Captain Blood

that Peter Blood never again met her there. Also his own visits were growing shorter in a measure as his patients healed. That they all throve and returned to health under his care, whilst fu

the practices of his free colleagues and a further increase of his own labours and his owner's profit. Whacker and Bronson laid the

usual, and so met Miss Bishop just issuing from the shed. He doffed his hat and stood aside to give her passa

aid he, on a coaxi

and looked him over with an air th

It's the delicate

opelessly beyond forgiven

ondesce

ed mock-humility. "After all, I am but a sla

t, t

g to send for me if you

he only doctor

the least

itting himself to rally her, and in a measure she had alrea

ree, I think,"

or's pr

emember it in future." And on that,

is it both?" he asked the blue vault

he younger of the other two physicians, joined him-an unprecedented condescension this,

tle way, Doctor Blood," said he. He was a short, broad man

startled. But

vernment Hou

ain. "She encroaches a deal upon your time, I hear. Youth and good looks, Doctor Blood! Youth and good looks

you seem to mean, you had better say

ly misapp

ope

be your friend-to serve you. Now, listen." Instinctively his voice grew lower. "This slaver

ardonic Mr. Blood. But the

I know a man when I see one, an

ne, you'll persuade me

d his voice to a still more confidential tone. His hard blue eyes peered up int

elf. The world is large. There are many nations besides England where a man of your parts would be warmly welcomed. There are many colonies besides these English ones." Lower still came the voice until it was no more than a whisper. Yet there was no one within earshot. "It

ttle out of breath. But his hard eyes co

er a pause. "What d

striving to calm it that he might take a proper survey of this thing flung into

for that a handsome su

hat I desired to

ter Blood at po

m to make for himself, Peter Blood pounced like a hawk upon the obvious truth. Whacker and his colleague desired to be rid of one who threatened to ruin them. Sluggishness of decisi

save Dr. Whacker's face he played the hypocrite. "It is very noble in you-very broth

ky voice grew tremulous as the

e, then?

be caught and brought back, they'd

ittle risk?" More tremulous th

than courage. It asks money. A sloop mig

all be a loan, which you shall

ed completed Blood's understanding. Th

ole. Quickly, but eloquently, Blood expressed h

o-morrow," he concluded. "You have

baldly. It was, indeed, as if a door had been suddenly flung open to the sunli

my Pitt. The first thing was to take counsel with the young shipmaster, who must be associated with him in this business if it were to be undertaken. All that day his mind was in turmoil with this new hope, and he was sick with impatience for night and a chance to discus

ep, come to my cabin. I hav

lethargy into which he had of late been lapsing as a result of the dehumanizi

nourishment, the excessive work on the sugar plantation under a pitiless sun, the lashes of the overseer's whip when his labours flagged, and the deadly, unrelieved animal life to which he was condemned. But the price he was paying for survival was the usual price. He was in danger of becoming no better tha

e took his head in his hands, a

bbering. He crossed to Pitt's side, and set a restraining hand upon his shoulder. "Fo

and its door was composed of bamboos, through which sound passed very easily. Though the stockade was locked for the night, and all within it asleep by now-it was

at least, a half-score if possible, but no more than that. They must pick the best out of that score of survivors of the Monmouth men that Colonel Bishop had acquired. Men who understood the sea were desirable. But of these there were only two in that un

ng his men very carefully before making anything in the nature of a disclosure, and even then avoid rendering that disclosure so full that its betrayal might frustrate the p

lowly, goes safely, as the Italians have it. And remember that if you betray yourself, you

ff back to his own hut and the

ance the convict any sum up to thirty pounds that would enable him to acquire a boat capable of taking him away from the settlem

For who will be selling me a boat and incurring the penalties

And I dare not procure the boat for you. It would be discovered. It must be. And the penal

began to shrink. And the shadow

ltered. "There is n

ips. "I've thought of it. You will see that the man who buys the boat must be one

ave men in my own case? Wha

and would be glad enough to spread their wings. There's a fellow Nuttall, now, who follows the t

e with money to buy a boat?

u contrive shrewdly, you'll al

octor, setting a hand upon his sleeve

riends in England-relatives, perhaps-who sent it out to you through the agency of one of your Bridgetown patients, whose name

Blood nodded understanding and ass

t should be a very useful member of your crew. You engage him to discover a likely sloop whose owner is disposed to sell. Then let your preparations all

as disposed to the business as Dr. Whacker had predicted. When he left the shipwright, it was a

that he had found a serviceable wherry, and that its owner was disposed to sell it for twenty-two pounds. That evening, on the beach, remote from all eyes, Peter Blood handed that sum to his new associate, and

ckade, all was likewise in readiness. Hagthorpe, Dyke, and Ogle had agreed to join the venture, and eight others had been carefully recruited. In Pitt's hut, which he shared with five other rebels-convict, all of whom were to join in this bid for liberty, a ladder had been constructed in secret during those nights of waiting. With this they were to surmount the stockade and gain the open. The risk of d

a day of hope and anxiety to the twelve associates in t

er Blood came sauntering towards the stockade, just as the slaves were being driven in from the fields. He stood aside a

ective huts, he beheld Colonel Bishop in talk with Kent, the overseer. The pair were standing b

been this while?" he bawled, and although a minatory note was normal to

e answered. "Mrs. Patch has a fever a

my fine fellow. We shall have to quicken you one of these days unless you ceas

" said Blood, who never cou

ll you be p

s that from the huts surrounding the enclosure anxious ears

I am sorry I should

nded horse, and you nowhere to be found. Be off, man-away with you at speed to Government House! Y

unfortunate; but after all not beyond remedy. The escape was set for midnight, and he should e

the stockade, sir?" h

ey've done with you at Government House, they

rt sank like a st

." he

waiting for you." And with his cane Colonel Bishop slashed the horse's quar

ponement of the escape at least until to-morrow night was necessary now, and postponement must mean

Pitt and the others his presence, and so have them join him that their project might still be carried out. But in this he reckoned without th

ittle by a bleeding. Thereupon he would have withdrawn. But Steed would not hear of it. Blood must sleep in his own chamber to b

g a temporary escape from Government House on the ground that he required

found in a state of livid panic. The unfortunate debtor, who had sat up waiting through the night, co

more assurance than he felt, "if I have to blee

Nuttall. He was a thin, pale, small-featured,

. I can stay no longer." And Peter went off

f the rebels-convict-duly reported the sale at the Secretary's office, so that he might obtain the reimbursement of the ten-pound surety into which every kee

bought a wherry from Mr. Robe

who conceived that for him t

the same at the Secretary's office." The em

yes blinked at a

to decl

w it's

n't, may it

roclamation publis

ead, sir. I...

enger withered hi

at the Secretary's office before noon with the ten

ch a fool as to listen to Peter Blood's chatter of escape. He thought it very likely that the whole plot would be discovered, and that he would probably be hanged, or at least branded and sold into slavery like those other damned rebels-convict, with whom he had been so mad as to associate himself. If only he had the ten pounds for this infernal surety, which until this moment had never entered into their calcul

if they had seen Dr. Blood that morning. He affected to be feeling none so well, and indeed his appearance bore out the deception. None could give him information; and since Blood

not, Nuttall would find Pitt, and leave a message with him. He was acquainted with Pitt and knew of Pit

Government House at last, having so far eased the Governor's condition as to be permitted to depart. Being mounted, he would, but for an unexpected delay, have

him his freedom of movement had sufficed to remove the depression under which he had been labouring for the past twelve hours and more. In its rebound the mercury of his mood had shot higher far than present circumstances warranted. He was disposed to be

od spirits were also shared by Miss Bishop, and that she bore no rancour. The tw

him pleasantly. "It's close up

the hour," said he.

eginning to be

hank you for

wre

grave," he

at him gravely, remembering that it was his rallying

go mad," said he. "Few realize it. That is

will, sir. But sometimes I think yo

I laugh only at the comic, a

en?" she asked

fresh to behold, so entirely maidenly

owns me his slave." But he spoke lightly. So

sion. You shall answer me

ly! Oh, well, now, I should say of you that he'll be lucky who counts

ou've a nice taste in compliments,

another would have said? Don'

k you don't. Anyway, you don't know your fellow

never f

ev

ere no good in me at all that y

veral t

, now?" He wa

excellent

" He sank bac

earn it? Have yo

as two years in a

ted apprehensions in which h

ed. "I was taken fighting with the

a doctor!"

brought me no great gear, but it served me better than medicine, which, as you may observe, has brought me into

be a soldier, and t

y, and the Colonel will be expecting my return." She was not in that way to be defrauded of her entertainment. If he woul

ch apparently intimate terms with his owner's niece. One or two may have promised themselves that they would drop a hint to the Colonel. But the two rode oblivious of all others i

d dismounted, Peter Blood surrendering his nag to one of the negro g

ngered a moment,

and there was a suspicion of moisture in those clear hazel ey

ence could it hav

u have been very h

from under his level black brows. "It might have been worse," he said, with a sign

with him, tinted with a rising blush and a sudden unusual shyness. He forgot in that little moment that he was a rebel-convict with ten years of slavery before him; he forg