you are given.

"That your lordship gives me," Blood amended, "I am very grateful. But
at the moment, I confess, I can consider nothing but this great news. It
alters the shape of the world. I must accustom myself to view it as it
now is, before I can determine my own place in it."

Pitt came in to report that the work of rescue was at an end, and the
men picked up--some forty-five in all--safe aboard the two buccaneer
ships. He asked for orders. Blood rose.

"I am negligent of your lordship's concerns in my consideration of my
own. You'll be wishing me to land you at Port Royal."

"At Port Royal?" The little man squirmed wrathfully on his seat.
Wrathfully and at length he informed Blood that they had put into Port
Royal last evening to find its Deputy-Governor absent. "He had gone on
some wild-goose chase to Tortuga after buccaneers, taking the whole of
the fleet with him."

Blood stared in surprise a moment; then yielded to laughter.

"He went, I suppose, before news reached him of the change of government
at home, and the war with France?"

"He did not," snapped Willoughby. "He was informed of both, and also of
my coming before he set out."

"Oh, impossible!"

"So I should have thought. But I have the information from a Major
Mallard whom I found in Port Royal, apparently governing in this fool's
absence."

"But is he mad, to leave his post at such a time?" Blood was amazed.

"Taking the whole fleet with him, pray remember, and leaving the place
open to French attack. That is the sort of Deputy-Governor that the late
Government thought fit to appoint: an epitome of its misrule, damme!
He leaves Port Royal unguarded save by a ramshackle fort that can be
reduced to rubble in an hour. Stab me! It's unbelievable!"

The lingering smile faded from Blood's face. "Is Rivarol aware of this?"
he cried sharply.

It was the Dutch Admiral who answered him. "Vould he go dere if he were
not? M. de Rivarol he take some of our men prisoners. Berhabs dey dell
him. Berhabs he make dem tell. Id is a great obbordunidy."

His lordship snarled like a mountain-cat. "That rascal Bishop shall
answer for it with his head if there's any mischief done through this
desertion of his post. What if it were deliberate, eh? What if he is
more knave than fool? What if this is his way of serving King James,
from whom he held his office?"

Captain Blood was generous. "Hardly so much. It was just vindictiveness
that urged him. It's myse