r 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 Llagas at San Juan de Porto Rico. He chose for
his objective the island of Barbados, whose natural strength was apt to
render her defenders careless. He chose it also because thither 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 with a 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 larboard 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 bleating, 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. "Now that," said he,
"is what I call a timely interruption. Though what'll come of it," he
added 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 stockade, panting 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 bandoleers.

By this time the rebels-convict were coming in, in twos and threes,
having abandoned their work upon finding themselves unguarded and upon
scenting the general dismay.

Kent paused a moment, as his hastily arme