Captain Blood

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"A storm or something else," said Cahusac grimly. "Have you
noticed that?" He pointed away to starboard.

Levasseur looked, and caught his breath. Two ships that at the
distance seemed of considerable burden were heading towards them
some five miles away.

"If they follow us what is to happen?" demanded Cahusac.

"We'll fight whether we're in case to do so or not," swore Levasseur.

"Counsels of despair." Cahusac was contemptuous. To mark it he
spat upon the deck. "This comes of going 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 remainder of that day Levasseur's thoughts were of anything
but love. He remained on deck, his eyes now upon the land, now
upon those two slowly gaining ships. To run for the open could
avail him nothing, and in his leaky condition would provide an
additional danger. He must stand at bay and fight. And then,
towards evening, when within three miles of shore and when he was
about to give the order to strip for battle, he almost fainted from
relief to hear a voice from the crow's-nest above announce that the
larger of the two ships was the Arabella. Her companion was
presumably a prize.

But the pessimism of Cahusac abated nothing.

"That is but the lesser evil," he growled. "What will Blood say
about this Dutchman?"

"Let him say what he pleases." Levasseur laughed 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 compel Ogeron 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 mighty profitable," was Captain
Blood's greeting. "It's a busy morning we've both had." He was
in high good-humour as he led the way to the great cabin for a
rendering of accounts.

The tall ship that accompanied the Arabella was a Spanish vessel
of twenty-six guns, the Santiago from Puerto Rico with a hundred
and twenty thousand weight 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 made on the spot. The cacao
it was agreed 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 ship
was a ship, and it was ships they needed against their projected
enterprise. Perhaps because things had gone well with him that
day, Blood ended by shrugging 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 shipped. 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=B0 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 ships
into the lagoon, and set his crew to work upon the erection of
temporary quarters ashore for himself, his men, and his enforced
guests during the careening 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 ships in safe shelter. He wondered a little
how it might be faring with Captain Blood out there at the mercy
of that terrific storm; but he did not permit concern to trouble
him unduly.

CHAPTER XV

THE RANSOM

In the glory of the following morning, sparkling and clear after
the storm, with an invigorating, 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
important business: the business of making himself safe with the
Governor of Tortuga.

A guard 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 him, guarded by two
half-naked negroes, stood young d'Ogeron, in frilled shirt and
satin small-clothes and fine shoes of Cordovan leather. He was
stripped of doublet, and his hands were tied behind him. The
young gentleman's comely face was haggard. 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 mask of arrogance the fears
by which she was assailed.

Levasseur addressed himself to M. d'Ogeron. He spoke at long length.
In the end -

"I trust, monsieur," said he, with mock suavity, "that I have made
myself quite clear. So that there may be no misunderstandings, I
will recapitulate. Your ransom is fixed at twenty thousand pieces
of eight, 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 month in which to come and go.
Meanwhile, your sister remains with me as a hostage. 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 am too modest, pardi! M. d'Ogeron is reputed a wealthy
man."

M. d'Ogeron the younger 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 what words!" 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
giving me your parole under stress, and afterwards playing me false.
I shall know how to find and punish you. Meanwhile, remember your
sister's honour is in pawn to me. Should you forget to return with
the dowry, you will not consider it unreasonable that I forget to
marry her."

Levasseur's smiling=20eyes, intent upon the young man's face, saw the
horror that crept into his glance. M. d'Ogeron cast a wild glance
at mademoiselle, and observed the grey despair that had almost
stamped the beauty from her face. Disgust and fury swept across
his countenance.

Then he braced himself and answered resolutely:

"No, you dog! A thousand times, no!"

"You are foolish to persist." Levasseur spoke without anger, with
a coldly mocking regret. His fingers had been busy tying knots in
a length of whipcord. He held it up. "You know this? It is a
rosary of pain that has wrought the conversion of many a stubborn
heretic. It is capable of screwing the eyes out of a man's head
by way of helping him to see reason. As you please."

He flung the length of knotted cord to one of the negroes, who in
an instant made it fast about the prisoner's brows. Then between
cord and cranium the black inserted a short length of metal, round
and slender as a pipe-stem. That done he rolled his eyes towards
Levasseur, awaiting the Captain's signal.

Levasseur considered his victim, and beheld him tense and braced,
his haggard face of a leaden hue, beads of perspiration glinting on
his pallid brow just beneath the whipcord.

Mademoiselle cried out, and would have risen: but her guards
restrained her, and she sank down again, moaning.

"I beg that you will spare yourself and your sister," said the
Captain, "by being reasonable. What, after all, is the sum I
have named? To your wealthy father a bagatelle. I repeat, I have
been too modest. But since I have said twenty thousand pieces of
eight, 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,
seeming 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 them, in sharp silhouette against the
deep cobalt of the sky, they beheld a tall, lean figure scrupulously
dressed in black with silver lace, a crimson ostrich plume curled
about the broad brim of his hat affording 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 now well below the horizon, on his way
to Tortuga, assuming him to have been so fortunate as to have
weathered last night's storm.

Launching himself upon the yielding sand, into which he sank to the
level of the calves of his fine boots of Spanish leather, Captain
Blood came sliding 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-morning, 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 way we had gone. Moreover - as the devil would
have it! - the Santiago sprang her mainmast; and so I was glad to
put into a cove on the west of the island a couple of miles away,
and we've walked across to stretch our legs, and to give you
good-day. But who are these?" And he designated the man and the
woman.

Cahusac shrugged his shoulders, and tossed his long arms to heaven.

"Voila!" said he, pregnantly, to the firmament.

Levasseur gnawed his lip, and changed 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."

"I don't remember that you mentioned them before."

"I did not. They are prisoners of my own - a personal matter.
They are French."

"French!" Captain Blood's light eyes stabbed at Levasseur, then at
the prisoners.

M. d'Ogeron stood tense and braced as before, but the grey horror
had left his face. Hope had leapt within him at this interruption,
obviously as little expected by his tormentor as by himself. His
sister, moved by a similar intuition, was leaning forward with
parted lips and gaping eyes.

Captain Blood fingered his lip, and frowned thoughtfully upon
Levasseur.

"Yesterday you surprised me by making war upon the friendly Dutch.
But now it seems that not even your own countrymen are safe from
you."

"Have I not said that these ... that this is a matter personal to
me?"

"Ah! And their names?"

Captain Blood's crisp, authoritative, faintly disdainful manner
stirred Levasseur's quick anger. The blood crept slowly back into
his blenched face, and his glance grew in insolence, almost in
menace. Meanwhile the prisoner answered for him.

"I am Henri d'Ogeron, and this is my sister."

"D'Ogeron?" Captain Blood stared. "Are you related by chance to
my good friend the Governor of Tortuga?"

"He is my father."

Levasseur swung aside with an imprecation. In Captain Blood,
amazement for the moment quenched every other emotion.

"The saints preserve us now! Are you quite mad, Levasseur? First
you molest the Dutch, who are our friends; next you take prisoners
two persons that are French, your own countrymen; and now, faith,
they're no less than the children of the Governor of Tortuga, which
is the one safe place of shelter that we enjoy in these islands ..."

Levasseur broke in angrily:

"Must I tell you again that it is a matter personal to me? I make
myself alone responsible to the Governor of Tortuga."

"And the twenty thousand pieces of eight? Is that also a matter
personal to you?"

"It is."

"Now I don't agree with you at all." Captain Blood sat down on the
cask that Levasseur had lately occupied, and looked up blandly. "I
may inform you, to save time, that I heard the entire proposal that
you made to this lady and this gentleman, and I'll also remind you
that we sail under articles that admit no ambiguities. You have
fixed their ransom at twenty thousand pieces of eight. That sum
then belongs to your crews and mine in the proportions by the
articles established. You'll hardly wish to dispute it. But what
is far more grave is that you have concealed from me this part of
the prizes taken on your last cruise, and for such an offence as
that the articles provide certain penalties that are something
severe in character."

"Ho, ho!" laughed Levasseur unpleasantly. Then added: "If you
dislike my conduct we can dissolve the association."

"That is my intention. But we'll dissolve it when and in the manner
that I choose, and that will be as soon as you have satisfied the
articles under which we sailed upon this cruise.

"What do you mean?"

"I'll be as short as I can," said Captain Blood. "I'll waive for
the moment the unseemliness of making war upon the Dutch, of taking
French prisoners, and of provoking the anger of the Governor of
Tortuga. I'll accept the situation as I find it. Yourself you've
fixed the ransom of this couple at twenty thousand pieces, and, as
I gather, the lady is to be your perquisite. But why should she be
your perquisite more than another's, seeing that she belongs by the
articles to all of us, as a prize of war?"

Black as thunder grew the brow of Levasseur.

"However," added Captain Blood, "I'll not dispute her to you if you
are prepared to buy her."

"Buy her?"

"At the price you have set upon her."

Levasseur contained his rage, that he might reason with the Irishman.
"That is the ransom of the man. It is to be paid for him by the
Governor of Tortuga."

"No, no. Ye've parcelled the twain together - very oddly, I
confess. Ye've set their value at twenty thousand pieces, and for
that sum you may have them, since you desire it; but you'll pay for
them the twenty thousand pieces that are ultimately to come to you
as the ransom of one and the dowry of the other; and that sum shall
be divided among our crews. So that you do that, it is conceivable
that our followers may take a lenient view of your breach of the
articles we jointly signed."

Levasseur laughed savagely. "Ah ca! Credieu! The good jest!"

"I quite agree with you," said Captain Blood.

To Levasseur the jest lay in that Captain Blood, with no more than
a dozen followers, should come there attempting to hector him who
had a hundred men within easy call. But it seemed that he had left
out of his reckoning something which his opponent had counted in.
For as, laughing still, Levasseur swung to his officers, he saw that
which choked the laughter in his throat. Captain Blood had shrewdly
played upon the cupidity that was the paramount inspiration of those
adventurers. And Levasseur now read clearly on their faces how
completely they adopted Captain Blood's suggestion that all must
participate in the ransom which their leader had thought to
appropriate to himself.

It gave the gaudy ruffian pause, and whilst in his heart he cursed
those followers of his, who could be faithful only to their greed,
he perceived - and only just in time - that he had best tread warily.

"You misunderstand," he said, swallowing his rage. "The ransom is
for division, when it comes. The girl, meanwhile, is mine on that
understanding."

"Good!" grunted Cahusac. "On that understanding all arranges
itself."

"You think so?" said Captain Blood. "But if M. d'Ogeron should
refuse to pay the ransom? What then?" He laughed, and got lazily
to his feet. "No, no. If Captain Levasseur is meanwhile to keep
the girl, as he proposes, then let him pay this ransom, and be
his the risk if it should afterwards not be forthcoming."

"That's it!" cried one of Levasseur's officers. And Cahusac added:
"It's reasonable, that! Captain Blood is right. It is in the
articles."

"What is in the articles, you fools?" Levasseur was in danger of
losing his head. "Sacre Dieu! Where do you suppose that I have
twenty thousand pieces? My whole share of the prizes of this
cruise does not come to half that sum. I'll be your debtor until
I've earned it. Will that content you?"

All things considered, there is not a doubt that it would have
done so had not Captain Blood intended otherwise.

"And if you should die before you have earned it? Ours is a calling
fraught with risks, my Captain."

"Damn you!" Levasseur flung upon him livid with fury. "Will nothing
satisfy you?"

"Oh, but yes. Twenty thousand pieces of eight for immediate
division."

"I haven't got it."

"Then let some one buy the prisoners who has."

"And who do you suppose has it if I have not?"

"I have," said Captain Blood.

"You have!" Levasseur's mouth fell open. "You ... you want the
girl?"

"Why not? And I exceed you in gallantry in that I will make
sacrifices to obtain her, and in honesty in that I am ready to pay
for what I want."

Levasseur stared at him foolishly agape. Behind him pressed his
officers, gaping also.

Captain Blood sat down again on the cask, and drew from an inner
pocket of his doublet a little leather bag. "I am glad to be
able to resolve a difficulty that at one moment seemed insoluble."
And under the bulging eyes of Levasseur and his officers, he
untied the mouth of the bag and rolled into his left palm four or
five pearls each of the size of a sparrow's egg. There were
twenty such in the bag, the very pick of those taken in that raid
upon the pearl fleet. "You boast a knowledge of pearls, Cahusac.
At what do you value this?"

The Breton took between coarse finger and thumb the proffered
lustrous, delicately iridescent sphere, his shrewd eyes appraising
it.

"A thousand pieces," he answered shortly.

"It will fetch rather more in Tortuga or Jamaica," said Captain
Blood, "and twice as much in Europe. But I'll accept your valuation.
They are almost of a size, as you can see. Here are twelve,
representing twelve thousand pieces of eight, which is La Foudre's
share of three fifths of the prize, as provided by the articles.
For the eight thousand pieces that go to the Arabella, I make
myself responsible to my own men. And now, Wolverstone, if you
please, will you take my property aboard the Arabella?" He stood
up again, indicating the prisoners.

"Ah, no!" Levasseur threw wide the floodgates of his fury. "Ah,
that, no, by example! You shall not take her ..." He would have
sprung upon Captain Blood, who stood aloof, alert, tight-lipped,
and watchful.

But it was one of Levasseur's own officers who hindered him.

"Nom de Dieu, my Captain! What will you do? It is settled;
honourably settled with satisfaction to all."

"To all?" blazed Levasseur. "Ah ca! To all of you, you animals!
But what of me?"

Cahusac, with the pearls clutched in his capacious hand, stepped up
to him on the other side. "Don't be a fool, Captain. Do you want
to provoke trouble between the crews? His men outnumber us by
nearly two to one. What's a girl more or less? In Heaven's name,
let her go. He's paid handsomely for her, and dealt fairly with us."

"Dealt fairly?" roared the infuriated Captain. "You ..." In all
his foul vocabulary he could find no epithet to describe his
lieutenant. He caught him a blow that almost sent him sprawling.
The pearls were scattered in the sand.

Cahusac dived after them, his fellows with him. Vengeance must
wait. For some moments they groped there on hands and knees,
oblivious of all else. And yet in those moments vital things were
happening.

Levasseur, his hand on his sword, his face a white mask of rage,
was confronting Captain Blood to hinder his departure.
=20
"You do not take her while I live!" he cried.

"Then I'll take her when you're dead," said Captain Blood, and his
own blade flashed in the sunlight. "The articles provide that any
man of whatever rank concealing any part of a prize, be it of the
value of no more than a peso, shall be hanged at the yardarm. It's
what I intended for you in the end. But since ye prefer it this
way, ye muckrake, faith, I'll be humouring you."

He waved away the men who would have interfered, and the blades
rang together.

M. d'Ogeron looked on, a man bemused, unable to surmise what the
issue either way could mean for him. Meanwhile, two of Blood's men
who had taken the place of the Frenchman's negro guards, had removed
the crown of whipcord from his brow. As for mademoiselle, she had
risen, and was leaning forward, a hand pressed tightly to her
heaving breast, her face deathly pale, a wild terror in her eyes.

It was soon over. The brute strength, upon which Levasseur so
confidently counted, could avail nothing against the Irishman's
practised skill. When, with both lungs transfixed, he lay prone
on the white sand, coughing out his rascally life, Captain Blood
looked calmly at Cahusac across the body.

"I think that cancels the articles between us," he said. With
soulless, cynical eyes Cahusac considered the twitching body of
his recent leader. Had Levasseur been a man of different temper,
the affair might have ended in a very different manner. But,
then, it is certain that Captain Blood would have adopted in
dealing with him different tactics. As it was, Levasseur commanded
neither love nor loyalty. The men who followed him were the very
dregs of that vile trade, and cupidity was their only inspiration.
Upon that cupidity Captain Blood had deftly played, until he had
brought them to find Levasseur guilty of the one offence they
deemed unpardonable, the crime of appropriating to himself something
which might be converted into gold and shared amongst them all.

Thus now the threatening mob of buccaneers that came hastening to
the theatre of that swift tragi-comedy were appeased by a dozen
words of Cahusac's.

Whilst still they hesitated, Blood added something to quicken their
decision.

"If you will come to our anchorage, you shall receive at once your
share of the booty of the "Santigo, that you may dispose of it as you
please."

They crossed the island, the two prisoners accompanying them, and
later that day, the division made, they would have parted company
but that Cahusac, at the instances of the men who had elected him
Levasseur's successor, offered Captain Blood anew the services of
that French contingent.

"If you will sail with me again," the Captain answered him, "you may
do so on the condition that you make your peace with the Dutch, and
restore the brig and her cargo."

The condition was accepted, and Captain Blood went off to find his
guests, the children of the Governor of Tortuga.

Mademoiselle d'Ogeron and her brother - the latter now relieved of
his bonds - sat in the great cabin of the Arabella, whither they
had been conducted.

Wine and food had been placed upon the table by Benjamin, Captain
Blood's negro steward and cook, who had intimated to them that it
was for their entertainment. But it had remained untouched.
Brother and sister sat there in agonized bewilderment, conceiving
that their escape was but from frying-pan to fire. At length,
overwrought by the suspense, mademoiselle flung herself upon her
knees before her brother to implore his pardon for all the evil
brought upon them by her wicked folly.

M. d'Ogeron was not in a forgiving mood.

"I am glad that at least you realize what you have done. And now
this other filibuster has bought you, and you belong to him. You
realize that, too, I hope."

He might have said more, but he checked upon perceiving that the
door was opening. Captain Blood, coming from settling matters with
the followers of Levasseur, stood on the threshold. M. d'Ogeron
had not troubled to restrain his high-pitched voice, and the Captain
had overheard the Frenchman's last two sentences. Therefore he
perfectly understood why mademoiselle should bound up at sight of
him, and shrink back in fear.

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