Part 18 (2/2)
”Bid them take in sail, Jeremy,” he said quietly ”We lie to”
But Wolverstone interposed again
”Hold there aback to face the Captain, who had placed a hand on is shoulder and was s, a trifle wistfully
”Steady, Old Wolf! Steady!” Captain Blood adone mad! Will ye doom us all to hell out of tenderness for that cold slip of a girl?”
”Stop!” cried Blood in sudden fury
But Wolverstone would not stop ”It's the truth, you fool It's that cursed petticoat'sa coward of you It's for her that ye're afeard - and she, Colonel Bishop's niece! My God, man, ye'll have a mutiny aboard, and I'll lead it ed in Port Royal”
Their glances er, surprise, and pain
”There is no question,” said Blood, ”of surrender for any land that I anify hiainstto surrender aboard his shi+p, taking Miss Bishop and Lord Julian with me, but only on condition that the Arabella is allowed to proceed unharain that he'll accept, if I know hiain he'll never be offered,” retorted Wolverstone, and his earlier vehe to his vehemence now ”Ye're surely daft even to think of it, Peter!”
”Not so daft as you when you talk of fighting that” He flung out an ar shi+ps, which were slowly but surely creeping nearer ”Before we've run another half-e”
Wolverstone swore elaborately, then suddenly checked Out of the tail of his single eye he had espied a trirossed had they been that they had not seen Miss Bishop co to the cabin And there was so else that those three men on the poop, and Pitt io Ogle, followed by the ed frorily veheun-tackles upon which they were labouring, had come to crowd about him
Even now Blood had no eyes for that He turned to look at Miss Bishop,a little, after the manner in which yesterday she had avoided him, that she should now venture upon the quarter-deck Her presence at thisthe nature of his altercation with Wolverstone, was e
Very sweet and dainty she stood before hirey, a faint excite in her clear, hazel eyes, that looked so frank and honest She wore no hat, and the ringlets of her gold-brown hair fluttered distractingly in thebreeze
Captain Blood bared his head and bowed silently in a greeting which she returned co, Lord Julian?” she enquired
As if to answer her a third gun spoke fro intent and wonderingly A frown rumpled her brow She looked frolum and obviously ill at ease
”They are shi+ps of the Jamaica fleet,” his lordshi+p answered her
It should in any case have been a sufficient explanation But before le, who ca aft in his wake, in all of which, instinctively, they apprehended a vague le found his progress barred by Blood, who confronted him, a sudden sternness in his face and in every line of him
”What's this?” the Captain deun-deck Why have you left it?”
Thus challenged, the obvious truculence faded out of Ogle's bearing, quenched by the old habit of obedience and the natural dominance that was the secret of the Captain's rule over his wild followers But it gave no pause to the gunner's intention If anything it increased his excitement
”Captain,” he said, and as he spoke he pointed to the pursuing shi+ps, ”Colonel Bishop holds us We're in no case either to run or fight”
Blood's height seele,” said he, in a voice cold and sharp as steel, ”your station is on the gun-deck You'll return to it at once, and take your creith you, or else”
But Ogle, violent of esture, interrupted him
”Threats will not serve, Captain”
”Will they not?”
It was the first ti career that an order of his had been disregarded, or that a ed all those who joined him That this insubordination should proceed from one of those whom he most trusted, one of his old Barbados associates, was in itself a bitterness, and made him reluctant to that which instinct told him must be done His hand closed over the butt of one of the pistols slung before hile warned hi, and they'll have their way”
”And ay may that be?”
”The way towhiles we can help it”
From the three or four score men massed below in the waist calance raked the ranks of those resolute, fierce-eyed fellows, then it caue threat, a ive advice, then, do you?” quoth he, relenting nothing of his sternness
”That's it, Captain; advice That girl, there” He flung out a bare arirl; the Governor of Jae for our safety”
”Aye!” roared in chorus the buccaneers below, and one or two of them elaborated that affirmation
In a flash Captain Blood saas in theirof his outward stern composure, fear invaded his heart
”And how,” he asked, ”do you ie?”
”It's a providence having her aboard; a providence Heave to, Captain, and signal them to send a boat, and assure themselves that Miss is here Then let the hence, we'll hang the doxy first and fight for it after That'll cool Colonel Bishop's heat,came Wolverstone's voice to answer the other's confident excitement, and as he spoke he advanced to Blood's side, an unexpected ally ”Some o' them dawcocks may believe that tale” He jerked a contemptuous thumb towards theincreased by the advent of others froh even some o' they should know better, for there's still a feas on Barbados with us, and are acquainted likeBishop's heartstrings, ye're a bigger fool, Ogle, than I've always thought you ith anything but guns There's no heaving to for such a matter as that unless you wants to o of Bishop's nieces it wouldn'this lordshi+p here, who thought like you that having Miss Bishop aboard would o what's due to hile, you wouldn't need ht, le stor the conviction which Wolverstone's arguht, and you ot to chance it It's our only chance”
The rest of his words were drowned in the shouts of the hands insisting that the girl be given up to be held as a hostage And then louder than before roared a gun away to leeward, and away on their starboard beaone wide
”They are within range,” cried Ogle And leaning from the rail, ”Put down the helm,” he commanded
Pitt, at his post beside the helunner
”Since when have you cole? I take my orders from the Captain”
”You'll take this order from me, or, by God, you'll”
”Wait!” Blood bade hiunner's arm ”There is, I think, a better way”