he was close enough to aim only at her decks. Why, Snorro?
Because below her decks there was packed in helpless misery five
hundred black men, besides many women and little children."

"That was like Jan. He has a good heart."

"But when he was close enough, he loaded his guns with grape, and
ordered two men to be ready to lash the slaver to 'The Retribution,'
the moment they touched. Under cover of the smoke, Jan and ten men
boarded the slaver, but unfortunately, the force of the collision
drove 'The Retribution' off, and Jan and his little party found
themselves opposed to the eighty villains who formed the slaver's
crew.

"For a moment it seemed as if they must be overpowered, but a gallant
little midshipman, only fourteen years old, Snorro, think of that,
gave an instant order to get out the sweeps, and almost immediately
'The Retribution,' was alongside, and securely lashed to her enemy.
Then calling on the sailors to follow him the brave little lad boarded
her, and a desperate hand to hand fight followed. After fifteen
Spaniards had been killed and near forty wounded, the rest leaped
below and cried for quarter."

"Snorro would have given them just ten minutes to say a prayer, no
more. It is a sin to be merciful to the wicked, it is that; and the
kindness done to them is unblessed, and brings forth sin and trouble.
I have seen it."

"What thinkest thou? When Jan flung open the hatches under which the
poor slaves were fastened, sixty were dead, one hundred and twenty
dying. During the twenty-eight hours' chase and fight in that terrible
climate they had not been given a drop of water, and the air was
putrid and hot as an oven. Most of them had to be carried out in the
arms of Jan's sailors. There were seven babies in this hell, and
thirty-three children between the ages of two years and seven. Many
more died before Jan could reach Sierra Leone with them. This is the
work Jan has been doing, Snorro; almost I wish I was a young man
again, and had been with him."

The doctor's eyes were full; Snorro's head was in his hands upon the
table. When the doctor ceased, he stood up quivering with anger, and
said, "If God would please Michael Snorro, he would send him to chase
and fight such devils. He would give them the measure they gave to
others, little air and less water, and a rope's end to finish them.
That would be good enough for them; it would that."

"Well, then, thou wilt go to Jan?"

"I must go to-morro