upon what they held.

The papers Captain Morgan found in a wallet in an inner breast
pocket of the Spaniard's waistcoat. These he examined one by

one, and finding them to his satisfaction, tied them up again,
and slipped the wallet and its contents into his own pocket.

Then for the first time he appeared to observe Master Harry, who,
indeed, must have been standing, the perfect picture of horror

and dismay. Whereupon, bursting out a-laughing, and slipping the
pistol he had used back into its sling again, he fetched poor

Harry a great slap upon the back, bidding him be a man, for that
he would see many such sights as this.

But indeed, it was no laughing matter for poor Master Harry, for
it was many a day before his imagination could rid itself of the

image of the dead Spaniard's face; and as he walked away down
the street with his companions, leaving the crowd behind them,

and the dead body where it lay for its friends to look after, his
ears humming and ringing from the deafening noise of the pistol

shots fired in the close room, and the sweat trickling down his
face in drops, he knew not whether all that had passed had been

real, or whether it was a dream from which he might presently
awaken.

IV
The papers Captain Morgan had thus seized upon as the fruit of

the murder he had committed must have been as perfectly
satisfactory to him as could be, for having paid a second visit

that evening to Governor Modiford, the pirate lifted anchor the
next morning and made sail toward the Gulf of Darien. There,

after cruising about in those waters for about a fortnight
without falling in with a vessel of any sort, at the end of that

time they overhauled a caravel bound from Porto Bello to
Cartagena, which vessel they took, and finding her loaded with

nothing better than raw hides, scuttled and sank her, being then
about twenty leagues from the main of Cartagena. From the

captain of this vessel they learned that the plate fleet was then
lying in the harbor of Porto Bello, not yet having set sail

thence, but waiting for the change of the winds before embarking
for Spain. Besides this, which was a good deal more to their

purpose, the Spaniards told the pirates that the Sieur Simon, his
wife, and daughter were confined aboard the vice admiral of that

fleet, and that the name of the vice admiral was the Santa Maria
y Valladolid.

So soon as Captain Morgan had obtained the information he desired
he directed his course straight for the Bay of Santo Blaso, where

he might lie safely within the cape of that name without any
danger of discovery (that part of the mainland being entirely

uninhabited) and yet be within twenty or twenty-five leagues of
Porto Bello.

Having come safely to this anchorage, he at once declared his
intentions to his companions, which were as follows:

That it was entirely impossible for them to hope to sail their
vessel into the harbor of Porto Bello, and to attack the Spanish

vice admiral where he lay in the midst of the armed flota;
wherefore, if anything was to be accomplished, it must be

undertaken by some subtle design rather than by open-handed
boldness. Having so prefaced what he had to say, he now declared

that it was his purpose to take one of the ship's boats and to go
in that to Porto Bello, trusting for some opportunity to occur to

aid him either in the accomplishment of his aims or in the
gaining of some further information. Having thus delivered

himself, he invited any who dared to do so to volunteer for the
expedition, telling them plainly that he would constrain no man

to go against his will, for that at best it was a desperate
enterprise, possessing only the recommendation" target="_blank" title="n.推荐；劝告">recommendation that in its

achievement the few who undertake的过去式">undertook it would gain great renown, and
perhaps a very considerable booty.

And such was the incredible influence of this bold man over his
companions, and such was their confidence in his skill and

cunning, that not above a dozen of all those aboard hung back
from the taking" target="_blank" title="n.任务；事业；计划">undertaking, but nearly every man desired to be taken.

Of these volunteers Captain Morgan chose twenty--among others our
Master Harry--and having arranged with his lieutenant that if

nothing was heard from the expedition at the end of three days he
should sail for Jamaica to await news, he embarked upon that

enterprise, which, though never heretofore published, was perhaps
the boldest and the most desperate of all those that have since

made his name so famous. For what could be a more unparalleled
taking" target="_blank" title="n.任务；事业；计划">undertaking than for a little open boat, containing but twenty

men, to enter the harbor of the third strongest fortress of the
Spanish mainland with the intention of cutting out the Spanish

vice admiral from the midst of a whole fleet of powerfully armed
vessels, and how many men in all the world do you suppose would

venture such a thing?
But there is this to be said of that great buccaneer: that if he

undertake的过去式">undertook enterprises so desperate as this, he yet laid his plans
so well that they never went altogether amiss. Moreover, the very

desperation of his successes was of such a nature that no man
could suspect that he would dare to undertake such things, and

accordingly his enemies were never prepared to guard against his
attacks. Aye, had he but worn the king's colors and served under

the rules of honest war, he might have become as great and as
renowned as Admiral Blake himself.

But all that is neither here nor there; what I have to tell you
now is that Captain Morgan in this open boat with his twenty

mates reached the Cape of Salmedina toward the fall of day.
Arriving within view of the harbor they discovered the plate

fleet at anchor, with two men-of-war and an armed galley riding
as a guard at the mouth of the harbor, scarce half a league

distant from the other ships. Having spied the fleet in this
posture, the pirates presently pulled down their sails and rowed

along the coast, feigning to be a Spanish vessel from Nombre de
Dios. So hugging the shore, they came boldly within the harbor,

upon the opposite side of which you might see the fortress a
considerable distance away.

Being now come so near to the consummation of their adventure,
Captain Morgan required every man to make an oath to stand by him

to the last, whereunto our hero swore as heartily as any man
aboard, although his heart, I must needs confess, was beating at

a great rate at the approach of what was to happen. Having thus
received the oaths of all his followers, Captain Morgan commanded

the surgeon of the expedition that, when the order was given, he,
the medico, was to bore six holes in the boat, so that, it

sinking under them, they might all be compelled to push forward,
with no chance of retreat. And such was the ascendancy of this

man over his followers, and such was their awe of him, that not
one of them uttered even so much as a murmur, though what he had

commanded the surgeon to do pledged them either to victory or to
death, with no chance to choose between. Nor did the surgeon

question the orders he had received, much less did he dream of
disobeying them.

By now it had fallen pretty dusk, whereupon, spying two fishermen
in a canoe at a little distance, Captain Morgan demanded of them

in Spanish which vessel of those at anchor in the harbor was the
vice admiral, for that he had dispatches for the captain thereof.

Whereupon the fishermen, suspecting nothing, pointed to them a
galleon of great size riding at anchor not half a league