t, unless you go and talk of it yourselves? What's the reason
against it? Let's be men! Let's be above such folly! If they go to
the bottom--why, a gale of wind and a started butt might easily send
them there; so, where's the difference? In one case, their rich cargo
would go with them; now, you see, shipmates, we shall get it. So, hurra
for the black flag, and overboard with all scruples!"

Now, however glaring the folly and wickedness of such reasoning may
appear to us, it seemed very tempting and sensible to the miserable men
to whom it was addressed. The carpenter only, and another man, refused
to drink, or to participate in any way in the project. They could not,
however, turn the rest from their intentions. The treacherous mode in
which the _Helen_ was taken possession of, I have already described.
The carpenter alone held out; the other man pretended to join them, with
the hope, it appeared, of saving the lives of their prisoners. When
they had mastered the crew of the _Helen_, the pirates jeered and
laughed at them, as they were removing the cargo, and, bound as they
were, even kicked and struck them, and treated them with every
indignity. They then compelled the carpenter to accompany them on board
with his tools, and, holding a pistol at his head, made him bore holes
in the ship's bottom. No one appeared to have been wilder or more
savage than Adams. Having completed this nefarious work, as they
thought, effectually, the pirates left their victims to their fate.
They would certainly have returned to remedy their mistake, and to send
the _Helen_ more speedily to the bottom, when they caught sight of a
ship of war in the distance. They watched impatiently, but still the
_Helen_ floated. At length the strange sail drew near, and, fearful of
being found by her in the neighbourhood of the plundered vessel, they
stood away under every stitch of canvas they could set. Scarcely had
the deed been committed, than each began to fear that the other would
betray him; and, as if oaths could bind such wretches effectually, they
all agreed to swear, on crossed swords, that they would never divulge
what had occurred. They compelled the carpenter and the other honest
man to join them in their profane oath, threatening to blow out their
brains forthwith, if they refused. It seems strange that men guilty of
such crimes should make use of the sign of the cross to confirm their
oaths, and call God especially to wit