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Show 18, Jeffries, Islamorada [Section 2] the hands of those Keys-people--" Here he made a hurried gesture, either the sign of the cross, or the familiar my-throat-is-slit. "Such I have heard. It is the truth then about the padres--?" They had wandered to a casting game in the forepeak. Pablo sent up a prayer for the unfortunate creature whose bones were being tossed thus. "Seven-foot giants. And the manchineel. Put the little poison apple down the well. "It's all a gamble, isn't it, little Pablo? That the rich queen should move her flota in hurricane season to escape pirates. And yet, we're told, the odds are in our favor. Early in the month of August, and we may be spared the weather. . ." But at dawn the sky was red. And a trailing carrack signalled that a tiny pirate craft, running up the red hourglass flag, had put out to worry them, to make a show of things, and just as quickly darted back to its green cove. For the wind which yesterday could be measured in the drifting of smoke now breathed in harshness on the pennants of Aragon, and there was a noise like words coming out of the masts. Vespers, and the grand formee-crosses were coming down like winding-sheets. |