Читать книгу Brethren of the Main - Рафаэль Сабатини - Страница 17

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The order quenched some of that Roman spirit that Captain Blood observed and secretly admired in his prisoner. A man may not fear death itself, and yet be appalled by the manner of it.

Don Diego glared maniacally, his eyeballs rolling in his head, and then he fell to struggling in the arms that held him whilst from his lips poured blasphemy and insult whose source was horror. But for all his vain struggles his body was swiftly and relentlessly stretched in an arc across the mouth of the gun, and his legs and arms lashed to the Carriage on either side of it. Thence he addressed his tormentor in a tone of frenzy.

"You foul barbarian heretic! You inhuman savage! Will it not content you to kill me in some Christian fashion?"

"Gag him," said Captain Blood.

And in this he had a certain subtle purpose. In a moment, surprize being spent, the Spaniard might recover his intrepidity of spirit, and seek again to instil firmness into his followers.

To these the Irishman now turned, observing with satisfaction the horror stamped on every face of the ten. He commanded the gunner, who was a personable fellow with an air of authority, to stand forward from the rest, and then very deliberately he explained himself in the excellent Castilian of which he was master.

"That ship," he said, "will presently be opening fire upon us unless meanwhile we can take measures to avert it. Now, we are in no case to fight, as your captain well knew when he abused his parole to steer us into this trap.

"But if we are not in case to fight, neither are we in case to surrender, which would mean our death or worse. If die we must, we will die fighting. And if we are driven to fight, it is this gun that will open fire on our side."

And his hand touched the stern-chaser that bore Don Diego stretched across its jaws.

"I trust that you understand me."

Esteban, the gunner, stared white-faced into those pitiless light eyes.

"If I understand?" he cried. "But, nombre de Dios! How should I understand? You speak of averting a fight. But how?"

"A fight might be averted; escape might be possible," he was answered, "if Don Diego were to go aboard that frigate and by-his presence properly accredited satisfy her that the Cinco Llagas is indeed a ship of Spain as her flag announces."

He pointed aloft to the gold-and-crimson banner of Castile that floated from her mast-head.

"But since Don Diego is otherwise engaged he can not go in person. He must be represented. You might go as his lieutenant in a boat manned by these countrymen of yours to complete the illusion.

"Should you return without accident, having so played your part that we shall be free to continue on our voyage, Don Diego shall have his life, as shall every one of yon. But if there is the least hitch through treachery or misadventure the battle will be opened on our side by this gun, which will 'be trained upon your boat."

He paused, then asked—

"What have you to say to that?"

A silence followed, broken at last by the Spaniards behind the gunner.

"But accept!" they exhorted him, several speaking at once. "Accept, and do it, name of ——!"

Captain Blood smiled.

"You hear," he said, and added, "Believe me, it is good advice."

Esteban moistened his dry lips, and with the back of his band mopped the beads of sweat from his brow, His eyes were upon the figure of his captain, and he saw the man's muscles heaving as he attempted to, writhe in his bonds.

"But...but, how is it to be done? What am I to say to the captain of that ship?"

"You shall be dressed to suit your rank of lieutenant to Don Diego, and you shall bear a letter, which I shall furnish you, which Don Diego is most anxious should be conveyed at once to Cadiz. He has sent you with it in the hope that she may be homeward bound for Spain."

And now those behind Esteban, who saw in this their only chance of life, hoarsely cried out to him to do as was required. To this clamor and to his own terrors the gunner yielded.

Captain Blood's manner became brisk. Time enough had been lost already, and the two ships running ever along their converging lines stood now scarcely more than a mile apart. He ordered the bilboes to be stuck off the prisoners, and the long-boat to be got ready for launching.

Esteban meanwhile he carried off to the round-house with him, and what time the gunner donned the garments supplied him Captain Blood was very busy with pens and papers amid the effects of Don Diego. His task was accomplished by the time that Esteban was ready, and he presented to the gunner a package bearing as a superscription a name and address in Cadiz which the captain had found among Don Diego's letters. This package was sealed with the arms of Valdez, and none could have suspected from its eminently correct exterior the t it contained nothing but some sheets of blank paper.