Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer: A Romance of the Spanish Main

by Cyrus Townsend Brady

"His eyes are open! Water, quick!"

With skilled fingers begot by long practice the cavalier cut the lacings of Alvarado's doublet and gave him water, then a little wine. As the young Captain returned to consciousness, once more the officers crowded around him, the Viceroy in the centre, Mercedes on her knees again.

"Mercedes," whispered the young Captain. "Alive—unharmed?"

"Yes," answered Mercedes brokenly, "thanks to God and thee."

"And de Tobar," generously asserted Alvarado. "Where is he?"

"Dead."

"Oh, brave de Tobar! And the city——"

"Is ours."

"And Morgan?"

"Here in my hands," said the Viceroy sternly.