here he was farther from civilization, consequently harder to get
at, and, naturally, more difficult to control. Since the sack of Panama,
twenty-five years before, his fortunes had been rapidly declining. One
of the principal agents in promoting his downfall had been the most
famous rover of them all. After robbing his companions of most of their
legitimate proportion of the spoils of Panama, Sir Henry had bought his
knighthood at the hands of the venal Charles, paying for it in treasure,
into the origin of which, with his usual careless insouciance, his
easy-going majesty had not inquired any too carefully. And the old
pirate had settled down, if not to live cleanly at least to keep within
the strict letter of the law. There was thereafter nothing he abhorred
so thoroughly as buccaneering and the buccaneer--ostensibly, that is.

Like many a reformed rake this gentle child of hell, when the
opportunity came to him with the position of Vice-Governor, endeavored
to show the sincerity of his reformation by his zealous persecution. He
hanged without mercy such of his old companions in crime as fell into
his clutches. They had already vowed vengeance upon him, these sometime
brethren of the coast, for his betrayal of their confidence at Panama;
they had further resented his honor of knighthood, his cloak of
respectability, his assumption of gentility, and now that he hanged and
punished right and left without mercy, their anger and animosity were
raised to the point of fury, and many of them swore deeply with bitter
oaths that if they ever caught him defenceless they would make him pay
dearly in torture and torment for these various offences. He knew them
well enough to realize their feelings toward him, and blind fate
affording him the opportunity of the upper hand he made them rue more
bitterly than ever their wild threats against him.

He had, moreover, so conducted himself in his official position that
everybody, good, bad, and indifferent, on the island hated him. Why he
had not been assassinated long since was a mystery. But he was a
dangerous man to attack. Absolutely fearless, prompt, decisive,
resourceful, and with the powers and privileges of the office he held
besides, he had so far escaped all the dangers and difficulties of his
situation. Charles had constantly befriended him and had refused to give
ear either to the reiterated pleas of the islanders for his removal, or
to the emphatic representations of the Sp