Evening star., 1924-12-06
CAPTAIN BLOOD
BIZ RAFAEL SABATINI
The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

forecastle with grapnels ready. With
in seven or eight yards Of the Victori-
euse, when their way seemed spent,
and their forward deck already awash
under the eyes of the jeering,
cheering Frenchmen, those men leaped
up and forward, and hurled their
grapnclS across the chasm. OF the
four they flung, two reached the
Frenchman' decks, and fastened
there. Swift as thought itself, was
then the action of those sturdy. eN-
pertenced buccaneers. Cnhesitatingly
all threw themselves upon the chain
of one of those grapnels, neglecting
the other, and heaved upon it with
all their might TO wrap the ships
together. Blood, watching from his
own quarterback, sent out his voice
in clarion call:
'Musketeers to the proW!"
The musketeerS, at their station at
the waist, obeyed him with the speed
of men who know that in obedience is
the only hope of life. Fifty Of them
dashed forward instantly, and from
the ruins of the forecastle they blazed
over the heads of Hayton's men, NOW
ing down the French soldiers who,
unable to dislodge tho irons, firmly
held where they had deeply bitten
into the timbers of the Nictorieuse,
were themselves preparing to fire
upon the grapnel crew.
Starboard to starboard tho two
ships swung against each other with
q jarring thud. BY then Blood was
down in the waist, judging and act
ing with the hurricane speed the oc-
casion demanded. Sail had been
lowered by slashing away the ropes
that held the yards. The advance
guard of boarders, hundred strong,
was ordered to the poop, and his
grapnel men were posted, and prompt
to obey his command at the very
moment Of impact. As a result, the
laundering Arabella was literally
kept afloat by the half-dozen grap-
nols that in an instant moored her
firmly to the Nictorieuse.
WillouEhby and van der Kuylen,
on the poop, had watched in breath
less amazemeut the speed and pre-
cision with which Blood and his des-
perate crew had gone to work. And
now he came racing up, his bugler
sounding the charge, the main host
of the buccaneers following him.
whilst the vanguard, led by the gun
ner Ogle, who had been driven from
his guns by water in the gundeck,
leapt shouting to the prov of the
Fictorieuse. TO whose level the high
poop of the water-logged Arabella
self, they launched themselves upon
the FRENCH like hounds upon the
stag they have brought to bay. After
them went others, until all had gone,
and none but Willoughby and the
Dutchman were left to watch the
fight from the quarterback of the
abandoned Arabella.
For fully half -an-hour that battle
ragged aboard the F'renchman. Be
n ia
through the forccastle to the waist,
where it reached a climax of fury.
The French resisted stubbornly, and
they had the advantage of numbers
to encourage them. But for all their
stubborn va1or, they ended by being
pressed back and back across the
decks that were dangerously canted
to starboard by the pull of tho water
logged Arabella- The buccaneers
fought with tho desperate fury of
men who know that retreat 1. i'm
possible, for there was no ship to
which they could retreat, and here
they must prevail and make the
Eictorieuse their own, or perish.
And their own they made her in
the end, and at u cost of nearly half
their numbers. Driven to the quar-
terdeck, the surviving defenders,
urged on by the infuriated Rivaroi,
sistance. But IN the end, Rivarol
went down with bullet In his head,
and the French remnant, numbering
scarcely a score of whole men, call !
ed for quarter.
Even then the labors Of Blood's |
men were not at an end. The Eliza
beth and the Medusa were tight
locked. and .Hagthrope's followers
were being driven back aboard their
own ship for the second time. Prompt
measures were demanded. Whilst
Pitt and his seamen bore their part
with the sails, and Ogle went below
with a, gun crew, Bkood ordered the
grapnels to be loosed at once. Lord
Willoughby and the admiral were
already aboard the Nictorieuse. AS
they swung off to the rescue of Hag-
thrope, Blood, from the qaurterdeck
of the conquered vessel, looked his
last upon the ship that had
served him so well, the ship that
had become to him almost as a
part of himself. A moment she
rocked after her release, then slowly
and gradually settled down. the
water gurgling and eddying about her
topmasts, all that remained visible |
to mark the spot where she had met |
her death.
AS he stood there. above the
shambles in the waist Of the |
Victorieuse, some one spoke behind
him. Il think, Capt. Blood, that it !
is necessary 1 should beg your par
don for a second time. Never before
have / seen the impossible made pos
sible by resource and valor or VIC
tory so gallantly. snatched from de-
feat"
He turned, and presented to Lord
Willoughby formidable front. His
head-piece was gone, his breastplate
dented, his right sleeve a rag hang
ing from his shoulder about a naked
arm. He was splashed from head to
foot with blood, and there was blood
from q scalp-wound that he had
taken mating his hair and mixing
with the CRIME of powder on his face
to render him unrecognizable
But with that horrible mask two
vivid eyes looked out preternaturally
bright, and from those eyes two tears
had ploughed each furrow through
the filth Of his cheeks.
CHAP'VIrR YXxT