Captain Blood

by Rafael Sabatini

  CHAPTER XI. FILIAL PIETY

  By virtue of the pledge he had given, Don Diego de Espinosa enjoyed thefreedom of the ship that had been his, and the navigation which he hadundertaken was left entirely in his hands. And because those who mannedher were new to the seas of the Spanish Main, and because even thethings that had happened in Bridgetown were not enough to teach them toregard every Spaniard as a treacherous, cruel dog to be slain at sight,they used him with the civility which his own suave urbanity invited.He took his meals in the great cabin with Blood and the three officerselected to support him: Hagthorpe, Wolverstone, and Dyke.

  They found Don Diego an agreeable, even an amusing companion, and theirfriendly feeling towards him was fostered by his fortitude and braveequanimity in this adversity.

  That Don Diego was not playing fair it was impossible to suspect.Moreover, there was no conceivable reason why he should not. And he hadbeen of the utmost frankness with them. He had denounced their mistakein sailing before the wind upon leaving Barbados. They should have leftthe island to leeward, heading into the Caribbean and away from thearchipelago. As it was, they would now be forced to pass through thisarchipelago again so as to make Curacao, and this passage was not to beaccomplished without some measure of risk to themselves. At any pointbetween the islands they might come upon an equal or superior craft;whether she were Spanish or English would be equally bad for them, andbeing undermanned they were in no case to fight. To lessen this riskas far as possible, Don Diego directed at first a southerly and thena westerly course; and so, taking a line midway between the islands ofTobago and Grenada, they won safely through the danger-zone and cameinto the comparative security of the Caribbean Sea.

  "If this wind holds," he told them that night at supper, after he hadannounced to them their position, "we should reach Curacao inside threedays."

  For three days the wind held, indeed it freshened a little on thesecond, and yet when the third night descended upon them they had stillmade no landfall. The Cinco Llagas was ploughing through a sea containedon every side by the blue bowl of heaven. Captain Blood uneasilymentioned it to Don Diego.

  "It will be for to-morrow morning," he was answered with calmconviction.

  "By all the saints, it is always 'to-morrow morning' with you Spaniards;and to-morrow never comes, my friend."

  "But this to-morrow is coming, rest assured. However early you may beastir, you shall see land ahead, Don Pedro."

  Captain Blood passed on, content, and went to visit Jerry Pitt, hispatient, to whose condition Don Diego owed his chance of life. Fortwenty-four hours now the fever had left the sufferer, and underPeter Blood's dressings, his lacerated back was beginning to healsatisfactorily. So far, indeed, was he recovered that he complained ofhis confinement, of the heat in his cabin. To indulge him Captain Bloodconsented that he should take the air on deck, and so, as the last ofthe daylight was fading from the sky, Jeremy Pitt came forth upon theCaptain's arm.

  Seated on the hatch-coamings, the Somersetshire lad gratefully filledhis lungs with the cool night air, and professed himself revivedthereby. Then with the seaman's instinct his eyes wandered to thedarkling vault of heaven, spangled already with a myriad golden pointsof light. Awhile he scanned it idly, vacantly; then, his attentionbecame sharply fixed. He looked round and up at Captain Blood, who stoodbeside him.

  "D'ye know anything of astronomy, Peter?" quoth he.

  "Astronomy, is it? Faith, now, I couldn't tell the Belt of Orion fromthe Girdle of Venus."

  "Ah! And I suppose all the others of this lubberly crew share yourignorance."

  "It would be more amiable of you to suppose that they exceed it."

  Jeremy pointed ahead to a spot of light in the heavens over thestarboard bow. "That is the North Star," said he.

  "Is it now? Glory be, I wonder ye can pick it out from the rest."

  "And the North Star ahead almost over your starboard bow means thatwe're steering a course, north, northwest, or maybe north by west, for Idoubt if we are standing more than ten degrees westward."

  "And why shouldn't we?" wondered Captain Blood.

  "You told me--didn't you?--that we came west of the archipelago betweenTobago and Grenada, steering for Curacao. If that were our presentcourse, we should have the North Star abeam, out yonder."

  On the instant Mr. Blood shed his laziness. He stiffened withapprehension, and was about to speak when a shaft of light clove thegloom above their heads, coming from the door of the poop cabin whichhad just been opened. It closed again, and presently there was a stepon the companion. Don Diego was approaching. Captain Blood's fingerspressed Jerry's shoulder with significance. Then he called the Don,and spoke to him in English as had become his custom when others werepresent.

  "Will ye settle a slight dispute for us, Don Diego?" said he lightly."We are arguing, Mr. Pitt and I, as to which is the North Star."

  "So?" The Spaniard's tone was easy; there was almost a suggestion thatlaughter lurked behind it, and the reason for this was yielded by hisnext sentence. "But you tell me Mr. Pitt he is your navigant?"

  "For lack of a better," laughed the Captain, good-humouredlycontemptuous. "Now I am ready to wager him a hundred pieces of eightthat that is the North Star." And he flung out an arm towards a pointof light in the heavens straight abeam. He afterwards told Pitt thathad Don Diego confirmed him, he would have run him through upon thatinstant. Far from that, however, the Spaniard freely expressed hisscorn.

  "You have the assurance that is of ignorance, Don Pedro; and you lose.The North Star is this one." And he indicated it.

  "You are sure?"

  "But my dear Don Pedro!" The Spaniard's tone was one of amused protest."But is it possible that I mistake? Besides, is there not the compass?Come to the binnacle and see there what course we make."

  His utter frankness, and the easy manner of one who has nothing toconceal resolved at once the doubt that had leapt so suddenly in themind of Captain Blood. Pitt was satisfied less easily.

  "In that case, Don Diego, will you tell me, since Curacao is ourdestination, why our course is what it is?"

  Again there was no faintest hesitation on Don Diego's part. "You havereason to ask," said he, and sighed. "I had hope' it would not beobserve'. I have been careless--oh, of a carelessness very culpable. Ineglect observation. Always it is my way. I make too sure. I count toomuch on dead reckoning. And so to-day I find when at last I take outthe quadrant that we do come by a half-degree too much south, so thatCuracao is now almost due north. That is what cause the delay. But wewill be there to-morrow."

  The explanation, so completely satisfactory, and so readily and candidlyforthcoming, left no room for further doubt that Don Diego should havebeen false to his parole. And when presently Don Diego had withdrawnagain, Captain Blood confessed to Pitt that it was absurd to havesuspected him. Whatever his antecedents, he had proved his quality whenhe announced himself ready to die sooner than enter into any undertakingthat could hurt his honour or his country.

  New to the seas of the Spanish Main and to the ways of the adventurerswho sailed it, Captain Blood still entertained illusions. But the nextdawn was to shatter them rudely and for ever.

  Coming on deck before the sun was up, he saw land ahead, as the Spaniardhad promised them last night. Some ten miles ahead it lay, a longcoast-line filling the horizon east and west, with a massive headlandjutting forward straight before them. Staring at it, he frowned. He hadnot conceived that Curacao was of such considerable dimensions. Indeed,this looked less like an island than the main itself.

  Beating out aweather, against the gentle landward breeze he beheld agreat ship on their starboard bow, that he conceived to be some three orfour miles off, and--as well as he could judge her at that distance--ofa tonnage equal if not superior to their own. Even as he watched hershe altered her course, and going about came heading towards them,close-hauled.

  A dozen of his fellows were astir on the forecastle, looking eagerlyahead, and the sound of their voices and laught
er reached him across thelength of the stately Cinco Llagas.

  "There," said a soft voice behind him in liquid Spanish, "is thePromised Land, Don Pedro."

  It was something in that voice, a muffled note of exultation, thatawoke suspicion in him, and made whole the half-doubt he had beenentertaining. He turned sharply to face Don Diego, so sharply that thesly smile was not effaced from the Spaniard's countenance before CaptainBlood's eyes had flashed upon it.

  "You find an odd satisfaction in the sight of it--all thingsconsidered," said Mr. Blood.

  "Of course." The Spaniard rubbed his hands, and Mr. Blood observed thatthey were unsteady. "The satisfaction of a mariner."

  "Or of a traitor--which?" Blood asked him quietly. And as the Spaniardfell back before him with suddenly altered countenance that confirmedhis every suspicion, he flung an arm out in the direction of the distantshore. "What land is that?" he demanded. "Will you have the effronteryto tell me that is the coast of Curacao?"

  He advanced upon Don Diego suddenly, and Don Diego, step by step, fellback. "Shall I tell you what land it is? Shall I?" His fierce assumptionof knowledge seemed to dazzle and daze the Spaniard. For still Don Diegomade no answer. And then Captain Blood drew a bow at a venture--ornot quite at a venture. Such a coast-line as that, if not of the mainitself, and the main he knew it could not be, must belong to either Cubaor Hispaniola. Now knowing Cuba to lie farther north and west of thetwo, it followed, he reasoned swiftly, that if Don Diego meant betrayalhe would steer for the nearer of these Spanish territories. "That land,you treacherous, forsworn Spanish dog, is the island of Hispaniola."

  Having said it, he closely watched the swarthy face now overspread withpallor, to see the truth or falsehood of his guess reflected there. Butnow the retreating Spaniard had come to the middle of the quarter-deck,where the mizzen sail made a screen to shut them off from the eyes ofthe Englishmen below. His lips writhed in a snarling smile.

  "Ah, perro ingles! You know too much," he said under his breath, andsprang for the Captain's throat.

  Tight-locked in each other's arms, they swayed a moment, then togetherwent down upon the deck, the Spaniard's feet jerked from under himby the right leg of Captain Blood. The Spaniard had depended upon hisstrength, which was considerable. But it proved no match for thesteady muscles of the Irishman, tempered of late by the vicissitudesof slavery. He had depended upon choking the life out of Blood, and sogaining the half-hour that might be necessary to bring up that fineship that was beating towards them--a Spanish ship, perforce, sincenone other would be so boldly cruising in these Spanish waters offHispaniola. But all that Don Diego had accomplished was to betrayhimself completely, and to no purpose. This he realized when he foundhimself upon his back, pinned down by Blood, who was kneeling on hischest, whilst the men summoned by their Captain's shout came clatteringup the companion.

  "Will I say a prayer for your dirty soul now, whilst I am in thisposition?" Captain Blood was furiously mocking him.

  But the Spaniard, though defeated, now beyond hope for himself, forcedhis lips to smile, and gave back mockery for mockery.

  "Who will pray for your soul, I wonder, when that galleon comes to lieboard and board with you?"

  "That galleon!" echoed Captain Blood with sudden and awful realizationthat already it was too late to avoid the consequences of Don Diego'sbetrayal of them.

  "That galleon," Don Diego repeated, and added with a deepening sneer:"Do you know what ship it is? I will tell you. It is the Encarnacion,the flagship of Don Miguel de Espinosa, the Lord Admiral of Castile,and Don Miguel is my brother. It is a very fortunate encounter. TheAlmighty, you see, watches over the destinies of Catholic Spain."

  There was no trace of humour or urbanity now in Captain Blood. His lighteyes blazed: his face was set.

  He rose, relinquishing the Spaniard to his men. "Make him fast," he badethem. "Truss him, wrist and heel, but don't hurt him--not so much as ahair of his precious head."

  The injunction was very necessary. Frenzied by the thought that theywere likely to exchange the slavery from which they had so latelyescaped for a slavery still worse, they would have torn the Spaniardlimb from limb upon the spot. And if they now obeyed their Captainand refrained, it was only because the sudden steely note in his voicepromised for Don Diego Valdez something far more exquisite than death.

  "You scum! You dirty pirate! You man of honour!" Captain Bloodapostrophized his prisoner.

  But Don Diego looked up at him and laughed.

  "You underrated me." He spoke English, so that all might hear. "I tellyou that I was not fear death, and I show you that I was not fear it.You no understand. You just an English dog."

  "Irish, if you please," Captain Blood corrected him. "And your parole,you tyke of Spain?"

  "You think I give my parole to leave you sons of filth with thisbeautiful Spanish ship, to go make war upon other Spaniards! Ha!" DonDiego laughed in his throat. "You fool! You can kill me. Pish! It isvery well. I die with my work well done. In less than an hour you willbe the prisoners of Spain, and the Cinco Llagas will go belong to Spainagain."

  Captain Blood regarded him steadily out of a face which, if impassive,had paled under its deep tan. About the prisoner, clamant, infuriated,ferocious, the rebels-convict surged, almost literally "athirst for hisblood."

  "Wait," Captain Blood imperiously commanded, and turning on his heel, hewent aside to the rail. As he stood there deep in thought, he was joinedby Hagthorpe, Wolverstone, and Ogle the gunner. In silence they staredwith him across the water at that other ship. She had veered a pointaway from the wind, and was running now on a line that must in the endconverge with that of the Cinco Llagas.

  "In less than half-an-hour," said Blood presently, "we shall have herathwart our hawse, sweeping our decks with her guns."

  "We can fight," said the one-eyed giant with an oath.

  "Fight!" sneered Blood. "Undermanned as we are, mustering a bare twentymen, in what case are we to fight? No, there would be only one way. Topersuade her that all is well aboard, that we are Spaniards, so that shemay leave us to continue on our course."

  "And how is that possible?" Hagthorpe asked.

  "It isn't possible," said Blood. "If it...." And then he broke off,and stood musing, his eyes upon the green water. Ogle, with a bent forsarcasm, interposed a suggestion bitterly.

  "We might send Don Diego de Espinosa in a boat manned by his Spaniardsto assure his brother the Admiral that we are all loyal subjects of hisCatholic Majesty."

  The Captain swung round, and for an instant looked as if he would havestruck the gunner. Then his expression changed: the light of inspirationWas in his glance.

  "Bedad! ye've said it. He doesn't fear death, this damned pirate; buthis son may take a different view. Filial piety's mighty strong inSpain." He swung on his heel abruptly, and strode back to the knot ofmen about his prisoner. "Here!" he shouted to them. "Bring him below."And he led the way down to the waist, and thence by the booby hatch tothe gloom of the 'tween-decks, where the air was rank with the smellof tar and spun yarn. Going aft he threw open the door of the spaciouswardroom, and went in followed by a dozen of the hands with the pinionedSpaniard. Every man aboard would have followed him but for his sharpcommand to some of them to remain on deck with Hagthorpe.

  In the ward-room the three stern chasers were in position, loaded,their muzzles thrusting through the open ports, precisely as the Spanishgunners had left them.

  "Here, Ogle, is work for you," said Blood, and as the burly gunner camethrusting forward through the little throng of gaping men, Blood pointedto the middle chaser; "Have that gun hauled back," he ordered.

  When this was done, Blood beckoned those who held Don Diego.

  "Lash him across the mouth of it," he bade them, and whilst, assisted byanother two, they made haste to obey, he turned to the others. "To theroundhouse, some of you, and fetch the Spanish prisoners. And you, Dyke,go up and bid them set the flag of Spain aloft."

  Don Diego, with his body stre
tched in an arc across the cannon's mouth,legs and arms lashed to the carriage on either side of it, eyeballsrolling in his head, glared maniacally at Captain Blood. A man may notfear to die, and yet be appalled by the form in which death comes tohim.

  From frothing lips he hurled blasphemies and insults at his tormentor.

  "Foul barbarian! Inhuman savage! Accursed heretic! Will it not contentyou to kill me in some Christian fashion?" Captain Blood vouchsafed hima malignant smile, before he turned to meet the fifteen manacled Spanishprisoners, who were thrust into his presence.

  Approaching, they had heard Don Diego's outcries; at close quarters nowthey beheld with horror-stricken eyes his plight. From amongst them acomely, olive-skinned stripling, distinguished in bearing and apparelfrom his companions, started forward with an anguished cry of "Father!"

  Writhing in the arms that made haste to seize and hold him, he calledupon heaven and hell to avert this horror, and lastly, addressed toCaptain Blood an appeal for mercy that was at once fierce and piteous.Considering him, Captain Blood thought with satisfaction that hedisplayed the proper degree of filial piety.

  He afterwards confessed that for a moment he was in danger of weakening,that for a moment his mind rebelled against the pitiless thing it hadplanned. But to correct the sentiment he evoked a memory of what theseSpaniards had performed in Bridgetown. Again he saw the white face ofthat child Mary Traill as she fled in horror before the jeering ruffianwhom he had slain, and other things even more unspeakable seen on thatdreadful evening rose now before the eyes of his memory to stiffen hisfaltering purpose. The Spaniards had shown themselves without mercyor sentiment or decency of any kind; stuffed with religion, they werewithout a spark of that Christianity, the Symbol of which was mounted onthe mainmast of the approaching ship. A moment ago this cruel, viciousDon Diego had insulted the Almighty by his assumption that He kept aspecially benevolent watch over the destinies of Catholic Spain. DonDiego should be taught his error.

  Recovering the cynicism in which he had approached his task, thecynicism essential to its proper performance, he commanded Ogle tokindle a match and remove the leaden apron from the touch-hole of thegun that bore Don Diego. Then, as the younger Espinosa broke into freshintercessions mingled with imprecations, he wheeled upon him sharply.

  "Peace!" he snapped. "Peace, and listen! It is no part of my intentionto blow your father to hell as he deserves, or indeed to take his lifeat all."

  Having surprised the lad into silence by that promise--a promisesurprising enough in all the circumstances--he proceeded to explain hisaims in that faultless and elegant Castilian of which he was fortunatelymaster--as fortunately for Don Diego as for himself.

  "It is your father's treachery that has brought us into this plight anddeliberately into risk of capture and death aboard that ship of Spain.Just as your father recognized his brother's flagship, so will hisbrother have recognized the Cinco Llagas. So far, then, all is well. Butpresently the Encarnacion will be sufficiently close to perceive thathere all is not as it should be. Sooner or later, she must guess ordiscover what is wrong, and then she will open fire or lay us board andboard. Now, we are in no case to fight, as your father knew when he ranus into this trap. But fight we will, if we are driven to it. We make notame surrender to the ferocity of Spain."

  He laid his hand on the breech of the gun that bore Don Diego.

  "Understand this clearly: to the first shot from the Encarnacion thisgun will fire the answer. I make myself clear, I hope?"

  White-faced and trembling, young Espinosa stared into the pitiless blueeyes that so steadily regarded him.

  "If it is clear?" he faltered, breaking the utter silence in which allwere standing. "But, name of God, how should it be clear? How shouldI understand? Can you avert the fight? If you know a way, and if I, orthese, can help you to it--if that is what you mean--in Heaven's namelet me hear it."

  "A fight would be averted if Don Diego de Espinosa were to go aboard hisbrother's ship, and by his presence and assurances inform the Admiralthat all is well with the Cinco Llagas, that she is indeed still a shipof Spain as her flag now announces. But of course Don Diego cannot goin person, because he is... otherwise engaged. He has a slight touch offever--shall we say?--that detains him in his cabin. But you, his son,may convey all this and some other matters together with his homageto your uncle. You shall go in a boat manned by six of these Spanishprisoners, and I--a distinguished Spaniard delivered from captivityin Barbados by your recent raid--will accompany you to keep you incountenance. If I return alive, and without accident of any kind tohinder our free sailing hence, Don Diego shall have his life, as shallevery one of you. But if there is the least misadventure, be it fromtreachery or ill-fortune--I care not which--the battle, as I have hadthe honour to explain, will be opened on our side by this gun, and yourfather will be the first victim of the conflict."

  He paused a moment. There was a hum of approval from his comrades,an anxious stirring among the Spanish prisoners. Young Espinosa stoodbefore him, the colour ebbing and flowing in his cheeks. He waited forsome direction from his father. But none came. Don Diego's courage,it seemed, had sadly waned under that rude test. He hung limply in hisfearful bonds, and was silent. Evidently he dared not encourage his sonto defiance, and presumably was ashamed to urge him to yield. Thus, heleft decision entirely with the youth.

  "Come," said Blood. "I have been clear enough, I think. What do yousay?"

  Don Esteban moistened his parched lips, and with the back of his handmopped the anguish-sweat from his brow. His eyes gazed wildly a momentupon the shoulders of his father, as if beseeching guidance. But hisfather remained silent. Something like a sob escaped the boy.

  "I... I accept," he answered at last, and swung to the Spaniards. "Andyou--you will accept too," he insisted passionately. "For Don Diego'ssake and for your own--for all our sakes. If you do not, this man willbutcher us all without mercy."

  Since he yielded, and their leader himself counselled no resistance,why should they encompass their own destruction by a gesture of futileheroism? They answered without much hesitation that they would do as wasrequired of them.

  Blood turned, and advanced to Don Diego.

  "I am sorry to inconvenience you in this fashion, but..." For a secondhe checked and frowned as his eyes intently observed the prisoner. Then,after that scarcely perceptible pause, he continued, "but I do not thinkthat you have anything beyond this inconvenience to apprehend, and youmay depend upon me to shorten it as far as possible." Don Diego made himno answer.

  Peter Blood waited a moment, observing him; then he bowed and steppedback.