop overboard after the grapnels were fixed, and then had sped, hi torch down the nearest gaping scuttle into the hold, and thereupon dived overboard in his turn, to be picked up presently by the longboat fro of fire, fro coues of fla back those daring Spaniards who, too late, strove desperately to cut her adrift
And whilst theput out of action at the outset, Blood had sailed in to open fire upon the Salvador First athwart her hawse he had loosed a broadside that had swept her decks with terrific effect, then going on and about, he had put a second broadside into her hull at short range Leaving her thus half-crippled, te to his course, he had bewildered the crew of the Infanta by a couple of shots frorapple and board her, whilst Hagthorpe was doing the like by the San Felipe
And in all this tile shot had the Spaniards contrived to fire, so completely had they been taken by surprise, and so swift and paralyzing had been Blood's stroke
Boarded now and faced by the cold steel of the buccaneers, neither the San Felipe nor the Infanta offered ht of their ad crippled from the action, had so utterly disheartened them that they accounted themselves vanquished, and laid down their ared the other two undaht well have retrieved the fortunes of the day But it happened that the Salvador was handicapped in true Spanish fashi+on by being the treasure-shi+p of the fleet, with plate on board to the value of so this frouel, ith a remnant of his crew, had meanwhile transferred himself aboard her, headed her doards Paloe This fort the Ad, had taken the precaution secretly to garrison and rearm For the purpose he had stripped the fort of Cojero, farther out on the gulf, of its entire armament, which included soe and power
With no suspicion of this, Captain Blood gave chase, accompanied by the Infanta, which was manned now by a prize-crew under the command of Yberville The stern chasers of the Salvador desultorily returned the punishi+ng fire of the pursuers; but such was the da under the guns of the fort, she began to sink, and finally settled down in the shalloith part of her hull above water Thence, soot his crew ashore on Palomas as best he could
And then, just as Captain Blood accounted the victory won, and that his way out of that trap to the open sea beyond lay clear, the fort suddenly revealed its forth With a roar the cannons-royal proclaiered under a blow that smashed her bulwarks at the waist and scattered death and confusion aathered there
Had not Pitt, her master, hi her sharply off to starboard, she must have suffered still worse from the second volley that followed fast upon the first
Meanwhile it had fared even worse with the frailer Infanta Although hit by one shot only, this had crushed her larboard ti a leak that must presently have filled her, but for the pro her larboard guns to be flung overboard Thus lightened, and listing now to starboard, he fetched her about, and went staggering after the retreating Arabella, followed by the fire of the fort, which did thee, at last, they lay to, joined by the Elizabeth and the San Felipe, to consider their position
CHAPTER XVII
THE DUPES
It was a crestfallen Captain Blood who presided over that hastily summoned council held on the poop-deck of the Arabella in the brilliantsunshi+ne It was, he declared afterwards, one of the bitterest est the fact that having conducted the engage destroyed a force so superior in shi+ps and guns and uel de Espinosa had justifiably dee, his victory was rendered barren by three lucky shots from an unsuspected battery by which they had been surprised And barren must their victory remain until they could reduce the fort that still ree
At first Captain Blood was for putting his shi+ps in order andthe attempt there and then But the others dissuaded hin to hirin and mortification, emotions which will render unreasonable thecaler in case to put to sea; the Infanta was merely kept afloat by artifice, and the San Felipe was aled by the fire she had sustained fro
Clearly, then, he was co remained but to return to Maracaybo, there to refit the shi+ps before attee
And so, back to Maracaybo caht And if anything had been wanting further to exasperate their leader, he had it in the pessimism of which Cahusac did not econohts of dizzy satisfaction by the swift and easy victory of their inferior force that ed back and more deeply than ever into the abyss of hopelessness And his mood infected at least the main body of his own followers
”It is the end,” he told Captain Blood ”This time we are check you that you said the same before,” Captain Blood answered him as patiently as he could ”Yet you've seen what you've seen, and you'll not deny that in shi+ps and guns we are returning stronger than ent Look at our present fleet,at it,” said Cahusac
”Pish!+ Ye're a white-livered cur when all is said”
”You call me a coward?”
”I'll take that liberty”
The Breton glared at hi hard But he had no mind to ask satisfaction for the insult He knew too well the kind of satisfaction that Captain Blood was likely to afford him He remembered the fate of Levasseur So he confined hio too far!” he complained bitterly
”Look you, Cahusac: it's sick and tired I as are not as ss smooth and easy, ye shouldn't have taken to the sea, and ye should never ha' sailed with s are never smooth and easy And that, I think, is all I have to say to you this , and went to take the feeling of his eon's skill to the wounded, aed until late afternoon Then, at last, he went ashore, his mind made up, and returned to the house of the Governor, to indite a truculent but very scholarly letter in purest Castilian to Don Miguel
”I have shown your excellency this h outnuuns, I have sunk or captured the vessels of the great fleet hich you were to coer in case to carry out your boast, even when your reenforcements on the Santo Nino, reach you froe of what must occur I should not trouble your excellency with this letter but that I a bloodshed Therefore before proceeding to deal with your fort, which you may deem invincible, as I have dealt already with your fleet, which you deemed invincible, I make you, purely out of humanitarian considerations, this last offer of terms I will spare this city of Maracaybo and forthwith evacuate it, leaving behind me the forty prisoners I have taken, in consideration of your paying ht and one hundred head of cattle as a ransoe of the bar My prisoners, most of whoes until afterthem back in the canoes which we shall take with us for that purpose If your excellency should be so ill-advised as to refuse these ter your fort at the cost of some lives, I warn you that you in by leaving a heap of ashes where this pleasant city of Maracaybo now stands”
The letter written, he bade the the prisoners the Deputy-Governor of Maracaybo, who had been taken at Gibraltar Disclosing its contents to hiuel
His choice of a er was shrewd The Deputy-Governor was of all men the most anxious for the deliverance of his city, the one man who on his own account would plead most fervently for its preservation at all costs fro it And as he reckoned so it befell The Deputy-Governor added his own passionate pleading to the proposals of the letter
But Don Miguel was of stouter heart True, his fleet had been partly destroyed and partly captured But then, he argued, he had been taken utterly by surprise That should not happen again There should be no surprising the fort Let Captain Blood do his worst at Maracaybo, there should be a bitter reckoning for him when eventually he decided - as, sooner or later, decide heinto panic He lost his tes to the Ad the Admiral said to hi in hindering the entrance of these cursed pirates as I shall be in hindering their going forth again, we should not now find ourselves in our present straits So weary me no more with your coward counsels I , and I intend to perform it I also know my duty to myself I have a private score with this rascal, and I intend to settle it Take you that e back”
So back to Maracaybo, back to his own handsome house in which Captain Blood had established his quarters, came the Deputy-Governor with the Admiral's answer And because he had been shae in adversity, he delivered it as truculently as the Admiral could have desired ”And is it like that?” said Captain Blood with a quiet sh the heart of him sank at this failure of his bluster ”Well, well, it's a pity now that the Ad It was that way he lost his fleet, which was his own to lose This pleasant city of Maracaybo isn't So no doubt he'll lose it with fewerabhorrent to ots to the place in the ht he'll begin to believe that Peter Blood is a o, Don Francisco”
The Deputy-Governor went out with dragging feet, followed by guards, his momentary truculence utterly spent
But no sooner had he departed than up leapt Cahusac, who had been of the council assembled to receive the Admiral's answer His face hite and his hands shook as he held them out in protest
”Death of my life, what have you to say now?” he cried, his voice husky And without waiting to hear what it hten the Admiral so easy He hold us entrap', and he knows it; yet you dreae Your fool letter it have seal' the doom of us all”
”Have ye done?” quoth Blood quietly, as the Frenchman paused for breath
”No, I have not”
”Then spare me the rest It'll be of the same quality, devil a doubt, and it doesn't help us to solve the riddle that's before us”
”But what are you going to do? Is it that you will tell me?” It was not a question, it was a de you'd have some ideas yourself But since Ye're so desperately concerned to save your skin, you and those that think like you are welcome to leave us I've no doubt at all the Spanish Admiral elcome the abatement of our numbers even at this late date Ye shall have the sloop as a parting gift frouel in the fort for all I care, or for all the good ye're likely to be to us in this present pass”
”It is tohis fury, and on that stalked out to talk to the the others to deliberate in peace
Next ain He found hi to and fro, his head sunk on his breast Cahusac mistook consideration for dejection Each of us carries in hihbour
”We have take' you at your word, Captain,” he announced, between sullenness and defiance Captain Blood paused, shoulders hunched, hands behind his back, and arded the buccaneer in silence Cahusac explained hiht I send one of my men to the Spanish Admiral with a letter I e with the honours of war ThisI receive his answer He accord us this on the understanding that we carry nothing aith us Mythee,” said Captain Blood, and with a nod he turned on his heel again to resume his interrupted mediation
”Is that all that you have to say to s,” said Blood over his shoulder ”But I knoouldn't like them”