Captain Blood

or speed in a hot climate that man was Mr. James Nuttall, with his short, thin body, and his long, fleshless legs. So withered was he that it was ha

er Kent, a squat, bow-legged animal with the

or Blood," he anno

e," growled Kent. "What

not married, sir. It's

at

romptly upon the cue that Kent himself

l be somewhere else." And he took himself off. He was a surly, ungracious

d to go any way but the way that Kent had gone. He sped across the parched savannah towards the sugar plantation which stood solid as a rampart and gleaming golden in the dazzling June sunshine. Avenues intersected the great blocks of ripening amber cane. In the distance down one of these he espied some slaves at work. Nuttall entered the avenue and advanced upon them. They eyed him dully, as he passed them. Pitt was no

the side of the plantation farthest from the stockade, towards the dense woods that fringed it there. The oversee

; above and below he was naked, save for a broad hat of plaited straw that sheltered his unkempt golden head from the rays of the tropical sun. At sight of him Nuttall returned thanks aloud to his Maker. Pitt stared at him, and the sh

ve. "If it's Blood you're seeking,

. He forgot the jangled state of the other's nerves after a night of a

My God! that our lives should depend upon such a dummerhead. While you waste your time here, th

ereft of speech by such in

r had no hand in this affair.

in biscuit-coloured taffetas followed by two negroes in cotton drawers who were armed with cutl

the woods, thus doing the most foolish and betraying thing that in the circumstances

er the fugitive, and added horrible threats

ing hope that Colonel Bishop might not have seen his face; for the power and influence of

to remember the two negroes who followed at his heels like a brace of hounds. It was a bodyguard without which he nev

d at them. But as they started he chec

here ready to his hand, and Pitt should tell him the identity of his bashful friend, and also the subject of that close and secret talk he had disturbed. Pitt might, of cou

internal and external, and a pair of heady eyes that were alight with

y Pitt hung his head a little, and shifted uncomfortably on his bare feet. Vainly he grop

fell on the lad's naked sh

you dog! Wha

rly planter out of sull

iance aroused in him by a blow which he dared not, for his life's sake, return. His

en your wits." Again the cane descende

ave

his passion mastered him. "'Swounds! You impudent do

ever one that required much provocation. Brute fury now awoke in him. Fiercely now he lashed those defenceless shoulders, accompanying each blow by bl

coiled crushingly about the frail white body, and in a moment the unfortuna

, Bishop pondered him a moment.

h fearful eyes by his fellow-slaves at work there. Despair went with him. What torments might immediately await him he cared little, horrible though he knew they would be. T

au commanded a clear view from the fort on one side to the long sheds of the wharf on the other. Along this wharf a few shallow boats were moored, and Pitt ca

e that scarcely ruffled the sapphire surface of the Caribbean

spread no canvas to it beyond that of her foresail. Furled was her every other sail, leaving a clear view of the

ent rate of progress it would be an hour, perhaps, before she came to anchorage within the harbour. And whilst the Colonel viewed her, admiring, perhaps, th

d him presently, with

learn good manners at the cost of a striped hide," was

s if with relish, as if gratifying some feral instinct of cruelty, that he now lashed his victim about head and shoulders. Soon his cane was reduced, to splinters by his violence. You know, perhaps, th

y the stump and thongs to which his cane had been reduced, t

in a measure as from pain his senses were mercifully dulled, he sank forw

rossbar, and leaned over his victim, a

without meat or drink-without meat or drink, d' ye hear me?-until you please to tell me his name and business." He

, and strode out of the stoc

spent was he by his cruel punishment, and so deep was the despair into

are of the tropical sun, and its blistering rays streamed down upon that mangled, bleeding back until he felt as if flames of fire were searing it. And, so

ad not deemed it necessary to have recourse to other means of torture. Not all his fiendish cruelty could devis

l he was in danger of breaking his l

ies that were devouring Jeremy's back, he slung it by a strip of fibre from the lad's neck, so that it protected him from further attacks as well as from the rays of the sun. Next,

o his quivering lips. He drank greedily, noisily, nor ceased until he had dr

k!" he

; his lips were compressed. But when he parted

nce I've covered it up. I'm wanting to know what's happened to you. D' ye think we can do

. But this time his anguish w

igator will be neede

at?" cried

n a halting, gasping speech. "I'm to rot here until I

be contrived, nevertheless. To the devil with Nuttall! Whether he gives surety for the boat or

rates will confiscate the boat since the surety's not paid, even if when they press

oked out to sea over the blue water by which he had

re putting off from the wharf to board her. From where he stood, Mr. Blood could see the glinting of the brass cannons mounted on the prow ab

oused him from hi

vil are you

came striding into the stocka

countenance-which, indeed, by now was tanned to the

andly. "Why, the du

on the seat beside the prisoner, and the palmetto leaf protecting his back. "Have

r. Blood's tone was o

neither meat nor drin

, I never

should you have heard m

being murthered by the sun and the flies. And I says to myself, this is one of the Colonel's slaves, and I'm the Colonel's doctor, and sure it's my du

olonel was alm

red him. "It's an apoplexy ye'll be cont

precation, and stepping forward tore th

anity, now...." Mr.

commanded. "And don't come near him again until I send

y regarded by those light-blue eyes that looked so arrestingly odd in that tawny face-like pale sapphires set in copper-that this rogue had for some t

is sufferings, or I swear to you that I'll forsake at once the duties of a doctor,

Colonel was too ama

take that tone with me, you dog?

nto the Colonel's, and there was a devil peeping out of

h you," he said at last. "But that's to be mended." And he tightened his lips. "I'l

what would Govern

only doctor o

gout in his foot so bad that he can't stand? Ye know very well it's devil another

t so easily to be baulked. "If you're alive when my black

hunderclap drowned his voice and shook the very air. Colonel Bishop jumped, his negroes jumped with him

e her topmasts thrusting above a cloud of smoke in which she was enveloped. From the cliffs a flight of startle

the British Jack dip from the main truck and vanish into the rising cloud below. A moment more, and up through t

the Colonel, and

il his face was the colour of clay, and there was a wild fury in his beady e