llency,
him with the gout in his foot so bad that he can't stand? Ye know very
well it's devil another doctor will he tolerate, being an intelligent
man that knows what's good for him."

But the Colonel's brute passion thoroughly aroused was not so easily to
be baulked. "If you're alive when my blacks have done with you, perhaps
you'll come to your senses."

He swung to his negroes to issue an order. But it was never issued. At
that moment a terrific rolling thunderclap drowned his voice and shook
the very air. Colonel Bishop jumped, his negroes jumped with him, and so
even did the apparently imperturbable Mr. Blood. Then the four of them
stared together seawards.

Down in the bay all that could be seen of the great ship, standing now
within a cable's-length of the fort, were her topmasts thrusting above
a cloud of smoke in which she was enveloped. From the cliffs a flight
of startled seabirds had risen to circle in the blue, giving tongue to
their alarm, the plaintive curlew noisiest of all.

As those men stared from the eminence on which they stood, not yet
understanding what had taken place, they saw the British Jack dip from
the main truck and vanish into the rising cloud below. A moment more,
and up through that cloud to replace the flag of England soared the gold
and crimson banner of Castile. And then they understood.

"Pirates!" roared the Colonel, and again, "Pirates!"

Fear and incredulity were blent in his voice. He had paled under his tan
until his face was the colour of clay, and there was a wild fury in his
beady eyes. His negroes looked at him, grinning idiotically, all teeth
and eyeballs.

CHAPTER VIII. SPANIARDS

The stately ship that had been allowed to sail so leisurely into
Carlisle Bay under her false colours was a Spanish privateer, coming to
pay off some of the heavy debt piled up by the predaceous Brethren of
the Coast, and the recent defeat by the Pride of Devon of two treasure
galleons bound for Cadiz. It happened that the galleon which escaped in
a more or less crippled condition was commanded by Don Diego de Espinosa
y Valdez, who was own brother to the Spanish Admiral Don Miguel de
Espinosa, and who was also a very hasty, proud, and hot-tempered
gentleman.

Galled by his defeat, and choosing to forget that his own conduct had
invited it, he had sworn to teach the English a sharp lesson which they
should remember. He would take a leaf out of the book of Morgan and
those othe