Buccaneer Blood: The Adventures of Denis Burke (The H. Bedford-Jones Library) by H. Bedford-Jones

Author:H. Bedford-Jones [Bedford-Jones, H.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Action and Adventure
Publisher: Altus Press
Published: 2014-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter II

Degradation

THE three ships commanded by Saintonge and Hardy slipped out of the harbor that same afternoon, while the search for the missing Captain Mayo was still going on. All three were small, but well armed and crowded with men of all nations and races, and bore French letters of marque which nominally saved them from ranking as pirates. There was no distinction of nationality among the buccaneers; England and Holland might be leagued against France and Spain, but this meant nothing to them. They plundered indiscriminately, leaving French shipping alone because French ports gave them shelter. The Spaniards, their chief prey, made agonized efforts to exterminate them, regarding them as sea-wolves and outlaws without exception, whether allies or not.

That same evening after dark, Don Fernando de Ribera y Puertomayor sat in a tavern drinking and talking with the captain of a French brig who was bound for Santo Domingo. The mountains of the interior being occupied by maroons and runaway slaves, there was no overland communication with the Spanish half of Hispaniola. Ribera passed the captain a sealed letter, which the other hastily pocketed.

“You need not try to read it, señor,” he said grimly. “It is written in cipher, which only the governor himself can read. Place it in his hands, and he’ll at once deliver to you a thousand pistoles. You have everything to lose, nothing to gain, by playing me false.”

“Diantre!” exclaimed the Frenchman, with a grin. “I’m sailing at midnight, and in three days I’ll be at Santo Domingo. A thousand pistoles, eh? Done with you, and a good gamble.”

Ribera finished his flagon of wine and departed.

That night Garf O’Malley, on whom developed command of Captain Mayo’s men and ships, sat gloomily receiving reports, all alike vain. Mayo had simply disappeared from human ken. About midnight, however, one of the black slaves crept in, bringing another slave with him, a slave from the Licorne Tavern.

The black, who had scented rewards, told O’Malley a strange story of men drunk and helpless, taken aboard the brig of Captain Hardy when the latter sailed—taken aboard in full daylight. All of them were men of Hardy’s crew, it appeared, but there was one man who had been wrapped from head to foot in a cloak and carted off with the rest. The black had observed his boots, which were of soft morocco leather, crimson in hue. When he heard this, O’Malley swore a great oath, gave the black what gold he had about him, and strode into the other room where Malachi Halloran, Captain Mayo’s old body-servant, sat in dismal talk with the bos’un and several other men from the ship.

“Found!” exclaimed Garf, his big beard curling savagely about his face. They started up, staring at him. “Found! That devil Hardy caught him somehow, carried him off. He’s aboard Hardy’s ship now.”

“Aye?” said Bose. “And where’s Hardy’s brig, then?”

“Where I can find her in a week’s time,” returned O’Malley. “Every man aboard ship and make ready to sail! Bose, have a boat waiting for me.

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