 This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit Librivox.org. She was attended by two negroes who trotted after her at a respectful distance, and her destination was Government House, with her she went to visit the Governor's Lady, who had lately been ailing. Reaching the summit of a gentle grassy slope, she met a tall, lean man dressed in a sober gentlemanly fashion, who was walking in the opposite direction. He was a stranger to her, and strangers were rare enough in the island. And yet in some vague way he did not seem quite a stranger. Miss Arabella drew rain, affecting to pause that she might admire the prospect, which was fair enough to warrant it. Yet out of the corner of those hazel eyes she scanned this fellow very attentively as he came nearer. She corrected her first impression of his dress. It was sober enough, but hardly gentlemanly. Coat and breeches were of plain homespun, and if the former sat so well upon him it was more by virtue of his natural grace than by that of tailoring. His stockings were of cotton, harsh and plain, and the broadcaster, which he respectfully doffed as he came up with her, was an old one unadorned by band or feather. What had seemed to be a periwig at a little distance was now revealed for the man's own lustrous, coiling black hair. Out of a brown, shaven, saturnine face, two eyes that were startlingly blue considered her gravely. The man would have passed on but that she detained him. I think I know you, sir, said she. Her voice was crisp and boyish, and there was something of boyishness in her manner, if one can apply the term to sow dainty a lady. It arose perhaps from an ease, a directness, which disdained the artifices of her sex, and set her on good terms with all the world. To this it may be due that Miss Arabella had reached the age of five and twenty, not merely unmarried but unwood. She used with all men a sisterly frankness which in itself contains a quality of aloofness, rendering it difficult for any man to become her lover. Her negroes had halted at some distance in the rear, and they squatted now upon the short grass until it should be her pleasure to proceed upon her way. The stranger came to a stand still upon being addressed. A lady should know her own property, said he. My property? Your uncle's least ways. Let me present myself. I am called Peter Blood, and I am worth precisely ten pounds. I know it because that is the sum your uncle paid for me. It is not every man who has the same opportunities of ascertaining his real value. She recognized him then. She had not seen him since that day upon the mole a month ago, and that she should not instantly have known him again despite the interest he had then aroused in her is not surprising, considering the change he had wrought in his appearance, which now was hardly that of a slave. My God! said she. And you can laugh. It's an achievement, he admitted. But then I have not fared as ill as I might. I have heard of that, said she. What she had heard was that this rebel convict had been discovered to be a physician. The thing had come to the ears of Governor Steed, who suffered damnably from the gout, and Governor Steed had borrowed the fellow from his purchaser. Whether by skill or good fortune, Peter Blood had afforded the governor that relief which his excellence he had failed to obtain from the ministrations of either of the two physicians practicing in Bridgetown. Then the governor's lady had desired him to attend her for the magrims. Mr. Blood had found her suffering from nothing worse than peevishness, the result of a natural petulance aggravated by the dullness of life in Barbados to a lady of her social aspirations. But he had prescribed for her nonetheless, and she had conceived herself the better for his prescription. After that the fame of him had gone through Bridgetown, and Colonel Bishop had found that there was more profit to be made out of this new slave by leaving him to pursue his profession than by setting him to work on the plantations, for which purpose he had been originally acquired. It is yourself, madam, that I have to thank for my comparatively easy and clean condition, said Mr. Blood. The gratitude was in his words rather than in his tone. Was he mocking, she wondered, and looked at him with the searching frankness that another might have found disconcerting. He took the glance for a question, and answered it. If some other planter had bought me, he explained, it is odd that the facts of my shining abilities might never have been brought to light, and I should be hewing and hoeing at this moment like the poor wretches who were landed with me. And why do you thank me for that? It was my uncle who bought you. But he would not have done so had you not urged him. I perceived your interest. At the time I resented it. You resented it? There was a challenge in her boyish voice. I have had no lack of experiences of this mortal life, but to be bought and sold was a new one, and I was hardly in the mood to love my purchaser. If I urged you upon my uncle, sir, it was that I commiserated you. There was a slight severity in her tone, as if to reprove the mixture of mockery and flippancy in which he seemed to be speaking. She proceeded to explain herself. My uncle may appear to you a hard man. No doubt he is. They are all hard men, these planters. It is the life, I suppose. But there are others here who are worse. There is Mr. Crabston, for instance, up at Spadestown. He was there on the mole, waiting to buy my uncle's leavings, and if you had fallen into his hands, a dreadful man. That is why. He was a little bewildered. This interest in a stranger, he began, then changed the direction of his probe. But there were others as deserving of commiseration. You did not seem quite like the others. I am not, said he. Oh! She stared at him, bridling a little. You have a good opinion of yourself? On the contrary. The others are all worthy rebels. I am not. That is the difference. I was one who had not the wit to see that England requires purifying. I was content to pursue a doctor's trade in Bridgewater whilst my betters were shedding their blood to drive out an unclean tyrant and his rascally crew. Sir, she checked him. I think you are talking treason. I hope I am not obscure, said he. There are those here who would have you flogged if they heard you. The governor would never allow it. He has the gout, and his lady has the migraines. Do you depend upon that? She was frankly scornful. You have certainly never had the gout. Probably not even the migraines, said he. She made a little impatient movement with her hand, and looked away from him a moment, out to sea. Quite suddenly she looked at him again, and now her brows were knit. But if you were not a rebel, how come you here? He saw the thing she apprehended, and he laughed. Faith now is a long story, said he. And perhaps one that you would prefer not to tell? Briefly on that he told it her. My God, what an infamy she cried when he had done. Oh, it's a sweet country England under King James. There's no need to commiserate me further. All things considered, I prefer Barbados. Here at least one can believe in God. He looked first to right, then to left as he spoke, from the distant shadowy bulk of Mount Hill Bay to the limitless ocean ruffled by the winds of heaven. Then, as if the fair prospect rendered him conscious of his own littleness and the insignificance of his woes, he fell thoughtful. Is that so difficult elsewhere? She asked him, and she was very grave. Men make it so. I see. She laughed a little. On a note of sadness, it seemed to him. I have never deemed Barbados the earthly mirror of heaven, she confessed. But no doubt you know your world better than I. She touched her horse with her little silver-hilted whip. I congratulate you on this easing of your misfortunes. He bowed, and she moved on. Her negroes sprang up and went trotting after her. A while Peterblood remained standing there, where she left him, conning the sunlit waters of Carlisle Bay below, and the shipping in that spacious haven about which the gulls were fluttering noisily. It was a fair enough prospect, he reflected, but it was a prison. And in announcing that he preferred it to England, he had indulged that almost laudable form of boasting which lies in belittling our misadventures. He turned, and resuming his way, went off in long, swinging strides towards the little huddle of huts built of mud and wattles, a miniature village enclosed in a stockade which the plantation slaves inhabited, and where he himself was lodged with them. Through his mind sang the line of loveless, stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage. But he gave it a fresh meaning, the very converse of that which its author had intended. A prison, he reflected, was a prison, though it had neither walls nor bars, however spacious it might be. And as he realized it that morning, so he was to realize it increasingly as time sped on. Daily he came to think more of his clipped wings, of his exclusion from the world, and less of the fortuitous liberty he enjoyed. Nor did the contrasting of his comparatively easy lot with that of his unfortunate fellow convicts bring him the satisfaction a differently constituted mind might have derived from it. Rather did the contemplation of their misery increase the bitterness that was gathering in his soul. Of the forty-two who had been landed with him from the Jamaica merchant, Colonel Bishop had purchased no less than twenty-five. The remainder had gone to lesser planters, some of them to Spatestown, and others still farther north. What may have been the lot of the latter he could not tell, but amongst Bishop's slaves Peterblood came and went freely, sleeping in their quarters, and their lot he knew to be a brutalizing misery. They toiled in the sugar plantations from sunrise to sunset, and if their labours flagged, there were the whips of the overseers and his men to quicken them. They went in rags, some almost naked. They dwelt in squalor, and they were ill nourished on salted meat and maize dumplings. Food which to many of them was, for a season at least, so nauseating that two of them sickened and died before Bishop remembered that their lives had a certain value in labour to him, and yielded to blood's intercessions for better care of such as fell ill. To curb insubordination, one of them who had rebelled against Kent, the brutal overseer, was lashed to death by negroes under his comrade's eyes, and another who had been so misguided as to run away into the woods was tracked, brought back, flogged, and then branded on the forehead with the letters F.T. that all might know him for a fugitive traitor as long as he lived. Fortunately for him, the poor fellow died as a consequence of the flogging. After that, a dull, spiritless resignation settled down upon the remainder. The most mutinous were quelled, and accepted their unspeakable lot with the tragic fortitude of despair. Peter blood alone, escaping these excessive sufferings, remained outwardly unchanged, whilst inwardly the only change in him was a daily deeper hatred of his kind, a daily deeper longing to escape from this place where men defiled so foully the lovely work of his creator. It was a longing too vague to amount to a hope. Hope here was inadmissible, and yet he did not yield to despair. He set a mask of laughter on his Saturnine countenance and went his way, treating the sick to the prophet of Colonel Bishop, and encroaching further and further upon the preserves of the two other men of medicine in Bridgetown. Immune from the degrading punishments and privations of his fellow convicts, he was enabled to keep his self-respect, and was treated without harshness even by the soulless planter to whom he had been sold. He owed it all to gout and emigrants. He had won the esteem of Governor Steed, and, what is even more important, of Governor Steed's lady, whom he shamelessly and cynically flattered and humored. Occasionally he saw Miss Bishop, and they seldom met, but that she paused to hold him in conversation for some moments, eventing her interest in him. Himself he was never disposed to linger. He was not, he told himself, to be deceived by her delicate exterior, her sapling grace, her easy boyish ways and pleasant boyish voice. In all his life, and it had been very varied, he had never met a man whom he accounted more beastly than her uncle, and he could not dissociate her from the man. She was his niece, of his own blood, and some of the vices of it, some of the remorseless cruelty of the wealthy planter must, he argued, inhabit that pleasant body of hers. He argued this very often to himself, as if answering and convincing some instinct that pleaded otherwise, and arguing it, he avoided her when it was possible, and was frigidly civil when it was not. Justifiable as his reasoning was, plausible as it may seem, yet he would have done better to have trusted the instinct that was in conflict with it, though the same blood ran in her veins as in those of Colonel Bishop, yet hers was free of the vices that tainted her uncles, for these vices were not natural to that blood. They were, in his case, acquired. Her father, Tom Bishop, that same Colonel Bishop's brother, had been a kindly, chivalrous, gentle soul, who, broken-hearted by the early death of a young wife, had abandoned the old world and sought an anodyne for his grief in the new. He had come out to the Antilles, bringing with him his little daughter, then five years of age, and had given himself up to the life of a planter. He had prospered from the first, as men sometimes will who care nothing for prosperity. Prospering, he had bethought him of his younger brother, a soldier at home reputed somewhat wild. He had advised him to come out to Barbados, and the advice, which at another season William Bishop might have scorned, reached him at a moment when his wildness was beginning to bear such fruit that a change of climate was desirable. William came and was admitted by his generous brother to a partnership in the prosperous plantation. Some six years later, when Arabella was fifteen, her father died, leaving her and her uncle's guardianship. It was perhaps his one mistake. But the goodness of his own nature coloured his views of other men. Moreover, himself he had conducted the education of his daughter, leaving her an independence of character upon which perhaps he counted unduly. As things were, there was little love between uncle and niece, but she was dutiful to him, and he was circumspect in his behaviour before her. All his life and for all his wildness, he had gone in a certain awe of his brother, whose worth he had the wit to recognise. And now it was almost as if some of that awe was transferred to his brother's child, who was also, in a sense, his partner, although she took no active part in the business of the plantations. Her blood judged her, as we are all too prone to judge, upon insufficient knowledge. He was very soon to have caused to correct that judgment. One day towards the end of May, when the heat was beginning to grow oppressive, there crawled into Carlyle Bay a wounded, battered English ship, the pride of Devon, her freeboard scarred and broken, her coach of gaping wreck, her mizzen so shot away that only a jagged stump remained She had been in action off Martinique with two Spanish treasure ships, and although her captain swore that the Spaniards had beset him without provocation, it was difficult to avoid a suspicion that the encounter had been brought about quite otherwise. One of the Spaniards had fled from the combat and if the pride of Devon had not given chase, it was probably because she was by then in no case to do so. The other had been sunk, but not before the English ship had transferred to her own hold toward the Spaniard. It was, in fact, one of those paratical affrays which were a perpetual source of trouble between the courts of St. James's and the Escorial complaints emanating now from one and now from the other side. Steed, however, after the fashion of most colonial governors, was willing enough to dull his wits to the extent of accepting the English semen story disregarding any evidence that might be liable. He shared the hatred so richly deserved that they were bearing Spain that was common to men of every other nation from the Bahamas to the Maine. Therefore he gave the pride of Devon the shelter she sought in his harbor and every facility to careen and carry out repairs. But before it came to this, they fetched from her hold over a score of English semen as battered and broken as the ship herself and together with these some half-dozen Spaniards in like case, the only survivors of a boarding party from the Spanish galleon that had invaded the English ship had itself unable to retreat. These wounded men were conveyed to a long shed on the wharf and the medical skill of Bridgetown was summoned to their aid. Peter Blood was ordered to bear a hand in this work and partly because he spoke Castilian and he spoke it as fluently as his own native tongue partly because of his inferior condition as a slave he was given the Spaniards for his patience. Now Blood had no cause to love Spaniards. His two years in a Spanish prison frequent campaigning in the Spanish Netherlands had shown him a side of the Spanish character which he had found anything but admirable. Nevertheless he performed his doctors duties zealously and painstakingly if emotionlessly and even with a certain superficial friendliness towards each of his patients. These were so surprised at having their wounds healed instead of being summarily hanged that they manifested a docility very unusual in their kind. They were shunned however by all those disposed inhabitants of Bridgetown who flocked to the improvised hospital with gifts of fruit and flowers and delicacies for the injured English semen. Indeed had the wishes of some of these inhabitants been regarded the Spaniards would have been left to die like vermin and of this Peter Blood had an example almost at the very outset. With the assistance of one of the negroes sent to the shed for the purpose he was in the act of setting a broken leg when a deep gruff voice that he had come to know and dislike as he had never disliked the voice of living man abruptly challenged him. What are you doing there? Blood did not look up from his task there was not the need he knew the voice as I have said I am setting a broken leg he answered without pausing in his labours I can see that fool A bulky body interposed between Peter Blood and the window the half naked man on the straw rolled his black eyes to stare up fearfully out of a clay-coloured face at this intruder a knowledge of English was unnecessary to inform him that here came an enemy the harsh, menatry note of that voice sufficiently expressed the fact I can see that fool just as I can see what this rascal is who gave you leave to set Spanish legs I am a doctor Colonel Bishop the man is wounded it is not for me to discriminate I keep to my trade do you, by God if you'd done that you wouldn't now be here on the contrary it is because I did that I am here I, I know that's your lying tale the Colonel sneered and then observing Blood to continue his work unmoved he grew really angry will you cease that and attend to me when I am speaking Peter Blood paused but only for an instant the man is in pain, he said shortly and resumed his work in pain is he I hope he is the damned piratical dog but will you heed me you insubordinate nave the Colonel delivered himself in a roar infuriated by what he conceived to be defiance and defiance expressing itself in the most unruffled disregard of himself his long bamboo cane was raised to strike Peter Blood's blue eyes caught the flash of it and he spoke quickly to arrest the blow not insubordinate sir whatever I may be I am acting upon the express orders of Governor Steed the Colonel checked his great face impurpling his mouth fell open Governor Steed he echoed then he lowered his cane swung round and without another word to Blood rolled away towards the other end of the shed where the Governor was standing at the moment Peter Blood chuggled but his triumph was dictated less by humanitarian considerations than by the reflection that he had balked his brutal owner the Spaniard realizing that in this altercation whatever its nature the Doctor had stood his friend ventured in a muted voice to ask him what had happened but the Doctor shook his head in silence and pursued his work his ears were straining to catch the words now passing between Steed and Bishop the Colonel was blustering storming the great bulk of him towering above the wizened little overdressed figure of the Governor but the little fop was not to be browbeaten his Excellency was conscious that he had behind him the force of public opinion to support him some there might be but there were not many who held such ruthless views as Colonel Bishop his Excellency asserted his authority it was by his orders that Blood had devoted himself to the wounded Spaniards and his orders were to be carried out there was no more to be said Colonel Bishop was of another opinion in his view there was a great deal to be said he said it with great circumstance loudly vehemently obscene for he could be fluently obscene when moved to anger you talk like a Spaniard Colonel said the Governor and thus dealt the Colonel's pride a wound that was to smart resentfully for many a week at the moment it struck him silent and sent him stamping out of the shed in a rage for which he could find no words it was two days later when the ladies of Bridgetown the wives and daughters of her planters and merchants paid their first visit of charity to the Wharf bringing their gifts to the wounded semen again Peter Blood was there ministering to the sufferers in his care moving among those unfortunate Spaniards whom no one heeded all the charity all the gifts were for the members of the crew of the Pride of Devon and this Peter Blood accounted natural enough but rising suddenly from the redressing of a wound a task in which he had been absorbed for some moments he saw to his surprise that one lady detached from the general throng was placing some plantains and a bundle of succulent sugar cane on a cloak that served one of his patients for coverlet she was elegantly dressed in lavender silk and was followed by a half-naked negro carrying a basket Peter Blood stripped of his coat his coarse shirt rolled to the elbow and holding a bloody rag in his hand stood at gaze a moment the lady turning now to confront him her lips parting in a smile of recognition was Arabella Bishop the man's a Spaniard said he in the tone of one who corrects a misapprehension and also tinged never so faintly by something of the derision that was in his soul the smile with which she had been greeting him withered on her lips she frowned and stared at him a moment with increasing haughtiness so I perceive but he's a human being nonetheless said she that answer and its implied rebuke took him by surprise your uncle the Colonel is of a different opinion said he when he had recovered he regards them as vermin to be left to languish and die of their festering wounds she caught the irony now more plainly in his voice she continued to stare at him why do you tell me this to warn you that you may be incurring the Colonel's displeasure if he had had his way I should never have been allowed to dress their wounds and you thought of course that I must be of my uncle's mind there was a crispness about her voice an ominous challenging sparkle in her hazel eyes I'd not willingly be rude to a lady even in my thoughts said he but that you should be so gifts on them considering that if your uncle came to hear of it he paused leaving the sentence unfinished ah well there it is he concluded but the lady was not satisfied at all first you impute to me inhumanity and then cowardice faith or a man who would not willingly be rude to a lady even in his thoughts and none so bad her boyish laugh trilled out but the note of it jarred his ears this time he saw her now it seemed to him for the first time and saw how he had misjudged her sure now how was I to guess that that Colonel Bishop could have an angel for his niece said he recklessly for he was reckless as men often are in sudden penitence you wouldn't of course I shouldn't think you often guess a right having withered him with that and her glance she turned to her negro in the basket that he carried from this she lifted now the fruits and delicacies with which it was laden and piled them in such heaps upon the beds of the six Spaniards that by the time she had so served the last of them her basket was empty and there was nothing left for her own fellow countrymen these indeed stood in no need of her bounty as she no doubt observed since they were being plentifully supplied by others having thus emptied her basket she called her negro and without another word or so much as another glance at Peter Blood swept out of the place with her head high and chinned the rest forward Peter watched her departure then he fetched a sigh it startled him to discover that the thought that he had incurred her anger gave him concern it could not have been so yesterday it became so only since he had been vouchsaved to this revelation of her true nature bad says to it now it serves me right it seems I know nothing at all of human nature but how the devil was I to guess that a family that can breed a devil like Colonel Bishop should also breed a saint like this End of Chapter 5 Read by Sandra in Wales United Kingdom June 2006 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini Chapter 6 Plans of Escape After that Arabella Bishop went daily to the shed on the wharf with gifts of fruit and later of money and of wearing apparel for the Spanish prisoners but she contrived so to time her visits Peter Blood never again met her there also his own visits were growing shorter in a measure as his patients healed that they all throw and return to health under his care whilst fully one third of the wounded in the care of Wacker and Bronson the two other surgeons died of their wounds served to increase the reputation in which this rebel convict stood in Bridgetown it may have been no more than the fortune of war but the townsfolk did not choose to regard it so it led to a further dwindling of the practices of his free colleagues and a further increase of his own labours and his owner's profit Wacker and Bronson laid their heads together to devise a scheme by which this intolerable state of things should be brought to an end but that is to anticipate one day, whether by accident or design, Peter Blood came striding down the wharf a full half hour earlier than usual and so met Miss Bishop just issuing from the shed he doffed his hat and stood aside to give her passage chin in the air and eyes which disdained to look anywhere where the sight of him was possible Miss Arabella said he on a coaxing pleading note she grew conscious of his presence and looked him over with an air that was faintly mockingly searching she said it's the delicate-minded gentleman Peter groaned am I so hopelessly beyond forgiveness I ask it very humbly what condescension you'll to mock me, said he and adopted mock humility after all I am but a slave and you might be ill one of these days what then it would be humiliating to send for me if you treat me like an enemy you are not the only doctor in Bridgetown but I am the least dangerous she grew suddenly suspicious of him aware that he was permitting himself to rally her and in a measure she had already yielded to it she stiffened and looked him over again you make too free I think she rebuked him a doctor's privilege I am not your patient pleased to remember it in future and on that, unquestionably angry she departed now is she a vixen or am I a fool or is it both he asked the blue vault of heaven and then went into the shed it was to be a morning of excitements as he was leaving an hour or so later the younger of the other two physicians joined him an unprecedented condescension this for hitherto neither of them had addressed him beyond an occasional and surly good day if you are colonel bishops I'll walk with you a little way Dr. Blood said he he was a short broad man of five and forty with pendulous cheeks and hard blue eyes Peter Blood was startled but he dissembled it I am for government house he said ah to be sure the lady and he laughed or perhaps he sneered Peter Blood was not quite certain she encroaches a deal upon your time I hear youth and good looks Dr. Blood youth and good looks they are inestimable advantages in our profession as in others particularly where the ladies are concerned Peter stared at him if you mean what you seem to mean you had better say it to Governor Steed it may amuse him you surely misapprehended me I hope so you're so very hot now the doctor linked his arm through Peter's I protest I desire to be your friend to serve you now listen instinctively his voice grew lower this slavery in which you find yourself must be singularly irksome to a man of parts such as yourself what institutions cried sardonic Mr. Blood but the doctor took him literally I am no fool my dear doctor I know a man when I see one and often I can tell his thoughts if you can tell me mine you'll persuade me of it said Mr. Blood Dr. Wacker drew still closer to him as they stepped along the wharf he lowered his voice to a still more confidential tone his hard blue eyes peered up into the sward sardonic face of his companion who was ahead taller than himself how often have I not seen you staring out over the sea your soul in your eyes don't I know what you are thinking if you could escape from this hell of slavery you could exercise the profession of which you are an ornament as a free man with pleasure and profit to yourself the world is large there are many nations besides England where a man of your parts would be warmly welcomed there are many colonies besides these English ones lower still came the voice until it was no more than a whisper yet there was no one with a near shot it is none so far now to the Dutch settlement of well at this time of the year the voyage may safely be undertaken in a light craft and Curacao need be no more than a stepping stone to the great world which would lie open to you once you were delivered from this bondage Dr. Wacker ceased he was pale and a little out of breath but his hard eyes continued to study his impassive companion well he said after a pause what do you say to that yet blood did not immediately answer his mind was heaving in tumult and he was striving to comment that he might take a proper survey of this thing flung into it to create so monstrous a disturbance he began where another might have ended I have no money and for that a handsome sum would be necessary did I not say that I desired to be your friend why asked Peter blood at point blank range but he never heeded the answer whilst Dr. Wacker was professing that his heart blood for a brother doctor languishing in slavery denied the opportunity which his gifts entitled him to make for himself Peter blood pounced like a hawk upon the obvious truth Wacker and his colleague desired to be rid of one who threatened to ruin them sluggishness of decision was never a fault of blood he leapt where another crawled and so this thought of evasion never entertained until planted there now by Dr. Wacker sprouted into instant growth I see I see he said whilst his companion was still talking explaining and to save Dr. Wacker's face he played the hypocrite it is very noble in you very brotherly as between men of medicine it is what I myself should wish to do in like case the hard eyes flashed the husky voice grew tremulous as the other asked almost too eagerly you agree then you agree agree blood laughed if I should be caught and brought back they'd clip my wings and brand me for life surely the thing is worth a little risk more tremulous than ever was the tempter's voice surely blood agreed but it asks more than courage it asks money a sloop might be bought for twenty pounds perhaps it shall be forthcoming it shall be alone which you shall repay us repay me when you can that betraying us so hastily retrieved completed blood's understanding the other doctor was also in the business they were approaching the peopled part of the mole quickly but eloquently blood expressed his thanks where he knew that no thanks were due we will talk of this again sir tomorrow he concluded you have opened for me the gates of hope in that at least he tittered no more than the bare truth and expressed it very baldly as if a door had been suddenly flung open to the sunlight for escape from a dark prison in which a man had thought to spend his life he was in haste now to be alone to straighten out his agitated mind and plan coherently what was to be done also he must consult another already he had hit upon that other for such a voyage a navigator would be necessary and a navigator was ready to his hand and Jeremy pit the first thing was to take counsel to the master who must be associated with him in this business if it were to be undertaken all that day his mind was in turmoil with this new hope and he was sick with impatience for night and a chance to discuss the matter with his chosen partner as a result blood was betimed that evening in the spacious stockade that enclosed the huts of the slaves together with the big white house of the overseer and he found an opportunity of a few words with pit unobserved by the others tonight when we are all asleep come to my cabin I have something to say to you the young man stared at him roused by blood's pregnant tone out of the mental lethargy into which he had of late been lapsing as a result of the dehumanizing life he lived then he nodded understanding and dissent and they moved apart the six months of plantation life in Barbados had made an almost tragic mark upon the young semen his erstwhile bright alertness was all departed his face was growing vacuous his eyes were dull and lackluster and he moved in a cringing furtive manner like an overbeaten dog he had survived the ill nourishment the excessive work on the sugar plantation under a pitiless sun the lashes of the overseer's whip when his labors flagged and the deadly unrelieved animal life to which he was condemned but the price he was paying for survival was the usual price he was in danger of becoming no better animal of sinking to the level of the negroes who sometimes toiled beside him the man however was still there not yet dormant but merely torpid from a surfeit of despair and the man in him promptly shook off that torpedoity and awoke at the first words blood spoke to him that night awoke and wept escape he panted oh god he took his head in his hands and fell to sobbing like a child shh steady now steady blood admonished him in a whisper alarmed by the lads blubbering he crossed to pit side and set a restraining hand upon his shoulder oh god's sake command yourself if we're overheard we shall both be flogged for this among the privileges enjoyed by blood was that of a hut to himself and they were alone in this but after all it was built of waddles thinly plastered with mud and its door was composed of bamboos through which sound passed very easily though the stockade was locked for the night and all within it asleep by now it was after midnight yet a prowling overseer was not impossible and a sound of voices must lead to discovery pit realized this and controlled his outburst of emotion sitting close thereafter they talked and whispers for an hour or more and all the while those dulled wits of pits were sharpening themselves anew upon this precious whetstone of hope they would need to recruit others into their enterprise a half dozen at least a half score if possible but no more than that they must pick the best out of that score of survivors of the Monmouth men that Colonel Bishop had acquired men who understood the sea were desirable but of these there were only two in that unfortunate gang and their knowledge was none too full they were Hagthorp, a gentleman who had served in the Royal Navy and Nicholas Dyke who had been a petty officer at King's time and there was another who had been a gunner, a man named Ogle it was agreed before they parted that pit should begin with these three and then proceed to recruit some six or eight others he was to move with the utmost caution sounding his men very carefully before making anything in the nature of a disclosure and even then avoid rendering that disclosure so full that its betrayal might frustrate the plans which has yet had to be worked out in detail laboring with them in the plantations pit would not want for opportunities approaching the matter to his fellow slaves caution above everything was Blood's last recommendation to him at parting who goes slowly, goes safely as the Italians have it and remember that if you betray yourself you ruin all for you are the only navigator among us and without you there is no escaping pit reassured him and slunk off back to his own hut and the straw that served him for a bed coming next morning to the wharf Blood found Dr. Whacker in a generous mood having slept on the matter he was prepared to advance the convict any sum up to thirty pounds that would enable him to acquire a boat capable of taking him away from the settlement Blood expressed his thanks becomingly betraying no sign that he saw clearly into the true reason of the others munificence it's not money I'll require said he but the boat itself for who will be selling me a boat and incurring the penalties and Governor Steed's proclamation you'll have read it no doubt Dr. Whacker's heavy face grew overcast thoughtfully he rubbed his chin I've read it yes and I dare not procure the boat for you it would be discovered it must be and the penalty is a fine of two hundred pounds besides imprisonment it would ruin me you'll see that the high hopes in Blood's soul began to shrink and the shadow of his despair overcast his face but then he faltered there is nothing to be done hey, nay, things are not so desperate Dr. Whacker smiled a little with tight lips I've thought of it you will see that the man who buys the boat must be one of those who goes with you so that he is not here to answer questions afterwards but who is to go with me save men in my own case what I cannot do they cannot there are others detained on the island besides slaves there are several who are here for debt and would be glad enough to spread their wings there's a fellow nut all now who follows the trade of a shipwright whom I happen to know would welcome such a chance as you might afford him but how should a debtor come with money to buy a boat the question will be asked to be sure it will but if you contrive shrewdly you'll all be gone before that happens blood knotted understanding and the doctor setting a hand upon his sleeve unfolded the scheme he had conceived you shall have the money from me at once having received it you'll forget that it was I who supplied it to you you have friends in England relatives perhaps who sent it out to you through the agency of one of your Bridgetown patients whose name is a man of honour you will on no account divulge lest you bring trouble upon him that is your tale if there are questions he paused looking hard at blood blood knotted understanding and assent relieved the doctor continued but there should be no questions if you go carefully to work you concert matters with Nuttall you enlist him as one of your companions and a shipwright should be a very useful member of your crew you engage him to discover a likely sloop whose owner is disposed to sell then you let your preparations all be made before the purchase is effected so that your escape may follow instantly upon it before the inevitable questions come to be asked you take me so well did blood take him that within an hour he contrived to see Nuttall and found the fellow as disposed to the business as Dr. Whacker had predicted when he left the shipwright it was agreed that Nuttall should seek the boat required for which blood would at once produce the money the quest took longer than expected by blood who waited impatiently with the doctor's gold concealed about his person but at the end of some three weeks Nuttall whom he was now meeting daily informed him that he had found a serviceable wherry and that its owner was disposed to sell it for 22 pounds that evening on the beach remote from all eyes Peter Blood handed that sum to his new associate and Nuttall went off with instructions to complete the purchase late on the following day he was to bring the boat to the wharf where under cover of night blood and his fellow convicts would join him and make off everything was ready in the shed from which all the wounded men had now been removed and which had since remained untenanted Nuttall had concealed the necessary stores a hundred weight of bread a quantity of cheese a cask of water and some few bottles of canary a compass, quadrant, chart half hour glass, log and line a tarpaulin, some carpenter's tools and a lantern and candles and in the stockade all was likewise in readiness Hagthorp, Dyke and Ogle had agreed to join the venture and eight others had been carefully recruited Fitzhutt, which he shared with five other rebels convict all of whom were to join in this bid for liberty a ladder had been constructed in secret during those nights of waiting with this they were to surmount the stockade and gain the open the risk of detection so that they made little noise was negligible beyond locking them all into that stockade at night there was no great precaution taken where after all could any so foolish as to attempt escape hope to conceal himself in that island the chief risk lay in discovery by those of their companions who were to be left behind it was because of these that they must go cautiously and in silence the day that was to have been their last in Barberos was a day of hope and anxiety to the twelve associates in that enterprise no less than to Nuttall in the town below towards Sunset having seen Nuttall depart to purchase and fetch the sloop to the pre-arranged moorings at the wharf Peter Bled came sauntering towards the stockade as the slaves were being driven in from the fields he stood aside at the entrance to let them pass and beyond the message of hope flashed by his eyes he held no communication with them he entered the stockade in their wake and as they broke their ranks to seek their various respective huts he beheld Colonel Bishop in talk with Kent the overseer the pair were standing by the stocks planted in the middle of that green space for the punishment of offending slaves as he advanced to guard him scowling where have you been this while he bawled and although a minatory note was normal to the Colonel's voice yet blood felt his heart tightening apprehensively I've been at my work in the town he answered Mrs. Patch has a fever and Mr. Decker has sprained his ankle I sent for you to Decker's and you were not there you are given to idling my fine fellow we shall have to quicken you one of these days unless you cease from abusing the liberty you enjoy do you forget that you're a rebel convict I am not given the chance said blood who could never learn to curb his tongue by God will you be pert with me remembering all that was at stake growing suddenly conscious that from the huts surrounding the enclosure anxious ears were listening he instantly practised an unusual submission not pert sir I am sorry I should have been sought I and you'll be sorry or yet there's the governor with an attack of gout screaming like a wounded horse and you know where to be found be off men, away with you at speed to Government House you are awaited I tell you best lend him a horse Kent or the lot will be all night getting there they bustled him away choking almost from a reluctance that he dared not show the thing was unfortunate but after all not beyond remedy the escape was set for midnight and he should easily be back by then he mounted the horse that Kent procured him intending to make all haste how shall I re-enter the stockade sir he inquired at parting you will not re-enter it said Bishop when they've done with you at Government House they may find a kennel for you there until morning Peter Blood's heart sank like a stone through water but he began be off I say will you stand there talking until dark his excellency is waiting for you and with his cane Colonel Bishop slash the horse's quarter so brutally that the beast bounded forward all but unseating her rider Peter Blood went off in a state of mind bordering on despair and there was occasion for it a postponement of the escape at least until tomorrow night was necessary now and postponement must mean the discovery of Nuttall's transaction and the asking of questions it would be difficult to answer it was in his mind to slink back in the night once his work at Government House were done and from the outside of the stockade make known to Pitt and the others his presence and so have them join him that their project might still be carried out but in this he reckoned without the Governor whom he found really in the thrawl of a severe attack of gout and almost a severe an attack of temper nourished by Blood's delay the doctor was kept in constant attendance upon him until long after midnight when at last he was able to ease the sufferer a little by bleeding there upon he would have withdrawn but Steve would not hear of it Blood must sleep in his own chamber to be at hand in case of need it was as if fate made sport of him for that night at least the escape must be definitely abandoned not until the early hours of the morning did Peter Blood succeed in making a temporary escape from Government House on the ground that he required certain medicaments which he must himself procure from the apothecary on that pretext he made an excursion into the awakening town and went straight to Nuttall whom he found in a state of livid panic the unfortunate dutter who had sat up waiting through the night conceived that all was discovered and that his own ruin would be involved Peter Blood quieted his fears it will be for tonight instead he said with more assurance than he felt if I have to bleed the Governor to death be ready as last night but if there are questions meanwhile, bleated Nuttall he was a thin pale small featured man with weak eyes that now blinked desperately answer as best you can use your wits, man I can stay no longer and Peter went off to the apothecary for his pretexted drugs within an hour of his going came an officer of the secretaries to Nuttall's miserable hobble the seller of the boat had as by law required since the coming of the rebels convict to sail at the secretary's office so that he might obtain the reimbursement of the ten-pound surety into which every keeper of a small boat was compelled to enter the secretary's office postponed this reimbursement until it should have obtained confirmation of the transaction we are informed that you have bought a wherry from Mr. Robert Ferrell said the officer that is so said Nuttall who conceived that for him this was the end of the world you are in no haste it seems to declare the same at the secretary's office the emissary had a proper bureaucratic haughtiness Nuttall's weak eyes blinked at a redoubled rate to declare it you know it's the law I didn't may it please you but it's in the proclamation published last January I can't read, sir I didn't know the messenger withered him with his disdain well now you're informed see to it that you are at the secretary's office before noon with the ten-pound surety into which you are obliged to enter the pompous officer departed leaving Nuttall in a cold perspiration despite the heat of the morning he was thankful that the fellow had not asked the question he most dreaded which was how he, a dutter should come by the money to buy a wherry but this he knew was only a respite the question would presently be asked and then hell would be open for him he cursed the hour in which he had been such a fool as to listen to Peterblood's chatter of escape he thought it very likely that the whole plot would be discovered and that he would probably be hanged or at least branded and sold into slavery like those other damned rebels convict with whom he had been so mad as to associate himself if only he had the ten pounds for this infernal surety which until this moment had never entered into their calculations it was possible that the thing might be done quickly and questions postponed until later as the secretary's messenger had overlooked the fact that he was a dutter so might the others at the secretary's office at least for a day or two and in that time he would he hoped be beyond the reach of their questions but in the meantime what was to be done about this money and it was to be found before noon Nuttall snatched up his hat and went out in quest of Peterblood but where look for him wandering aimlessly up the irregular unpaved street to inquire of one or two if they had seen Dr.Blood that morning he effected to be feeling none so well and indeed his appearance bore out the deception none could give him information and since blood had never told him of whack or share in this business he walked in his unhappy ignorance past the door of the one man in Barbados who would eagerly have saved him in this extremity finally he determined to go to Colonel Bishop's plantation probably blood would be there if he were not, Nuttall would find pit and leave a message with him he was acquainted with pit and knew of pit's share in this business his pretext for seeking blood must still be that he needed medical assistance and at the same time that he set out insensitive in his anxiety to the broiling heat to climb the heights to the north of the town blood was setting out from government house at last having so far eased the governor's condition as to be permitted to depart being mounted he would but for an unexpected delay have reached the stockade ahead of Nuttall in which case several unhappy events might have been averted the unexpected delay was occasioned by Miss Arabella Bishop they met at the gate of the luxuriant garden of government house and Miss Bishop herself mounted stared to see Peter blood on horseback it happened that he was in good spirits the fact that the governor's condition had so far improved as to restore him his freedom of movement had suffice to remove the depression under which he had been laboring for the past 12 hours or more in its rebound the mercury of his mood had shot higher far than present circumstances warranted he was disposed to be optimistic what had failed last night would certainly not fail again tonight what was a day after all the secretary's office might be troublesome but not really troublesome for another 24 hours at least and by then they would be well away this joyous confidence of his was his first misfortune the next was that his good spirits were also shared by Miss Bishop with no rancor the two things conjoined to make the delay that in its consequences was so deplorable good morning sir she hailed him pleasantly it's close upon a month since I last saw you 21 days to the hour said he I've counted them I vow I was beginning to believe you dead I have to thank you for the wreath the wreath to deck my grave he explained must you ever be rallying she wondered and looked at him gravely remembering that it was his rallying on the last occasion that had driven her away in dudgeon a man must sometimes laugh at himself or go mad said he few realize it that is why there are so many mad men in the world you may laugh at yourself all you will sir but sometimes I think you laugh at me which is not civil then faith you're wrong I laugh only at the comic and you are not comic at all what am I then she asked him laughing a moment he pondered her so fair and fresh to behold so entirely maidenly and yet so entirely frank and unabashed you are he said the niece of the man who owns me his slave but he spoke lightly so lightly that she was encouraged to insistence nay sir that is an evasion you shall answer me truthfully this morning truthfully truthfully to answer you at all is a labour but to answer truthfully oh well now I should say of you that he'll be lucky who counts you his friend it was in his mind to add more but he left it there that's mighty civil said she you've a nice taste in compliments Mr. Blood another in your place faith now don't I know what another would have said don't I know my fellow man at all sometimes I think you do and sometimes I think you don't anyway you don't know your fellow woman there was that affair of the Spaniards will you never forget it never bad says to your memory is there no good in me at all that you could be dwelling on instead oh several things for instance now he was almost eager you speak excellent Spanish is that all he sank back into dismay where did you learn it have you been in Spain that I have I was two years in a Spanish prison in prison her tone suggested apprehensions in which he had no desire to leave her as a prisoner of war he explained I was taken fighting with the French in French service that is but you're a doctor that's merely a diversion I think by trade I am a soldier at least it's a trade I followed for ten years it brought me no great gear but it served me better than medicine which as you may observe has brought me into slavery I'm thinking it's more pleasing in the sight of heaven to kill men than to heal them sure it must be but how came you to be a soldier and to serve the French I am Irish you see and I studied medicine before since it's a perverse nation we are oh but it's a long story and the Colonel will be expecting my return she was not in that way to be defrauded of her entertainment if he would wait a moment they would ride back together she had but come to inquire of the Governor's health at her uncle's request so he waited and so they rode back together to Colonel Bishop's house they rode very slowly at a walking pace the doctor slave on such apparently intimate terms with his owner's knees one or two may have promised themselves that they would drop a hint to the Colonel but the two rode oblivious of all others in the world that morning he was telling her the story of his early turbulent days and at the end of it he dwelt more fully than hitherto upon the manner of his arrest and trial the tale was barely done when they drew up at Colonel's door and dismounted Peter Blood surrendered his nag to one of the negro grooms he was telling them that the Colonel was at home at the moment even then they lingered a moment she detaining him I am sorry Mr. Blood that I did not know before she said and there was a suspicion of moisture in those clear hazel eyes with a compelling friendliness she held out her hand to him why what difference could it have made he asked some I think you have been very hardly used by fate oh no his keen sapphire eyes considered her steadily for a moment under his level black brows it might have been worse he said with a significance which brought a tinge of colour to her cheeks and a flutter to her eyelids he stooped to kiss her hand before realising it and she did not deny him then he turned and strode off towards the stockade a half mile away and a vision of her face went with him tinted with a rising blush and a sudden unusual shyness a little moment that he was a rebel convict with ten years of slavery before him he forgot that he had planned an escape which was to be carried into effect that night forgot even the peril of discovery which as a result of the Governor's gout now overhung him End of Chapter 6 Read by Sandra in Wales United Kingdom June 2006 For more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org Captain Blood by Raphael Sabatini Chapter 7 Pirates Mr. James Nuttall made all speed regardless of the heat in his journey from Bridgetown to Colonel Bishop's plantation and if ever man was built for speed in a hot climate that man was Mr. James Nuttall with his short, thin body so withered was he that it was hard to believe there were any juices left in him yet juices there must have been for he was sweating violently by the time he reached the stockade at the entrance he almost ran into the overseer Kent a squat, bull-legged animal with the arms of a Hercules and the jowl of a bulldog I am seeking Dr. Blood he announced breathlessly you are in a rare haste growled Kent what the devil is it, twins eh? oh, nay, nay I am not married sir it's a cousin of mine sir what is? he is taken bad sir Nuttall lied promptly upon the cue that Kent himself had afforded him is the doctor here? that's his hut yonder Kent pointed carelessly if he's not there he'll be somewhere else and he took himself off he was a surly ungracious beast at all times readier with the lash of his whip than with his tongue Nuttall watched him go with satisfaction and even noted the direction that he took then he plunged into the enclosure to verify in mortification that Dr. Blood was not at home a man of sense might have sat down and waited judging that to be the quickest and surest way in the end but Nuttall had no sense he flung out of the stockade again hesitated a moment as to which direction he should take and finally decided 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 aspired some slaves at work Nuttall entered the avenue and advanced upon them they eyed him dully as he passed them Pitt was not of their number and he dared not ask for him he continued his search for the best part of an hour up one of those lanes and then down another once an overseer challenged him demanding to know his business he was looking he said for Dr. Blood his cousin was taken ill the overseer bade him go to the devil and get out of the plantation Blood was not there if he was anywhere he would be in his hut in the stockade Nuttall passed on upon the understanding that he would go but he went in the wrong direction he went on towards the side of the plantation farthest from the stockade towards the dense woods that fringed it there the overseer was too contemptuous and perhaps too languid in the stifling heat of approaching Noontide to correct his course Nuttall blundered to the end of the avenue and round the corner of it and there ran into Pitt alone toiling with a wooden spade upon an irrigation channel a pair of cotton drawers loose and ragged closed him from waist to knee above and below he was naked save for a broad hat of plated straw that sheltered his unkempt golden head from the rays of the tropical sun at sight of him Nuttall returned thanks a loud to his maker Pitt stared at him and the shipwright poured out his dismal news in a dismal tone the sum of it was that he must have ten pounds from Blood that very morning or they were all undone and all he got for his pains and his sweat was the condemnation of Jeremy Pitt damn you for a fool said the slave if it's blood you're seeking why are you wasting your time here I can't find him bleated Nuttall he was indignant at his reception he forgot the jangled state of the other's nerves after a night of anxious wakefulness ending in a dawn of despair I thought that you thought that I could drop my spade and go seek him for you is that what you thought my God that our lives should depend upon such a dumber head while you waste your time here the hours are passing and if an overseer should catch you talking to me how will you explain it for a moment Nuttall was bereft of speech by such ingratitude then he exploded he had never had no hand in this affair I would so I wish that what else he wished was never known for at that moment round the block of cane came a big man in biscuit-colored taffetas followed by two negroes in cotton drawers who were armed with cutlasses he was not ten yards away but his approach over the soft yielding marl had been unheard Mr. Nuttall looked wildly this way in that a moment then bolted like a rabbit for the woods thus doing the most foolish and betraying thing that in the circumstances it was possible for him to do Pitt groaned and stood still leaning upon his spade hi there stop balled Colonel Bishop after the fugitive and added horrible threats tricked out with some rhetorical indecencies but the fugitive held a main and never so much as turned his head it was his only remaining hope that Colonel Bishop might not have seen his face for the power and influence of Colonel Bishop was quite sufficient to hang any man whom he thought would be better dead not until the renegade had vanished into the scrub did the planter sufficiently recover from his indignant amazement to remember the two negroes who followed at his heels like a brace of hounds it was a bodyguard without which he never moved in his plantations since a slave had made an attack upon him and all but strangled him a couple of years ago after him you black swine he roared at them but as they started he checked them wait get to heal damn you it occurred to him that to catch and deal with the fellow there was not the need to go after him and perhaps spend the day hunting him in that cursed wood there was Pitt 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 course be reluctant so much the worse for Pitt the ingenious Colonel Bishop knew a dozen ways some of them quite diverting of conquering stubbornness in these convict dogs he turned now upon the slave a countenance that was inflamed by heat internal and external and a pair of heady eyes that were alight with cruel intelligence he stepped forward swinging his light bamboo cane who was that renegade he asked with terrible suavity leaning over on his spade Jeremy Pitt hung his head a little and shifted uncomfortably on his bare feet vainly he groped for an answer in a mind that could do nothing but curse the idiocy of Mr. James Nuttall the planters bamboo cane fell on the lads naked shoulders with stinging force answer me you dog what's his name Jeremy looked at the burly planter Helen almost defiant eyes I don't know he said and in his voice there was a faint note at least of the defiance aroused in him by a blow which he dared not for his life's sake return his body had remained unyielding under it but the spirit within writhed now in torment you don't know well here's to quicken your wits again the cane descended have you thought of his name yet I have not stubborn A for a moment the Colonel leered then his passion mastered him swoons you impudent dog do you trifle with me do you think I'm to be mocked Pitt shrugged shifted sideways on his feet again and settled into dogged silence few things are more provocative and Colonel Bishop's temper was never one that required much provocation brute fury now awoken him fiercely now he lashed those defenseless shoulders accompanying each blow by blasphemy and foul abuse until stung beyond endurance the lingering embers of his manhood fanned into momentary flame Pitt sprang upon his tormentor but as he sprang so also sprang the watchful blacks muscular bronze arms coiled crushingly about the frail white body and in a moment the unfortunate slave stood powerless his wrists pinioned behind him in a leathern thong breathing hard his face mottled Bishop pondered him a moment then fetch him along he said down the long avenue between those golden walls of cane standing some eight feet high the wretched Pitt was thrust by his black captors in the Colonel's wake stared at with 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 the real source of his mental anguish lay in the conviction that the elaborately planned escape from this unutterable hell was frustrated now in the very moment of execution they came out upon the green plateau and headed for the stockade and the overseer's white house Pitt's eyes looked out over Carlisle Bay of which this plateau 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 caught himself wondering which of these was the wary in which with a little luck they might have been now at sea out over that sea his glance ranged miserably in the roads standing in for the shore before a gentle breeze that scarcely ruffled the sapphire surface of the Caribbean came a stately red-hulled frigate flying the English ensign Colonel Bishop halted to consider her shading his eyes with his fleshly hand light as was the breeze the vessel spread no canvas to it beyond that of her foresail furled was her every other sail leaving a clear view of the majestic lines of her hull from towering stern castle to gilded beakhead that was a flash in the dazzling sunshine so leisurely in advance argued a master indifferently acquainted with these waters who preferred to creep forward cautiously sounding his way at her present rate of progress it would be an hour perhaps before she came to anchorage within the harbor and whilst the Colonel viewed her admiring perhaps the gracious beauty of her Pitt was hurried forward into the stockade and clapped into the stocks that stood there ready for slaves who required correction Colonel Bishop followed him presently with leisurely rolling-gate a mutinous cur that shows his fangs to his must or must learn good manners at the cost of a striped hide was all he said before setting about his executioner's job that with his own hands he should do that which most men of his station would out of self-respect have relegated to one of the negroes gives you the measure of the man's beastliness it was almost as if with relish as if gratifying some feral instinct of cruelty that he now lashed his victim about the head and shoulders soon his cane was reduced to splinters by his violence you know perhaps the sting of a flexible bamboo cane when it is whole but do you realize its murderous quality when it has been split into several long lithe blades each with an edge that is of the keenness of the knife when it last from very weariness Colonel Bishop flung away the stump and thongs to which his cane had been reduced the wretched slave's back was bleeding pulp from neck to waist as long as full sensibility remained Jeremy Pitt had made no sound but in a measure as from pain his senses were mercifully dulled he sank forward in the stalks and hung there now in a huddled heap faintly moaning Colonel Bishop set his foot upon the cross-bar and leaned over his victim a cruel smile on his full coarse face let that teach you a proper submission said he and now touching that shy friend of yours you shall stay here without meat or drink without meat or drink do you hear me until you please to tell me his name and business he took his foot from the bar when you've had enough of this send me word and we'll have branding irons to you on that he swung on his heel and strode out of the stockade his negroes following Pitt had heard him as we hear things in our dreams at the moment so spent was he by his cruel punishment and so deep was the despair into which he had fallen that he no longer cared whether he lived or died soon however from the partial stupor which pain had mercifully induced a new variety of pain aroused him the stock stood in the open under the full glare 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 soon to this was added a torment still more unspeakable flies the cruel flies of the antilles drawn by the scent of blood descended in a cloud upon him small wonder that the ingenious Colonel Bishop who so well understood the art of loosening stubborn tongues had not deemed it necessary to have recourse to other means of torture not all his fiendish cruelty could devise a torment more cruel more unendurable than the torment's nature would hear procure a man in Pitt's condition the slave writhed in his stocks until he was in danger of breaking his limbs and writhing screamed in agony thus he was found by Peter Blood who seemed to his troubled vision to materialise suddenly before him Mr. Blood carried a large palmetto leaf having whisked away with this the flies 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 sitting down beside him he drew the sufferer's head down on his own shoulder and bathed his face from a panic of cold water shuddered and moaned on a long in-drawn breath drink! he gasped drink for the love of Christ the panican was held to his quivering lips he drank greedily, noisily nor ceased until he had drained the vessel cooled and revived by the draft he attempted to set up my back! he screamed there was an unusual glint in Mr. Blood's eyes his lips were compressed but when he parted them to speak his voice came cool and steady be easy now one thing at a time your back's taking no harm at all for the present since I've covered it up I'm wanting to know what's happened to you do you think we can do without a navigator that you go and provoke that beast bishop until he all but kills you? Pitt sat up and groaned again but this time his anguish was mental rather than physical I don't think a navigator will be needed this time Peter what's that? cried Mr. Blood Pitt explained the situation as briefly as he could in a halting, gasping speech I'm to rot here until I tell him the identity of my visitor and his business Mr. Blood got up growling in his throat bad suss to the filthy slaver said he but it must be contrived nevertheless to the devil with Nuttall whether he gives surety for the boat or not whether he explains it or not the boat remains and we're going and you're coming with us you're dreaming Peter said the prisoner we're not going this time the magistrates will confiscate the boat since the surety's not paid even if when they press him Nuttall does not confess the whole plan and get us all branded on the forehead Mr. Blood turned away and with agony in his eyes looked out to sea over the blue water by which he had so fondly hoped soon to be travelling back to freedom the great red ship had drawn considerably nearer shore by now slowly, majestically she was entering the bay already one or two wearies were putting off from the wharf to board her from where he stood Mr. Blood the brass cannons mounted on the prow above the curving beakhead and he could make out the figure of a seaman in the four chains on her laboured side leaning out to heave the lead an angry voice aroused him from his unhappy thoughts what the devil are you doing here the returning Colonel Bishop came striding into the stockade his negroes following ever Mr. Blood turned to face him and over that swarthy countenance which indeed by now was tend the golden brown of a half-caste Indian a mask descended doing said he blandly why the duties of my office the Colonel striding furiously forward observed two things the empty panic in on the seat beside the prisoner and the palmetto leaf protecting his back have you dared to do this the veins on the planters forehead stood out like cords of course I have Mr. Blood's tone was one of faint surprise I said he was to have neither meat nor drink until I ordered it sure now I never heard you you never heard me how should you have heard me when you weren't here then how did you expect me to know what orders you'd given Mr. Blood's tone was positively grieved all that I knew was that one of your slaves was being murdered by the sun in the flies says to myself this is one of the Colonel's slaves and I'm the Colonel's doctor and sure it's my duty to be looking after the Colonel's property so I just gave the fellow a spoonful of water and covered his back from the sun and wasn't I right now right the Colonel was almost speechless be easy now be easy Mr. Blood implored him it's an apoplexy you'll be contracting if you give way to heat like this the planter thrust him aside with an implication and stepping forward tore the palmetto leaf from the prisoner's back in the name of humanity now Mr. Blood was beginning the Colonel swung upon him furiously out of this he commanded and don't come near him again until I send for you unless you want to be served in the same way he was terrific in his menace in his bulk and in the power of him but Mr. Blood never flinched it came to the Colonel as he found himself steadily 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 time now been growing presumptuous it was a matter that he must presently correct meanwhile Mr. Blood was speaking again his tone quietly insistent in the name of humanity he repeated you'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 do you dare take that tone with me you dog do you dare to make terms with me I do that the unflinching blue eyes looked squarely into the colonels 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 you so and what would Governor Steed do then you're not the only doctor on the island Mr. Blood actually laughed ha ha ha and will you tell that to his excellency him with the gout in his foot so bad that he can't stand you know very well it's devil another doctor he will 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 balked 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 where her top musts thrusting above a cloud of smoke in which she was enveloped from the cliffs a flight of startled sea birds had risen to circle in the blue giving tongue to their alarm their 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 golden 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 End of Chapter 7 read by Sandra in Wales United Kingdom November 2006 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini Chapter 8 Spaniards The stately ship that had been allowed to sail so leisurely into Carlisle Bay under her false colours was a Spanish privateer coming to pay off some of the heavy debt piled up by the predacious brethren on the coast and the recent defeat by the pride of Devon of two treasure galleons bound for Cuddes it happened that the galleon which escaped in a more or less crippled condition was commanded by Don Diego de Espinoza y Valdez who was own brother to the Spanish admiral Don Miguel de Espinoza and who was also a very hasty, proud and hot tempered gentleman galled by his defeat and choosing to forget that his own conduct had invited it he had sworn to teach the English a sharp lesson which they should remember he would take a leaf out of the Book of Morgan and those other robbers of the sea and make a punitive raid upon an English settlement unfortunately for himself and for many others his brother the admiral was not at hand to restrain him when for this purpose he fitted out the Cinco Yagas at San Juan de Puerto Rico he chose for his objective the island of Barberos whose natural strength was apt to render her defenders careless he chose it also because Lither had the pride of Devon been tracked by his scouts and he desired a measure of poetic justice to invest his vengeance and he chose a moment when there were no ships of war at anchor in Carlisle Bay he had succeeded so well in his intentions that he had aroused no suspicion until he saluted the fort at short range for the broadside of twenty guns and now the four gaping watchers in the stockade on the headland beheld the great ship creep forward under the rising cloud of smoke her mainsail unfurled to increase her steering-way and go about close-hauled to bring her larbored guns to bear upon the unready fort with the crashing roar of that second broadside Colonel Bishop awoke from stupefaction to a recollection of where his duty lay in the town below drums were beating frantically and a trumpet was bleeding as if the peril needed further advertising as commander of the Barbados militia the place of Colonel Bishop was at the head of his scanty troops in that fort which the Spanish guns were pounding into rubble remembering it he went off at the double despite his bulk and the heat his negroes trotting after him Mr. Blood turned to Jeremy Pitt he laughed grimly hmm now that said he is what I call a timely interruption though what'll come of it he uttered as an afterthought the devil himself knows as a third broadside was thundering forth he picked up the palmetto leaf and carefully replaced it on the back of his fellow slave and then into the stockage pounding and sweating came Kent followed by best part of a score of plantation workers some of whom were black and all of whom were in a state of panic he led them into the low white house to bring them forth again within a moment as it seemed armed now with muskets and hangers and some of them equipped with bandoliers by this time the rebels convict were coming in in twos and threes having abandoned their work upon finding themselves unguarded and upon senting the general dismay Kent paused a moment as his hastily armed guard dashed forth to fling an order to those slaves to the woods he bade them look to the woods and lie close there until this is over and we've gutted these Spanish swine on that he went off in haste after his men who were to be added to those massing in the town so as to oppose and overwhelm the Spanish landing parties the slaves would have obeyed him on the instant but for Mr. Blood what need for haste and in this heat Guathi he was surprisingly cool they thought maybe there'll be no need to take to the woods at all and anyway it will be time enough to do so when the Spaniards are masters of the town and so joined now by the other stragglers and numbering in all around score rebels convict all they stayed to watch from their vantage ground the fortunes of the furious battle that was being waged below the landing was contested by the militia and by every islander capable of bearing arms with the fierce resoluteness of men who knew that no quarter was to be expected in defeat the ruthlessness of Spanish soldiery was a byword and not at his worst had Morgan or Laulane ever perpetrated such horrors as those of which these Castilian gentlemen were capable but this Spanish commander knew his business which was more than could truthfully be said for the Barbados militia having gained the advantage of a surprise blow which had put the fort out of action he soon showed them that he was master of the situation his guns turned now upon the open space behind the mole where the incompetent bishop had marshaled his men tore the militia into bloody rags and covered the landing parties which were making the shore in their own boats and in several of those which had rashly gone out to the great ship before her identity was revealed all through the scorching afternoon the battle went on the rattle and crack of musketry penetrating ever deeper into the town to show that the defenders were being driven steadily back by sunset two hundred and fifty Spaniards were masters of Bridgetown the islanders were disarmed and at government house Governor Steed his gout forgotten in his panic supported by Colonel Bishop and some lesser officers was being informed by Don Diego with an urbanity that was itself a mockery of the sum that would be required in ransom for a hundred thousand pieces of eight and fifty head of cattle Don Diego would forbear from reducing the place to ashes and what time that suave and courtly commander was settling these details with the apoplectic British Governor the Spaniards were smashing and looting feasting, drinking and ravaging after the hideous manner of their kind Mr. Blood, greatly daring, ventured down at dusk into the town what he saw there is recorded by Jeremy Pitt to whom he subsequently related it in that voluminous log from which the greater part of my narrative is derived I have no intention of repeating any of it here it is all too loathsome and nauseating incredible indeed that men however abandoned could ever descend to such an abyss of bestial cruelty and lust what he saw was fetching him in haste and white faced out of that heligane when in a narrow street a girl hurtled into him wild eyed her unbound hair streaming behind her as she ran after her laughing and cursing in a breath came a heavy booted Spaniard almost he was upon her when suddenly Mr. Blood got in his way the doctor had taken a sword from a dead man's side some little time before and armed himself with it against an emergency as the Spaniard checked in anger and surprise he caught in the dusk the livid gleam of that sword which Mr. Blood had quickly unsheathed ah, perro ingles! he shouted and flung forward to his death it's hoping I am you're in a fit state to meet your maker said Mr. Blood and ran him through the body he did the thing skillfully with the combined skill of swordsman and surgeon the man sank in a hideous heap without so much as a groan Mr. Blood swung to the girl who leaned panting and sobbing against a wall he caught her by the wrist come! he said but she hung back resisting him by her weight who are you? she demanded wildly will you wait to see my credentials? he snapped steps were clattering towards them from beyond the corner round which she had fled from that Spanish Ruffian come! he urged again and this time reassured perhaps by his clear English speech she went without further questions they sped down an alley and then up another by great good fortune meeting no one for already they were on the outskirts of the town they won out of it and white-faced physically sick Mr. Blood dragged her almost at a run up the hill towards Colonel Bishop's house he told her briefly who and what he was and thereafter there was no conversation between them until they reached the big white house it was all in darkness which at least was reassuring if the Spaniards had reached it there would be lights he knocked but had to knock again and yet again before he was answered then it was by a voice from a window above who is there? the voice was Miss Bishop's a little tremulous but unmistakably her own Mr. Blood almost fainted in relief he had been imagining the unimaginable he had pictured her down in that hell out of which he had just come he had conceived that she might have followed her uncle into Bridgetown or committed some other imprudence and he turned cold from head to foot at the mere thought of what might have happened to her it is I Peter Blood he gasped what do you want? it is doubtful whether she would have come down to open for at such a time as this it was no more than likely that the wretched plantation slaves might be in revolt and prove as great a danger as the Spaniards but at the sound of her voice the girl Mr. Blood had rescued peered up through the gloom Arabella! she called it is I Mary Trailed Mary! the voice ceased above on that exclamation the head was withdrawn after a brief pause the door gaped wide beyond it in the wide hall stood Miss Arabella a slim, virginal figure in white mysteriously revealed in the gleam of a single candle which she carried Mr. Blood strode in followed by his distraught companion who falling upon Arabella's slender bosom surrendered herself to a passion of tears but he wasted no time whom have you here with you? what servants? he demanded sharply the only male is James an old negro groom the very man said Blood bid him get out horses then away with you to Spatestown or even farther north where you will be safe here you are in danger in dreadful danger but I thought the fighting was over she was beginning pale and startled so it is but the devil tree's only beginning Miss Trail will tell you as you go in God's name madam take my word for it and do as I bid you he... he saved me sobbed Miss Trail saved you? Miss Bishop was aghast saved you from what Mary? let that wait snapped Mr. Blood almost angrily you'll have all night for chattering when you're out of this and away beyond their reach will you please call James and do as I say and at once you are very peremptory oh my God I am peremptory speak Miss Trail tell her whether I've caused to be peremptory yes yes the girl cried shuddering do as he says over pity's sake Arabella Miss Bishop went off leaving Mr. Blood and Miss Trail alone again I... I shall never forget what you did sir she said through her diminishing tears she was a slight wisp of a girl a child no more I've done better things in my time that's why I'm here said Mr. Blood whose mood seemed to be snappy she didn't pretend to understand him and she didn't make the attempt did you... did you kill him? she asked fearfully he stared at her in the flickering candlelight I hope so it is very probable and it doesn't matter at all he said what matters is that this fellow James should fetch the horses and he was stamping off to accelerate these preparations for departure when her voice arrested him don't leave me don't leave me here alone she cried in terror he paused he turned and came slowly back standing above her he smiled upon her there there you've no cause for alarm it's all over now you'll be away soon away to Spadestown where you'll be quite safe the horses came at last four of them for an addition to James who was to act as her guide Miss Bishop had her woman who was not to be left behind Mr. Blood lifted the slight weight of Mary Trail to her horse then turned to say goodbye to Miss Bishop who was already mounted he said it and seemed to have something to add but whatever it was it remained unspoken the horses started and receded into the sapphire starlit night leaving him standing there before Colonel Bishop's door the last he heard of them was Mary Trail's childlike voice calling back on a quavering note I shall never forget what you did Mr. Blood I shall never forget but as it was not the voice he desired to hear the assurance brought him little satisfaction he stood there in the dark watching the fireflies amid the rhododendrons till the hoofbeats had faded then he sighed and roused himself he had much to do his journey into the town had not been one of idle curiosity to see how the Spaniards conducted themselves in victory it had been inspired by a very different purpose and he had gained in the course of it all the information he desired he had an extremely busy night before him and must be moving he went off briskly in the direction of the stockade where his fellow slaves awaited him in deep anxiety and some hope End of Chapter 8 Read by Sandra in Wales United Kingdom November 2006