ou're a prime sailor-man, you're my bo'sun
henceforth."

But now Smiling Sam awaking from his swoon moaned feebly and sat up:

"Not the hook, Cap'n!" he wailed, "O not that--"

"No, Smiler, no, I keep it for better men. Disobey me again and I'll
drown ye in a puddle. And now up wi' you, Sammy, up wi' you and stand
by to teach Martin here how to talk."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n--aye, aye!" says the gross fellow, rising nimbly
enough, whiles his comrades closed about us expectant, and glancing
from me to Tressady where he had seated himself on a boulder:

"Here will do!" says he, pointing to a brilliant strip of moonlit sand
midway betwixt the shadows of the cliff and Bartlemy's tree. "On his
back, hearties, and grapple him fast, he's strong well-nigh as I am.
Now his hand, Smiler, his right hand--"

"Aye, aye, Cap'n!" quoth the fellow, kneeling above me where I lay
helpless. "Will I cut it adrift--slow like?" And as he flourished his
knife I saw a trickle of saliva at the corners of his great, loose
mouth, "Off at the wrist, Cap'n, or fingers first?"

"No, fool! His thumb-nail first--try that!"

Sweating and with every nerve a-quiver I watched that cruel knife,
holding my breath in expectation of the coming agony, and then--from
the black gloom of the cliff beyond burst a sudden echoing roar, I
heard the whine of a bullet and immediately all was confusion and
uproar, shouts of dismay and a wild rush for shelter from this sudden
attack. But as I struggled to my knees Tressady's great hand gripped
my throat, and dragging me behind a boulder he pinned me there.

"Stand by, lads!" he roared. "Level at the cliff yonder, but let no
man pull trigger! Wait till they fire again and mark the flash!"

Helpless in my bonds and crushed beneath Tressady's knee I heard a stir
and rustle to right and left of me, the click of cocking triggers and
thereafter--silence. And, marking the gleam of pistol and
musket-barrel, I fell to an agony of dread, well knowing whence that
merciful shot had come. For mayhap five minutes nought was to hear
save the rustle of stealthy arm or leg and the sound of heavy
breathing, until at length one spoke, loud-voiced:

"What now, Captain? Us can't bide here all night."

"How many are we, Purdy?"

"Thirty and nine, Captain."

"Then do you take ten and scale the starboard cliff and you, Abner,
with other ten take the cliff to larboard. I'll bide here wi' the rest
and so we'll have 'em--"