Chance the Winds of Fortune Read Online Free PDF

asked softly, his gray eyes glowing strangely in the candlelight.
    â€œAye, m’lord,” Kirby replied evenly. “I do realize what it will mean.”
    Dante smiled thoughtfully at this tactful reply. “Do you not trust me, Kirby?”
    â€œI know ye well enough, m’lord,” Kirby said, looking directly into the captain’s eyes. “Aye, that’s the problem. I know ye only too well. And don’t ye be forgetting, m’lord, that I helped ye into your first pair of breeches. Aye, I know ye well, cap’n. I know what ye’re planning, m’lord, and it has me grievously worried, that it does.”
    â€œNow, Kirby, you know that I am a man of discretion. I am well used to biding my time,” Dante answered, a grim tightness around his lips. “I shall be subtlety personified.”
    Kirby cast the captain a doubtful glance. “Aye, ye might at that, until ye set eyes on the bastard’s face. Then I’d not care to be in his shoes.”
    â€œTch, tch, Kirby.” Dante sighed, making light of the steward’s doubts. “I must say I am disappointed in your lack of faith in me.”
    â€œAnd I’m afeared I’m not going to be disappointed by your actions,” Kirby muttered as he stomped from the cabin, Dante’s amused laughter following him even after he’d closed the door with exaggerated care.
    â€œI think we shall not be disappointed this time, Jamaica, old boy,” Dante whispered into the sleeping cat’s ear. “This time we shall find our treasure.”
    Dante Leighton, captain of the Sea Dragon and Marquis of Jacqobi, smiled unpleasantly as he let his thoughts travel further. “Yes, you have reason not to trust me, Kirby,” he told the empty room as he continued smoothing the cat’s striped fur with a firm, yet at that moment, gentle hand.
    * * *
    A little over a week later the Sea Dragon was rounding Cape San Antonio, the prevailing winds carrying her along as she caught the Gulf Stream and the coast of Cuba fell astern. Dante Leighton was standing, legs braced slightly apart, on the lee side of the deck, his spyglass trained on the horizon as he swung it slowly in an arc from fore to aft. He knew he was the center of the crew’s curious speculation, for only a crazed man, if given a choice, would dare to challenge the Florida Straits with nightfall closing around his ship and the treacherous passage hemmed in by reefs and sandbanks.
    â€œCaptain, ’tis dangerous, this course you are about,” Alastair said quietly as he moved up beside the captain.
    Dante lowered the glass. “Aye, Mr. Marlowe, but you’ve got to take chances if you are to win.”
    â€œIf you’ll pardon my indiscretion, Captain,” Alastair continued, “what urgent need is there to risk the reefs at night? The way the winds come up out of nowhere, we could easily run aground.”
    â€œBelieve me, Alastair, the need is there,” Dante replied, not in the least offended by his supercargo’s questioning. “I suspect the lookout will spy a sail aft any moment now,” he informed the startled Alastair, who spun around quickly and strained his narrowed eyes into the falling twilight.
    â€œA sail? Where? I don’t see one.”
    â€œSail ho!” the lookout cried from aloft.
    â€œGood God, how the devil did you know even before the lookout saw it?” Alastair exclaimed. “Can you make her?” he asked, standing by helplessly while Dante stared through the spyglass.
    â€œShe’s no British ship-of-the-line,” Dante replied. “But then I didn’t expect her to be.”
    â€œShe’s maneuvering, Cap’n! Crowding on!” the lookout called as he watched the pursuing ship set all of her sails.
    â€œâ€™Tis the Annie Jeanne ,” MacDonald said as he came to stand beside the captain on the poop deck. “I recognize her rigging and sails. And