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.
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