Shouts and screams and oaths told when each party stormed the fort which it was bidden put out of action. There was some fire from small arms, but not much; most of that night's work was done with cold steel and the hammer. Of the progress and fortune of the other two parties, the secretary could see little; she was sufficiently occupied in leading her own. The men who were chosen to be under her had grumbled at first at having such a stripling set over them, and the poor creature had to look her fiercest at them for fear lest they should openly mutiny and appoint another leader on their own responsibility. But once they had clambered inside the fort apportioned to them, she summed up a courage brazen enough to suit the most reckless of them. The hammer men, being unarmed otherwise, were nervous and clumsy, and seemed a most tedious time over their employment. The garrison poured out against them like bees from an upturned hive. And when eight of the twelve guns were spiked, a cry rose that it was time to be going, if any were to escape back to the carrack with their skins. But Master Laughan with tongue and sword stopped the panic (and indeed fought very valiantly for example), and a space was cleared round the remaining guns till the hammer men had stripped the tarpaulins from their breeches, and put them out of action. And then when indeed the work was over, and word was passed to make evacuation with all speed available, the secretary was the last to leap on the parapet and drop down over the wall.
Missiles and some shot flew after them, but they had no means for reply and indeed had been strictly ordered by the Prince to use their heels; and so dragging along their wounded, and leaving their dead, they raced on in a body through bye-streets and lanes, but always keeping in touch with the harbour-edge. Around them the town was ablaze with lights and fury, but in the hurry of their passage no man knew them exactly for what they were, and by the time any had guessed, they were out of shot and shout. It is useless to cry, "The Buccaneers are on us! The Buccaneers!" when all the town is thrilling with the same alarm.
But one deed the secretary did in La Vela which was outside Rupert's instructions, and indeed opposed to his strict command. There came down upon her band from one of the side streets a black-avised man mounted on horseback. She recognised him at once. He was the chief Inquisitor for Coro of that truly horrid institution of Rome miscalled the Holy Office, and with his own vile lips he had sentenced both Rupert and the secretary to what they call an auto da fé, but which in vulgar terms is nothing more nor less than a burning to death at the stake. Only the pressing need of the galleys for rowing-slaves gave them salvage from this, and for that they had to thank Captain Wick's activity, and not the Inquisitor's will. In fact they were beholden to him for so little, that Master Laughan forthwith broke orders, bade her men surround the fellow, and drag him from his horse. The reins of his own bridle served to bind his hands, and when in his black rage he would have halted to argue, shrewd sword progues quickly made him keep station. "Here is a nobleman for ransom," the secretary said to her buccaneers, and they swore they would be cut to pieces sooner than let him escape them.
With furious pantings they drove their way on through the streets, and at last came to that broad avenue, littered with barrels, cases, bales and other merchandise which heads round the inner bight of the harbour, and there they saw the stately carrack which had been ordered as their rendezvous. Already she was the centre of a pretty fight. The Prince's men and Simpson's had boarded her some minutes before, and her own people were resisting with fury and desperation. But at the run Master Laughan's came up, clambered over the great precipice of the stem, and so came upon the poop, which was the last hold of the Spaniards. Her people thus found themselves between two sets of swords and had no further stomach for fighting. Some jumped down on to the quay on one side, some were forced over into the water on the other, and there was the great carrack in alien hands, and buccaneers with axes were cutting through her shore-fasts. But Master Laughan had one piece of merchandise to haul on board yet, and that was the black-avised man whom she gave orders to carry below, and set two of the freed slaves to guard.
The galley, according to orders, backed up, passed a warp on board over her stern, and began to tow towards the harbour entrance, and all those who had any ship-knowledge on the carrack laid aloft to loose her canvas. From the dumb batteries the garrisons raged as they wrestled with their spiked artillery. And in the meanwhile a smattering harmless fire from arquebuses filled the night with flashings.
Gradually as her courses were let drop and her topsails hoisted, the carrack gathered way, and presently she passed out between the harbour heads. Clouds slid away, and showed a moon sailing in the heavens. The noises died out in the town, and one could guess that its people were watching the two vessels which sailed out over the lighted sea. The carrack trimmed deep in the water, and already expert valuers had been in the holds and reported her cargo of fabulous value.
"Young feller," said Simpson, "or rather I should say Captain, it's my belief we've run off with their annual plateship. Tha'st set us up for life."
"I had two motives in visiting the place," said Rupert, "profit and revenge. You say we've done well with the first, and that is pleasant hearing. But I should have liked to see my way to making the second more marked. I've suffered some vile indignities in this neighbourhood."
"Your Highness," put in the secretary, "I've flatly disobeyed your orders during this last half-hour."
Rupert looked at Master Laughan queerly. "Then I'll lay to it you've got some good excuse."