“In the name of humanity,” he repeated,
“ye’ll allow me to do what I can to ease
his sufferings, or I swear to you that I’ll forsake
at once the duties of a doctor, and that it’s
devil another patient will I attend in this unhealthy
island at all.”
For an instant the Colonel was too amazed to speak.
Then —
“By God!” he roared. “D’ye
dare take that tone with me, you dog? D’ye
dare to make terms with me?”
“I do that.” The unflinching blue
eyes looked squarely into the Colonel’s, and
there was a devil peeping out of them, the devil of
recklessness that is born of despair.
Colonel Bishop considered him for a long moment in
silence. “I’ve been too soft with
you,” he said at last. “But that’s
to be mended.” And he tightened his lips.
“I’ll have the rods to you, until there’s
not an inch of skin left on your dirty back.”
“Will ye so? And what would Governor Steed
do, then?”
“Ye’re not the only doctor on the island.”
Mr. Blood actually laughed. “And will
ye tell that to his excellency, him with the gout
in his foot so bad that he can’t stand?
Ye know very well it’s devil another doctor
will he tolerate, being an intelligent man that knows
what’s good for him.”
But the Colonel’s brute passion thoroughly aroused
was not so easily to be baulked. “If you’re
alive when my blacks have done with you, perhaps you’ll
come to your senses.”
He swung to his negroes to issue an order. But
it was never issued. At that moment a terrific
rolling thunderclap drowned his voice and shook the
very air. Colonel Bishop jumped, his negroes
jumped with him, and so even did the apparently imperturbable
Mr. Blood. Then the four of them stared together
seawards.
Down in the bay all that could be seen of the great
ship, standing now within a cable’s-length of
the fort, were her topmasts thrusting above a cloud
of smoke in which she was enveloped. From the
cliffs a flight of startled seabirds had risen to
circle in the blue, giving tongue to their alarm,
the plaintive curlew noisiest of all.
As those men stared from the eminence on which they
stood, not yet understanding what had taken place,
they saw the British Jack dip from the main truck
and vanish into the rising cloud below. A moment
more, and up through that cloud to replace the flag
of England soared the gold and crimson banner of Castile.
And then they understood.
“Pirates!” roared the Colonel, and again,
“Pirates!”
Fear and incredulity were blent in his voice.
He had paled under his tan until his face was the
colour of clay, and there was a wild fury in his beady
eyes. His negroes looked at him, grinning idiotically,
all teeth and eyeballs.
SPANIARDS
