nd ripped through the water to the southward at such a pace as she had
never made before. On the quarter-deck a drenched, shivering, and
sobbing figure knelt at Morgan's feet and kissed his hand.

"Wilt obey me in the future?" cried the captain to the repentant man.

"'Fore God, I will, sir," answered Sawkins.

"That's well," said the old buccaneer. "Take him forward, men, and let
him have all the rum he wants to take off the chill of his wetting."

"You stood by me that time, Sir Henry," cried young Teach, who had been
told of Morgan's refusal to fill away, "and, by heaven, I'll stand by
you in your need!"

"Good. I'll remember that," answered Morgan, glad to have made at least
one friend among all he commanded.

"What's our course now, captain?" asked Hornigold as soon as the
incident was over.

"Sou'west by west-half-west," answered Morgan, who had taken an
observation that noon, glancing in the binnacle as he spoke.

"And that will fetch us where?" asked the old man, who was charged with
the duty of the practical sailing of the ship.

"To La Guayra and Venezuela."

"Oho!" said the old boatswain, "St. Jago de Leon, Caracas, t'other side
of the mountains will be our prize?"

"Ay," answered Morgan. "'Tis a rich place and has been unpillaged for a
hundred years."

He turned on his heel and walked away. He vouchsafed no further
information and there was no way for Master Ben Hornigold to learn that
the object that drew Morgan to La Guayra and St. Jago was not plunder
but the Pearl of Caracas.

CHAPTER VIII

HOW THEY STROVE TO CLUB-HAUL THE GALLEON AND FAILED TO SAVE HER ON THE
COAST OF CARACAS

Two days later they made a landfall off the terrific coast of Caracas,
where the tree-clad mountains soar into the clouds abruptly from the
level of the sea, where the surf beats without intermission even in the
most peaceful weather upon the narrow strip of white sand which
separates the blue waters of the Caribbean from the massive cliffs that
tower above them.

In the intervening time the South Sea buccaneers had picked up
wonderfully. These men, allured by the hope of further plunder under a
captain who had been so signally successful in the past and in the
present, constituted a most formidable auxiliary to Morgan's original
crew. Indeed, with the exception of the old hands they were the best of
the lot. L'Ollonois had been admitted among the officers on a suitable
footing, and there was little or