CHAPTER XXI. THE SERVICE OF KING JAMES
Miss Arabella Bishop was aroused very early on the following morning bythe brazen voice of a bugle and the insistent clanging of a bell in theship's belfry. As she lay awake, idly watching the rippled green waterthat appeared to be streaming past the heavily glazed porthole, shebecame gradually aware of the sounds of swift, laboured bustle--theclatter of many feet, the shouts of hoarse voices, and the persistenttrundlings of heavy bodies in the ward-room immediately below the deckof the cabin. Conceiving these sounds to portend a more than normalactivity, she sat up, pervaded by a vague alarm, and roused her stillslumbering woman.
In his cabin on the starboard side Lord Julian, disturbed by the samesounds, was already astir and hurriedly dressing. When presently heemerged under the break of the poop, he found himself staring up intoa mountain of canvas. Every foot of sail that she could carry had beencrowded to the Arabella's yards, to catch the morning breeze. Aheadand on either side stretched the limitless expanse of ocean, sparklinggolden in the sun, as yet no more than a half-disc of flame upon thehorizon straight ahead.
About him in the waist, where all last night had been so peaceful, therewas a frenziedly active bustle of some threescore men. By the rail,immediately above and behind Lord Julian, stood Captain Blood inaltercation with a one-eyed giant, whose head was swathed in a redcotton kerchief, whose blue shirt hung open at the waist. As hislordship, moving forward, revealed himself, their voices ceased, andBlood turned to greet him.
"Good-morning to you," he said, and added "I've blundered badly, so Ihave. I should have known better than to come so close to Jamaica bynight. But I was in haste to land you. Come up here. I have something toshow you."
Wondering, Lord Julian mounted the companion as he was bidden. Standingbeside Captain Blood, he looked astern, following the indication of theCaptain's hand, and cried out in his amazement. There, not more thanthree miles away, was land--an uneven wall of vivid green that filledthe western horizon. And a couple of miles this side of it, bearingafter them, came speeding three great white ships.
"They fly no colours, but they're part of the Jamaica fleet." Bloodspoke without excitement, almost with a certain listlessness. "When dawnbroke we found ourselves running to meet them. We went about, and it'sbeen a race ever since. But the Arabella 's been at sea these fourmonths, and her bottom's too foul for the speed we're needing."
Wolverstone hooked his thumbs into his broad leather belt, and from hisgreat height looked down sardonically upon Lord Julian, tall man thoughhis lordship was. "So that you're like to be in yet another sea-fightafore ye've done wi' ships, my lord."
"That's a point we were just arguing," said Blood. "For I hold thatwe're in no case to fight against such odds."
"The odds be damned!" Wolverstone thrust out his heavy jowl. "We're usedto odds. The odds was heavier at Maracaybo; yet we won out, and tookthree ships. They was heavier yesterday when we engaged Don Miguel."
"Aye--but those were Spaniards."
"And what better are these?--Are ye afeard of a lubberly Barbadosplanter? Whatever ails you, Peter? I've never known ye scared afore."
A gun boomed out behind them.
"That'll be the signal to lie to," said Blood, in the same listlessvoice; and he fetched a sigh.
Wolverstone squared himself defiantly before his captain
"I'll see Colonel Bishop in hell or ever I lies to for him." And hespat, presumably for purposes of emphasis.
His lordship intervened.
"Oh, but--by your leave--surely there is nothing to be apprehended fromColonel Bishop. Considering the service you have rendered to his nieceand to me...."
Wolverstone's horse-laugh interrupted him. "Hark to the gentleman!" hemocked. "Ye don't know Colonel Bishop, that's clear. Not for his niece,not for his daughter, not for his own mother, would he forgo the bloodwhat he thinks due to him. A drinker of blood, he is. A nasty beast. Weknows, the Cap'n and me. We been his slaves."
"But there is myself," said Lord Julian, with great dignity.
Wolverstone laughed again, whereat his lordship flushed. He was moved toraise his voice above its usual languid level.
"I assure you that my word counts for something in England."
"Oh, aye--in England. But this ain't England, damme."
Came the roar of a second gun, and a round shot splashed the water lessthan half a cable's-length astern. Blood leaned over the rail to speakto the fair young man immediately below him by the helmsman at thewhipstaff.
"Bid them take in sail, Jeremy," he said quietly. "We lie to."
But Wolverstone interposed again.
"Hold there a moment, Jeremy!" he roared. "Wait!" He swung back to facethe Captain, who had placed a hand on is shoulder and was smiling, atrifle wistfully.
"Steady, Old Wolf! Steady!" Captain Blood admonished him.
"Steady, yourself, Peter. Ye've gone mad! Will ye doom us all to hellout 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 thatcursed petticoat's making a coward of you. It's for her that ye'reafeard--and she, Colonel Bishop's niece! My God, man, ye'll have amutiny aboard, and I'll lead it myself sooner than surrender to behanged in Port Royal."
Their glances met, sullen defiance braving dull anger, surprise, andpain.
"There is no question," said Blood, "of surrender for any man aboardsave only myself. If Bishop can report to England that I am takenand hanged, he will magnify himself and at the same time gratify hispersonal rancour against me. That should satisfy him. I'll send him amessage offering to surrender aboard his ship, taking Miss Bishop andLord Julian with me, but only on condition that the Arabella is allowedto proceed unharmed. It's a bargain that he'll accept, if I know him atall."
"It's a bargain he'll never be offered," retorted Wolverstone, and hisearlier vehemence was as nothing to his vehemence now. "Ye're surelydaft even to think of it, Peter!"
"Not so daft as you when you talk of fighting that." He flung out an armas he spoke to indicate the pursuing ships, which were slowly but surelycreeping nearer. "Before we've run another half-mile we shall be withinrange."
Wolverstone swore elaborately, then suddenly checked. Out of the tailof his single eye he had espied a trim figure in grey silk that wasascending the companion. So engrossed had they been that they had notseen Miss Bishop come from the door of the passage leading to the cabin.And there was something else that those three men on the poop, and Pittimmediately below them, had failed to observe. Some moments ago Ogle,followed by the main body of his gun-deck crew, had emerged from thebooby hatch, to fall into muttered, angrily vehement talk with thosewho, abandoning the gun-tackles upon which they were labouring, had cometo crowd about him.
Even now Blood had no eyes for that. He turned to look at Miss Bishop,marvelling a little, after the manner in which yesterday she had avoidedhim, that she should now venture upon the quarter-deck. Her presenceat this moment, and considering the nature of his altercation withWolverstone, was embarrassing.
Very sweet and dainty she stood before him in her gown of shimmeringgrey, a faint excitement tinting her fair cheeks and sparkling in herclear, hazel eyes, that looked so frank and honest. She wore no hat,and the ringlets of her gold-brown hair fluttered distractingly in themorning breeze.
Captain Blood bared his head and bowed silently in a greeting which shereturned composedly and formally.
"What is happening, Lord Julian?" she enquired.
As if to answer her a third gun spoke from the ships towards which shewas looking intent and wonderingly. A frown rumpled her brow. She lookedfrom one to the other of the men who stood there so glum and obviouslyill at ease.
"They are ships of the Jamaica fleet," his lordship answered her.
It should in any case have been a sufficient explanation. But beforemore could be added, their attention was drawn at last to Ogle, who camebounding up the broad l
adder, and to the men lounging aft in his wake,in all of which, instinctively, they apprehended a vague menace.
At the head of the companion, Ogle found his progress barred by Blood,who confronted him, a sudden sternness in his face and in every line ofhim.
"What's this?" the Captain demanded sharply. "Your station is on thegun-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 thatwas the secret of the Captain's rule over his wild followers. But itgave no pause to the gunner's intention. If anything it increased hisexcitement.
"Captain," he said, and as he spoke he pointed to the pursuing ships,"Colonel Bishop holds us. We're in no case either to run or fight."
Blood's height seemed to increase, as did his sternness.
"Ogle," said he, in a voice cold and sharp as steel, "your station is onthe gun-deck. You'll return to it at once, and take your crew with you,or else...."
But Ogle, violent of mien and gesture, interrupted him.
"Threats will not serve, Captain."
"Will they not?"
It was the first time in his buccaneering career that an order of hishad been disregarded, or that a man had failed in the obedience to whichhe pledged all those who joined him. That this insubordination shouldproceed from one of those whom he most trusted, one of his old Barbadosassociates, was in itself a bitterness, and made him reluctant to thatwhich instinct told him must be done. His hand closed over the butt ofone of the pistols slung before him.
"Nor will that serve you," Ogle warned him, still more fiercely. "Themen are of my thinking, and they'll have their way."
"And what way may that be?"
"The way to make us safe. We'll neither sink nor hang whiles we can helpit."
From the three or four score men massed below in the waist came a rumbleof approval. Captain Blood's glance raked the ranks of those resolute,fierce-eyed fellows, then it came to rest again on Ogle. There was herequite plainly a vague threat, a mutinous spirit he could not understand."You come to give advice, then, do you?" quoth he, relenting nothing ofhis sternness.
"That's it, Captain; advice. That girl, there." He flung out a bare armto point to her. "Bishop's girl; the Governor of Jamaica's niece.... Wewant her as a hostage for our safety."
"Aye!" roared in chorus the buccaneers below, and one or two of themelaborated that affirmation.
In a flash Captain Blood saw what was in their minds. And for all thathe lost nothing of his outward stern composure, fear invaded his heart.
"And how," he asked, "do you imagine that Miss Bishop will prove such ahostage?"
"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 them know that if they attempt to hinder our sailing hence,we'll hang the doxy first and fight for it after. That'll cool ColonelBishop's heat, maybe."
"And maybe it won't." Slow and mocking came Wolverstone's voice toanswer the other's confident excitement, and as he spoke he advancedto Blood's side, an unexpected ally. "Some o' them dawcocks may believethat tale." He jerked a contemptuous thumb towards the men in the waist,whose ranks were steadily being increased by the advent of others fromthe forecastle. "Although even some o' they should know better, forthere's still a few was on Barbados with us, and are acquainted likeme and you with Colonel Bishop. If ye're counting on pulling Bishop'sheartstrings, ye're a bigger fool, Ogle, than I've always thought youwas with anything but guns. There's no heaving to for such a matter asthat unless you wants to make quite sure of our being sunk. Though wehad a cargo of Bishop's nieces it wouldn't make him hold his hand.Why, as I was just telling his lordship here, who thought like you thathaving Miss Bishop aboard would make us safe, not for his mother wouldthat filthy slaver forgo what's due to him. And if ye' weren't a fool,Ogle, you wouldn't need me to tell you this. We've got to fight, mylads...."
"How can we fight, man?" Ogle stormed at him, furiously battling theconviction which Wolverstone's argument was imposing upon his listeners."You may be right, and you may be wrong. We've got to chance it. It'sour only chance...."
The rest of his words were drowned in the shouts of the hands insistingthat the girl be given up to be held as a hostage. And then louder thanbefore roared a gun away to leeward, and away on their starboard beamthey saw the spray flung up by the shot, which had gone wide.
"They are within range," cried Ogle. And leaning from the rail, "Putdown the helm," he commanded.
Pitt, at his post beside the helmsman, turned intrepidly to face theexcited gunner.
"Since when have you commanded on the main deck, Ogle? I take my ordersfrom the Captain."
"You'll take this order from me, or, by God, you'll...."
"Wait!" Blood bade him, interrupting, and he set a restraining hand uponthe gunner's arm. "There is, I think, a better way."
He looked over his shoulder, aft, at the advancing ships, the foremostof which was now a bare quarter of a mile away. His glance swept inpassing over Miss Bishop and Lord Julian standing side by side somepaces behind him. He observed her pale and tense, with parted lipsand startled eyes that were fixed upon him, an anxious witness of thisdeciding of her fate. He was thinking swiftly, reckoning the chancesif by pistolling Ogle he were to provoke a mutiny. That some of the menwould rally to him, he was sure. But he was no less sure that the mainbody would oppose him, and prevail in spite of all that he could do,taking the chance that holding Miss Bishop to ransom seemed to affordthem. And if they did that, one way or the other, Miss Bishop would belost. For even if Bishop yielded to their demand, they would retain heras a hostage.
Meanwhile Ogle was growing impatient. His arm still gripped by Blood, hethrust his face into the Captain's.
"What better way?" he demanded. "There is none better. I'll not bebubbled by what Wolverstone has said. He may be right, and he may bewrong. We'll test it. It's our only chance, I've said, and we must takeit."
The better way that was in Captain Blood's mind was the way that alreadyhe had proposed to Wolverstone. Whether the men in the panic Ogle hadaroused among them would take a different view from Wolverstone's hedid not know. But he saw quite clearly now that if they consented, theywould not on that account depart from their intention in the matterof Miss Bishop; they would make of Blood's own surrender merely anadditional card in this game against the Governor of Jamaica.
"It's through her that we're in this trap," Ogle stormed on. "Throughher and through you. It was to bring her to Jamaica that you risked allour lives, and we're not going to lose our lives as long as there's achance to make ourselves safe through her."
He was turning again to the helmsman below, when Blood's grip tightenedon his arm. Ogle wrenched it free, with an oath. But Blood's mind wasnow made up. He had found the only way, and repellent though it might beto him, he must take it.
"That is a desperate chance," he cried. "Mine is the safe and easyway. Wait!" He leaned over the rail. "Put the helm down," he bade Pitt."Heave her to, and signal to them to send a boat."
A silence of astonishment fell upon the ship--of astonishment andsuspicion at this sudden yielding. But Pitt, although he shared it, wasprompt to obey. His voice rang out, giving the necessary orders, andafter an instant's pause, a score of hands sprang to execute them.Came the creak of blocks and the rattle of slatting sails as they swungaweather, and Captain Blood turned and beckoned Lord Julian forward.His lordship, after a moment's hesitation, advanced in surprise andmistrust--a mistrust shared by Miss Bishop, who, like his lordship andall else aboard, though in a different way, had been taken aback byBlood's sudden submission to the demand to lie to.
Standing now at the rail, with Lord Julian beside him, Captain Bloodexplained himself.
Briefly and clearly he announced to all the object of Lord Julian'svoyage to the Caribbean, and he informed them of the offer whichyesterday Lord Julian had made to him.
"That offer
I rejected, as his lordship will tell you, deeming myselfaffronted by it. Those of you who have suffered under the rule of KingJames will understand me. But now in the desperate case in which we findourselves--outsailed, and likely to be outfought, as Ogle has said--Iam ready to take the way of Morgan: to accept the King's commission andshelter us all behind it."
It was a thunderbolt that for a moment left them all dazed. Then Babelwas reenacted. The main body of them welcomed the announcement as onlymen who have been preparing to die can welcome a new lease of life. Butmany could not resolve one way or the other until they were satisfiedupon several questions, and chiefly upon one which was voiced by Ogle.
"Will Bishop respect the commission when you hold it?"
It was Lord Julian who answered:
"It will go very hard with him if he attempts to flout the King'sauthority. And though he should dare attempt it, be sure that his ownofficers will not dare to do other than oppose him."
"Aye," said Ogle, "that is true."
But there were some who were still in open and frank revolt against thecourse. Of these was Wolverstone, who at once proclaimed his hostility.
"I'll rot in hell or ever I serves the King," he bawled in a great rage.
But Blood quieted him and those who thought as he did.
"No man need follow me into the King's service who is reluctant. That isnot in the bargain. What is in the bargain is that I accept this servicewith such of you as may choose to follow me. Don't think I accept itwillingly. For myself, I am entirely of Wolverstone's opinion. I acceptit as the only way to save us all from the certain destruction intowhich my own act may have brought us. And even those of you who donot choose to follow me shall share the immunity of all, and shallafterwards be free to depart. Those are the terms upon which I sellmyself to the King. Let Lord Julian, the representative of the Secretaryof State, say whether he agrees to them."
Prompt, eager, and clear came his lordship's agreement. And thatwas practically the end of the matter. Lord Julian, the butt now ofgood-humouredly ribald jests and half-derisive acclamations, plungedaway to his cabin for the commission, secretly rejoicing at a turn ofevents which enabled him so creditably to discharge the business onwhich he had been sent.
Meanwhile the bo'sun signalled to the Jamaica ships to send a boat, andthe men in the waist broke their ranks and went noisily flocking to linethe bulwarks and view the great stately vessels that were racing downtowards them.
As Ogle left the quarter-deck, Blood turned, and came face to face withMiss Bishop. She had been observing him with shining eyes, but at sightof his dejected countenance, and the deep frown that scarred hisbrow, her own expression changed. She approached him with a hesitationentirely unusual to her. She set a hand lightly upon his arm.
"You have chosen wisely, sir," she commended him, "however much againstyour inclinations."
He looked with gloomy eyes upon her for whom he had made this sacrifice.
"I owed it to you--or thought I did," he said.
She did not understand. "Your resolve delivered me from a horribledanger," she admitted. And she shivered at the memory of it. "But I donot understand why you should have hesitated when first it was proposedto you. It is an honourable service."
"King James's?" he sneered.
"England's," she corrected him in reproof. "The country is all, sir;the sovereign naught. King James will pass; others will come and pass;England remains, to be honourably served by her sons, whatever rancourthey may hold against the man who rules her in their time."
He showed some surprise. Then he smiled a little. "Shrewd advocacy," heapproved it. "You should have spoken to the crew."
And then, the note of irony deepening in his voice: "Do you suppose nowthat this honourable service might redeem one who was a pirate and athief?"
Her glance fell away. Her voice faltered a little in replying. "If he...needs redeeming. Perhaps... perhaps he has been judged too harshly."
The blue eyes flashed, and the firm lips relaxed their grim set.
"Why... if ye think that," he said, considering her, an odd hunger inhis glance, "life might have its uses, after all, and even the serviceof King James might become tolerable."
Looking beyond her, across the water, he observed a boat putting offfrom one of the great ships, which, hove to now, were rocking gentlysome three hundred yards away. Abruptly his manner changed. He was likeone recovering, taking himself in hand again. "If you will go below, andget your gear and your woman, you shall presently be sent aboard one ofthe ships of the fleet." He pointed to the boat as he spoke.
She left him, and thereafter with Wolverstone, leaning upon the rail,he watched the approach of that boat, manned by a dozen sailors, andcommanded by a scarlet figure seated stiffly in the stern sheets. Helevelled his telescope upon that figure.
"It'll not be Bishop himself," said Wolverstone, between question andassertion.
"No." Blood closed his telescope. "I don't know who it is."
"Ha!" Wolverstone vented an ejaculation of sneering mirth. "For allhis eagerness, Bishop'd be none so willing to come, hisself. He's beenaboard this hulk afore, and we made him swim for it that time. He'llhave his memories. So he sends a deputy."
This deputy proved to be an officer named Calverley, a vigorous,self-sufficient fellow, comparatively fresh from England, whose mannermade it clear that he came fully instructed by Colonel Bishop upon thematter of how to handle the pirates.
His air, as he stepped into the waist of the Arabella, was haughty,truculent, and disdainful.
Blood, the King's commission now in his pocket, and Lord Julian standingbeside him, waited to receive him, and Captain Calverley was a littletaken aback at finding himself confronted by two men so very differentoutwardly from anything that he had expected. But he lost none of hishaughty poise, and scarcely deigned a glance at the swarm of fierce,half-naked fellows lounging in a semicircle to form a background.
"Good-day to you, sir," Blood hailed him pleasantly. "I have the honourto give you welcome aboard the Arabella. My name is Blood--CaptainBlood, at your service. You may have heard of me."
Captain Calverley stared hard. The airy manner of this redoubtablebuccaneer was hardly what he had looked for in a desperate fellow,compelled to ignominious surrender. A thin, sour smile broke on theofficer's haughty lips.
"You'll ruffle it to the gallows, no doubt," he said contemptuously."I suppose that is after the fashion of your kind. Meanwhile it's yoursurrender I require, my man, not your impudence."
Captain Blood appeared surprised, pained. He turned in appeal to LordJulian.
"D'ye hear that now? And did ye ever hear the like? But what did I tellye? Ye see, the young gentleman's under a misapprehension entirely.Perhaps it'll save broken bones if your lordship explains just who andwhat I am."
Lord Julian advanced a step and bowed perfunctorily and ratherdisdainfully to that very disdainful but now dumbfounded officer. Pitt,who watched the scene from the quarter-deck rail, tells us that hislordship was as grave as a parson at a hanging. But I suspect thisgravity for a mask under which Lord Julian was secretly amused.
"I have the honour to inform you, sir," he said stiffly, "that CaptainBlood holds a commission in the King's service under the seal of my LordSunderland, His Majesty's Secretary of State."
Captain Calverley's face empurpled; his eyes bulged. The buccaneers inthe background chuckled and crowed and swore among themselves in theirrelish of this comedy. For a long moment Calverley stared in silenceat his lordship, observing the costly elegance of his dress, his air ofcalm assurance, and his cold, fastidious speech, all of which savoureddistinctly of the great world to which he belonged.
"And who the devil may you be?" he exploded at last.
Colder still and more distant than ever grew his lordship's voice.
"You're not very civil, sir, as I have already noticed. My name isWade--Lord Julian Wade. I am His Majesty's envoy to these barbarousparts, and my Lord Sunderland's near kinsman. Colone
l Bishop has beennotified of my coming."
The sudden change in Calverley's manner at Lord Julian's mention of hisname showed that the notification had been received, and that he hadknowledge of it.
"I... I believe that he has," said Calverley, between doubt andsuspicion. "That is: that he has been notified of the coming of LordJulian Wade. But... but... aboard this ship...?" The officer made agesture of helplessness, and, surrendering to his bewilderment, fellabruptly silent.
"I was coming out on the Royal Mary...."
"That is what we were advised."
"But the Royal Mary fell a victim to a Spanish privateer, and I mightnever have arrived at all but for the gallantry of Captain Blood, whorescued me."
Light broke upon the darkness of Calverley's mind. "I see. Iunderstand."
"I will take leave to doubt it." His lordship's tone abated nothing ofits asperity. "But that can wait. If Captain Blood will show youhis commission, perhaps that will set all doubts at rest, and we mayproceed. I shall be glad to reach Port Royal."
Captain Blood thrust a parchment under Calverley's bulging eyes. Theofficer scanned it, particularly the seals and signature. He steppedback, a baffled, impotent man. He bowed helplessly.
"I must return to Colonel Bishop for my orders," he informed them.
At that moment a lane was opened in the ranks of the men, and throughthis came Miss Bishop followed by her octoroon woman. Over his shoulderCaptain Blood observed her approach.
"Perhaps, since Colonel Bishop is with you, you will convey his nieceto him. Miss Bishop was aboard the Royal Mary also, and I rescued hertogether with his lordship. She will be able to acquaint her uncle withthe details of that and of the present state of affairs."
Swept thus from surprise to surprise, Captain Calverley could do no morethan bow again.
"As for me," said Lord Julian, with intent to make Miss Bishop'sdeparture free from all interference on the part of the buccaneers,"I shall remain aboard the Arabella until we reach Port Royal. Mycompliments to Colonel Bishop. Say that I look forward to making hisacquaintance there."
Captain Blood Page 21
