"You fool! You can kill me.
Pish! It is very well. I die with my work well done. In less
than an hour you will be the prisoners of Spain, and the Cinco
Llagas will go belong to Spain again."
Captain Blood regarded him steadily out of a face which, if
impassive, had paled under its deep tan. About the prisoner,
clamant, infuriated, ferocious, the rebels-convict surged, almost
literally "athirst for his blood."
"Wait," Captain Blood imperiously commanded, and turning on his
heel, he went aside to the rail. As he stood there deep in thought,
he was joined by Hagthorpe, Wolverstone, and Ogle the gunner. In
silence they stared with him across the water at that other ship.
She had veered a point away from the wind, and was running now on
a line that must in the end converge with that of the Cinco Llagas.
"In less than half-an-hour," said Blood presently, "we shall have
her athwart our hawse, sweeping our decks with her guns."
"We can fight," said the one-eyed giant with an oath.
"Fight!" sneered Blood. "Undermanned as we are, mustering a bare
twenty men, in what case are we to fight? No, there would be only
one way.
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