wn colours.

"Once the ship was built, our game was easy. She was armoured heavily
amidships; she had two ten-inch guns in her turrets, and machine-guns
thick all over her; and she was the best-fitted ship in her quarters
swimming. It's a rum thing, but I always had a bit of a taste for nice
things--fine painting, gold work, and stones--and my only hobby to
speak of has been the buying of 'em. This led me to meet your friend
Hall. Not that I didn't know him from the first, for my men saw him in
the yards at Spezia, and from that day I never left him unwatched. I
followed him to Paris, to Liverpool, to London, when I was ashore; but
I never brought my ship within a hundred miles of any port: and I used
to hire yachts and sink 'em in mid-ocean when I wanted to reach her.
Your friend would be alive now if he hadn't sought to find out where I
got to when I left port in the _La France_. But I took him aboard to
end him, and they shot him off the Needles and lashed him to the
shrouds of the yacht when we fired her. He was a brave man, and
indirectly he brought me to this--him and you----"

"And the justice of God," I said, thinking hatred towards him again as
I remembered Hall's death.

"Perhaps," he answered, "but you know my history; and what's done can't
be undone. Yet I say again that, if my son was alive, and was taken
from me as he was taken seven years ago in Panama, I'd do what I did,
though they burnt me alive for it. I've been agen Europe, and I've
licked 'em, by Heaven; for what they've took is only my ship, and agen
that I've a million of their money to put. One man with his hand agen
the world's a fine sight, and what I've claimed I've done. Is piracy
not worth a cent? Is it played out, do you tell me? I reckon them as
says it lies. Give me a ship like mine that can show 'em twenty-nine
knots; give me the harbour to coal once in six months; and I'll live
against the lot of them, fight 'em one by one, rule this ocean more
sure than any man ruled a people. I say I'd do it; I should have said I
could have done it, for it's over now, and the day's gone. Before
another twenty-four hours you'll be alone in this dinghy, boy. I've
death on me, and I wouldn't live without the ship; no, I'll go under as
she went under--the Lord have mercy on me!"

The firmness of the captain was near to leaving him in that moment, but
he pulled himself together with a great effort, and sat aft, sculling
with the short oar in a mechanic