there was water here.... There
is not enough for both of us. Who will get it?
I; look!" (_see page 436_) 437

"Harry Morgan's way to lead--old Ben Hornigold's to
follow--ha, ha! ho, ho!" He waded out into the
water ... (_see page 444_) 445

BOOK I

HOW SIR HENRY MORGAN IN HIS OLD AGE RESOLVED TO GO A-BUCCANEERING AGAIN

_SIR HENRY MORGAN, BUCCANEER_

CHAPTER I

WHEREIN SIR HENRY MORGAN MADE GOOD USE OF THE TEN MINUTES ALLOWED HIM

His Gracious Majesty, King Charles II. of England, in sportive--and
acquisitive--mood, had made him a knight; but, as that merry monarch
himself had said of another unworthy subject whom he had ennobled--his
son, by the left hand--"God Almighty could not make him a gentleman!"

[Illustration]

Yet, to the casual inspection, little or nothing appeared to be lacking
to entitle him to all the consideration attendant upon that ancient
degree. His attire, for instance, might be a year or two behind the
fashion of England and still further away from that of France, then, as
now, the standard maker in dress, yet it represented the extreme of the
mode in His Majesty's fair island of Jamaica. That it was a trifle too
vivid in its colors, and too striking in its contrasts for the best
taste at home, possibly might be condoned by the richness of the
material used and the prodigality of trimming which decorated it. Silk
and satin from the Orient, lace from Flanders, leather from Spain, with
jewels from everywhere, marked him as a person entitled to some
consideration, at least. Even more compulsory of attention, if not of
respect, were his haughty, overbearing, satisfied manner, his look of
command, the expression of authority in action he bore.

Quite in keeping with his gorgeous appearance was the richly furnished
room in which he sat in autocratic isolation, plumed hat on head,
quaffing, as became a former brother-of-the-coast and sometime
buccaneer, amazing draughts of the fiery spirits of the island of which
he happened to be, _ad interim_, the Royal Authority.

But it was his face which attested the acuteness of the sneering
observation of the unworthy giver of the royal accolade. No gentleman
ever bore face like that. Framed in long, thin, gray curls which fell
upon his shoulders after the fashion of the time, it was as cruel, as
evil, as sensuous, as ruthless, as powerful an