Adventure Magazine Cover, June 18, 1921 — page 46: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

36 ill-treatment he received ashore before we carried him away with us. I can handle a ship tolerably well in action, and there are one or two men of Devon aboard who can assist me; but in the higher mysteries of seamanship and of the art of finding our way over trackless wastes of the ocean we know nothing. To hug the Jand, and go blundering about what you so aptly call this pestilent archipelago is for us to court disaster, aS you can perhaps conceive. ‘‘And so it comes to this: Wesdesire to make for the Dutch settlement of Curacao as straightly as possible, there to victual our ship and invite adventurers to join us so as tomake up a proper complement. Will you pledge me your ‘honor if I release you upon parole that you will navigate us thither? If so we will either restore you and your sur- viving men to liberty upon arrival there, or if you prefer it carry you off again to put you ashore as you have suggested on one of the lesser isles.” Don Diego bowed his head upon his breast, and strode away in thought to the stern windows. There he stood looking out upon the sunlit sea and the dead water in the great ship’s wake—his ship that these English dogs had wrested from him; his ship that he was asked to bring safely into a port where she would be completely lost to him and refitted to make war upon his kin. That was in one scale; in the other were the lives of eleven men, his own in- cluded. He turned at length; and, his back being to the light, the captain could not see how pale his face had grown. “T accept,” he said. Thus was the bargain made, and there- after Don Diego enjoyed the freedom of the ship that had been his, and. the navigation of her was left entirely in his hands. And because those who manned her were new to the seas of the Spanish Main, and had not yet learned to see in every Spaniard a treacherous, cruel dog to be slain at sight, they used him with the civility which his own suave urbanity invited. © He took his meals in the great cabin with Blood and the half-dozen officers elected to support him. Of these were Hagthorpe, a slight, fair man of thirtv; Wolverstone, a swarthy giant who had lost an eye at Sedgemoor; and Ogle the gunner, a burly . man who had seen a deal of fighting in his Adventure - equaled only by his knowledge of guns and all that appertained to them. They found Don Diego an agreeable, even an amusing companion, and _ their friendly feeling toward him was fostered by his fortitude and brave equanimity in this adversity. 7 That Don Diego was not playing fair it was impossible to suspect. Moreover there was no conceivable reason why he should not. And he had been of the utmost frank- ness with them. He had denounced their mistake in sail- ing before the wind upon Jeaving Barbados. They should have left the island to leeward, heading into the Caribbean and away from the archipelago. As it was, they would now be forced to pass through it again so as to make Curagao, and this passage was not to be accomplished without some measure of risk to themselves. At any point between the islands they might come upon an equal or superior craft; whether she were Spanish or English would be equally bad for them, and being under- manned they were in no case to fight. To lessen this risk as far as possible Don Diego directed at first a southerly and then a west- erly course; and so, taking a line midway ~ between the islands of Tobago and Grenada, they won safely through the danger zone and came into the comparative security of the Caribbean Sea. “Tf this wind holds,” he told them that night at supper after he had announced to them their position, “we should reach Curacao inside three days.” FOR three days the wind held—in- deed 4t freshened a little on the sec- ond—and yet on the evening of the third day the Cinco Llagas was plowing through a sea contained on every side by the blue bowl of heaven. Captain Blood uneasily mentioned it to Don Diego. “It will be for tomorrow morning,” he was answered with calm conviction. “By the saints, it is always ‘tomorrow morning’ with you Spaniards; and tomor- row never comes, my friend.” “But this tomorrow is coming, rest as- sured. However early you may be astir you shall see land ahead, Don Pedro.” Captain Blood passed on, content, and went to visit Jerry Pitt, his patient, to whose condition Don Diego owed his chance time and whose ignorance of ships was~ of life. For twenty-four hours now the oO COMmiclboo oN Up) CO