His lips writhed in a snarling smile.
"Ah, perro ingles! You know too much," he said under his breath, and sprang for the Captain's throat.
Tight-locked in each other's arms, they swayed a moment, then together went down upon the deck, the Spaniard's feet jerked from under him by the right leg of Captain Blood.

The Spaniard had depended upon his strength, which was considerable.

But it proved no match for the steady muscles of the Irishman, tempered of late by the vicissitudes of slavery.

He had depended upon choking the life out of Blood, and so gaining the half-hour that might be necessary to bring up that fine ship that was beating towards them--a Spanish ship, perforce, since none other would be so boldly cruising in these Spanish waters off Hispaniola.

But all that Don Diego had accomplished was to betray himself completely, and to no purpose.