eached
Tortuga and the buccaneers who awaited his return, the name of Captain
Blood, which had stood so high among the Brethren of the Coast, would
become a byword, a thing of execration, and before all was done his life
might pay forfeit for what would be accounted a treacherous defection.
And for what had he placed himself in this position? For the sake of
a girl who avoided him so persistently and intentionally that he must
assume that she still regarded him with aversion. He had scarcely been
vouchsafed a glimpse of her in all this fortnight, although with that in
view for his main object he had daily haunted her uncle's residence, and
daily braved the unmasked hostility and baffled rancour in which Colonel
Bishop held him. Nor was that the worst of it. He was allowed plainly
to perceive that it was the graceful, elegant young trifler from St.
James's, Lord Julian Wade, to whom her every moment was devoted. And
what chance had he, a desperate adventurer with a record of outlawry,
against such a rival as that, a man of parts, moreover, as he was bound
to admit?

You conceive the bitterness of his soul. He beheld himself to be as the
dog in the fable that had dropped the substance to snatch at a delusive
shadow.

He sought comfort in a line on the open page before him:

"levius fit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas."

Sought it, but hardly found it.

A boat that had approached unnoticed from the shore came scraping and
bumping against the great red hull of the Arabella, and a raucous voice
sent up a hailing shout. From the ship's belfry two silvery notes rang
clear and sharp, and a moment or two later the bo'sun's whistle shrilled
a long wail.

The sounds disturbed Captain Blood from his disgruntled musings. He
rose, tall, active, and arrestingly elegant in a scarlet, gold-laced
coat that advertised his new position, and slipping the slender volume
into his pocket, advanced to the carved rail of the quarter-deck, just
as Jeremy Pitt was setting foot upon the companion.

"A note for you from the Deputy-Governor," said the master shortly, as
he proffered a folded sheet.

Blood broke the seal, and read. Pitt, loosely clad in shirt and
breeches, leaned against the rail the while and watched him,
unmistakable concern imprinted on his fair, frank countenance.

Blood uttered a short laugh, and curled his lip. "It is a very
peremptory summons," he said, and passed the note to his friend.

The young master'