CHAPTER X

THE BLACK FLAG GOES UNDER

The cold morning light shone through the windows and lit up the room about me. It fell upon the walls, all spotted and stained with wine; upon the overturned tables and the golden goblets, which lay here and there upon the floor; upon the figures of the pirates, as they snored where they had fallen among the chairs in last night's bout.

I was lying flat upon the floor where I had been struck down by the goblet thrown by the priest. Putting my hand to my head, I felt a great bruise upon my forehead, which was clotted with blood. Sitting up upon the floor, I gazed around me; the Count was nowhere to be seen, nor was Oliver.

A sound at the door caught my ear, and I looked toward it--ye gods, did my mind wander? There standing sword in hand, looking into the room, his men behind him, stood my old acquaintance and sometime friend, Sir Francis Drake.

"Francis!" I joyfully cried, "Francis!--thou here?"

He started, a look of surprise upon his face.

"I could swear that I had heard that voice before," he muttered to himself, his eyes glancing down upon the fantastic scene upon the floor until it fell upon me, as I sat up among the slumbering pirates, still weak and faint from the blow that the sneaking priest had dealt me.

He looked at my face a moment--that gayly dressed gallant, with the bloodstained ruff and sober face, where had he seen him before?

A look of recognition came into his eyes.

"'Fore God!" he shouted in sudden joy, "it is Sir Thomas Winchester!" Then throwing up his hands sorrowfully, he cried: "Then it is true! Would to God I had not seen it!" and he turned his face away, as though to shut me from his sight.

"What's true?" I exclaimed, disappointed and alarmed at the change in his countenance, and painfully I staggered to my feet and faced him.

"That thou hast joined these pirates," he answered. "The report was circulated in London after thy disappearance, but thy friends would not credit such a tale. Never would I have believed it, had I not seen thee with mine own eyes," and he finished with a groan.

"Art thou so easily persuaded to think ill of one whom thou didst once believe in and trust?" I answered coldly, for in truth I was grieved and wounded that he should so readily think this of me. "Shame on thee, Sir Francis! Is it the part of a man to convict on such slight testimony and without a hearing? A few idle words of an empty brain, and thou wouldst turn thy back forever upon me, and tarnish the good name of a man of noble family, and one whom thou didst once love," and I looked at him indignantly.

"Slight testimony," he replied bitterly. "What wouldst thou call overwhelming then, if this is but slight? Lo! I look into the hall where the ruffians held their drunken feast last night, and I find thee here on the floor with them. Yes, by the saints, thou hast on the very sword of Sir Samuel Morton, who sailed away two years ago to search for gold on the coast of Peru, and who never returned. It was rumored that he was slain by the hand of Count DeNortier. I cannot be mistaken, for oft have I seen the sword in London. It is of a curious design, and thou couldst search the world over and find no other like unto it," and he pointed to the gold-hilted sword that lay at my side.

A young gallant had entered the room behind Drake, and now stood regarding me with a supercilious air.

"He even wears the gray silk doublet of Sir Samuel!" he lisped breathlessly. "Thou didst see it at the Queen's palace, Sir Francis, when Sir Samuel appeared in it that night for the first time, and how the doublet was praised for the beauty of the cloth and the shape of the garment. As for the sword, there are a dozen gentlemen here who can swear to it."

He was a dainty creature, this gentleman who had spoken, slender, wiry, with a colorless face, and little black beard; his doublet and hose all of the latest cut, and made of the finest material. He might have just stepped out of some London coffee-house instead of a ship commanded by the rough soldier Drake.

I turned my face towards Drake with a bitter look of scorn.

"If thou believest not the word of a gentleman, ask some of these men," I said. "Even they, besotted as they are, have left in them some sparks of justice; they will tell thee that I was held a prisoner here against my will and had naught to do with their adventures," and I seated myself in one of the carved chairs.

"A likely story indeed for one to believe!" the gallant behind Drake cried out shrilly.

"Peace, Sir James Mortimer!" said Sir Francis. "Prick one of yonder snoring rogues with thy sword, and see what he will say about the man. In truth I am loath to believe ill of one, who, when I knew him, ever bore himself gallantly and nobly. But we will see," and he seated himself, with a sigh.

His men were moving about the room, picking up the weapons from the floor and binding the prostrate pirates hand and foot.

Suddenly I remembered I had not seen DeNortier nor Oliver. Where were they; had harm befallen the lad?

"Sir Francis," I said, "there is a lad here, who has been a fellow captive with me. I should grieve if aught had befallen him, and I do not see him here. Hast thou seen a tall, fair, smooth-faced lad, with golden hair?"

"Aye," he answered, "we caught him outside with drawn sword, after the fat priest who guided us here. Faith! It is well that we came when we