uple of feet of steel into your vitals. When I accepted
your commission, I was moved to think it might redeem me in the eyes of
Miss Bishop--for whose sake, as you may have guessed, I took it. But
I have discovered that such a thing is beyond accomplishment. I should
have known it for a sick man's dream. I have discovered also that if
she's choosing you, as I believe she is, she's choosing wisely between
us, and that's why I'll not have your life risked by keeping you aboard
whilst the message goes by another who might bungle it. And now perhaps
ye'll understand."

Lord Julian stared at him bewildered. His long, aristocratic face was
very pale.

"My God!" he said. "And you tell me this?"

"I tell you because... Oh, plague on it!--so that ye may tell her;
so that she may be made to realize that there's something of the
unfortunate gentleman left under the thief and pirate she accounts me,
and that her own good is my supreme desire. Knowing that, she may...
faith, she may remember me more kindly--if It's only in her prayers.
That's all, my lord."

Lord Julian continued to look at the buccaneer in silence. In silence,
at last, he held out his hand; and in silence Blood took it.

"I wonder whether you are right," said his lordship, "and whether you
are not the better man."

"Where she is concerned see that you make sure that I am right. Good-bye
to you."

Lord Julian wrung his hand in silence, went down the ladder, and was
pulled ashore. From the distance he waved to Blood, who stood leaning on
the bulwarks watching the receding cock-boat.

The Arabella sailed within the hour, moving lazily before a sluggish
breeze. The fort remained silent and there was no movement from the
fleet to hinder her departure. Lord Julian had carried the message
effectively, and had added to it his own personal commands.

CHAPTER XXIV. WAR

Five miles out at sea from Port Royal, whence the details of the coast
of Jamaica were losing their sharpness, the Arabella hove to, and the
sloop she had been towing was warped alongside.

Captain Blood escorted his compulsory guest to the head of the ladder.
Colonel Bishop, who for two hours and more had been in a state of mortal
anxiety, breathed freely at last; and as the tide of his fears receded,
so that of his deep-rooted hate of this audacious buccaneer resumed its
normal flow. But he practised circumspection. If in his heart he vowed
that once back in Port Royal there was no effort