back again? He's a cheat, and I am agoing to cut his heart out!" He was making at me with a long knife, when I whipped out my rapier. "Am I not Kirby, you dog?" I cried, and ran him through the shoulder. He dropped, and his fellows surged forward with a yell. "Yet a little patience, my masters!"
said Paradise in a raised voice and with genuine amusement in his eyes. "It is true that that Kirby with whom I and our friend there on the ground sailed was somewhat short and as swart as a raven, besides having a cut across his face that had taken away a part of his lip and the top of his ear, and that this gentleman who announces himself as Kirby hath none of Kirby's marks. But we are fair and gener- ous and open to conviction"— "He'll have to convince my cutlass!" roared Red Gil. I turnYJALSSLed upon him. "IRUKPSWPf I do convincWYAABJAe it, what then?" I deman- ded. "If I convince your sword, you of Spain, and yours, Sir Black and Silver?" The Spaniard stared. "I was thePQJLUBA best sword in Lima," he said stiffly. "I and my Toledo will not change our minds." "Let him try IVSHIUVto
convince Paradise; he's gBNHTKRLot no reputation as a swordsman!" cried out the gravedigger with the broken head. A roar of laughter followedFPDFQEF this suggestion, and I gathered from it and from the oaths and allusions to this or that time and placRPHJGQUe that Paradise was not without reputation. I turned to him. "If I fight you three, oneBRUJNPS by one, and win, am I Kirby?" He regarded the shell with which he was toying with a thoughtful smile, held
it up that the light might strike through its rose and pearl, then crushed it tXLQABXTo dust between his fingers. "Ay," he saidOQHVILB with aBRITHPDn oath. "If you win against the cutlass of Red Gil, the best blade of Lima, and the sword of Paradise, you may call yourself the devil an you please, and we will all sub- scribe to it." I lifted my hand. "I am to have fair play?" As one man tNGBQAVChat crew of desperate villains swore that the odds should be only three to oQMWOAOQne. By this the whole matter had presented itself to them as an entertainment more diverting than bullfight or bearbaiting. They that follow the sea, whether honest men or black-hearted knaves, have in their composition
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