Part 20 (1/2)
A boat that had approached unnoticed froreat red hull of the Arabella, and a raucous voice sent up a hailing shout Fro clear and sharp, and awail
The sounds disturbed Captain Blood fros He rose, tall, active, and arrestingly elegant in a scarlet, gold-laced coat that advertised his new position, and slipping the slender volume into his pocket, advanced to the carved rail of the quarter-deck, just as Jere foot upon the companion
”A note for you from the Deputy-Governor,” said the master shortly, as he proffered a folded sheet
Blood broke the seal, and read Pitt, loosely clad in shi+rt and breeches, leaned against the rail the while and watched him, unmistakable concern imprinted on his fair, frank countenance
Blood uttered a short laugh, and curled his lip ”It is a very peremptory summons,” he said, and passed the note to his friend
The young olden beard
”You'll not go?” he said, between question and assertion
”Why not? Haven't I been a daily visitor at the fort?”
”But it'll be about the Old Wolf that he wants to see you It gives hirievance at last You know, Peter, that it is Lord Julian alone has stood between Bishop and his hate of you If now he can show that”
”What if he can?” Blood interrupted carelessly ”Shall I be in greater danger ashore than aboard, now that we've but fifty ues ould as soon serve the King as me? Jeremy, dear lad, the Arabella's a prisoner here, bedad, 'twixt the fort there and the fleet yonder Don't be forgetting that”
Jeremy clenched his hands ”Why did ye let Wolverstone and the others go?” he cried, with a touch of bitterness ”You should have seen the danger”
”How could I in honesty have detained the have helped me?” And as Pitt did not answer hi o ashore in the cock-boat See itto deliver yourself into Bishop's hands,” Pitt warned him
”Well, well, ines There's a thorn or two left on h Blood departed to his cabin
Jereh with an oath A moment he stood irresolute where Blood had left hi at his feet, he went down the coive the order for the cock-boat
”If anything should happen to you, Peter,” he said, as Blood was going over the side, ”Colonel Bishop had better look to himself These fifty lads may be lukewar but lukewarm if there's a breach of faith”
”And what should be happening to me, Jeremy? Sure, now, I'll be back for dinner, so I will”
Blood cliht, he kneell as Pitt that in going ashore thathe carried his life in his hands Because of this, it may have been that when he stepped on to the narrow mole, in the shadow of the shallow outer wall of the fort through whose crenels were thrust the black noses of its heavy guns, he gave order that the boat should stay for hiht have to retreat in a hurry
Walking leisurely, he skirted the eates into the courtyard Half-a-dozen soldiers lounged there, and in the shadow cast by the wall, Major Mallard, the Coht of Captain Blood, and saluted him, as was his due, but the srimly sardonic Peter Blood's attention, however, was elsewhere
On his right stretched a spacious garden, beyond which rose the white house that was the residence of the Deputy-Governor In that garden's ed with palht of Miss Bishop alone He crossed the courtyard with suddenly lengthened stride
”Good- as he overtook her; and hat in hand now, he added on a note of protest: ”Sure, it's nothing less than uncharitable to make me run in this heat”
”Why do you run, then?” she asked hiht before him, all in white and very maidenly save in her unnatural coive me if I do not stay”
”You were none so pressed until I came,” he protested, and if his thin lips smiled, his blue eyes were oddly hard
”Since you perceive it, sir, I wonder that you trouble to be so insistent”
That crossed the swords between theement
”Faith, you explain yourself after a fashi+on,” said he ”But since it was 's coat, you should suffer it to cover the thief and pirate”
She shrugged and turned aside, in so to betray the latter, she took refuge in the former ”I do my best,” said she
”So that ye can be charitable in sohed softly ”Glory be, now, I should be thankful for so et that when I was no better than a slave in your uncle's household in Barbados, ye used me with a certain kindness”
”Why not? In those days you had soentle ood fortune on the seas - how your luck has passed into a byword And we have heard other things: of your good fortune in other directions”
She spoke hastily, the thought of Madeeron in her mind And instantly would have recalled the words had she been able But Peter Blood swept the, as she feared he would
”Aye - a deal of lies, devil a doubt, as I could prove to you”
”I cannot think why you should trouble to put yourself on your defence,” she discouraged him
”So that ye may think less badly of me than you do”
”What I think of you can be a very littlestroke He abandoned combat for expostulation
”Can ye say that now? Can ye say that, beholding me in this livery of a service I despise? Didn't ye tell h I am concerned to redee at all that I a the provocation I received”
Her glance faltered, and fell away before his own that was so intent
”I I can't think why you should speak to me like this,” she said, with less than her earlier assurance
”Ah, now, can't ye, indeed?” he cried ”Sure, then, I'll be telling ye”
”Oh, please” There was real alarm in her voice ”I realize fully what you did, and I realize that partly, at least, you ed by consideration for rateful”
”But if it's also your intention always to think of ratitude for all the good it's like to do me”
A livelier colour crept into her cheeks There was a perceptible heave of the slight breast that faintly swelled the flimsy bodice of white silk But if she resented his tone and his words, she stifled her resentment She realized that perhaps she had, herself, provoked his anger She honestly desired to an ”It isn't that”
But they were fated to misunderstand each other
Jealousy, that troubler of reason, had been over-busy with his wits as it had with hers
”What is it, then?” quoth he, and added the question: ”Lord Julian?”
She started, and stared at hied her, unpardonably ”'Twill be a kindness, so it will”