re, Captain
Penfeather--you as do be blacker pirate than ever was Bartlemy--come
out yonder on the reef alone wi' me and end it one way or t'other. Come
ashore, Adam, come ashore if ye dare adventure!"

"Ahoy you, Tressady!" roared Godby in reply, "Cap'n Adam is ashore wi'
ye this moment--look astarn o' you, ye rogue!"

Round sprang Tressady as out from the dense shadow of Bartlemy's tree
stepped Adam Penfeather himself. He stood there in the moonlight very
still and viewing Tressady with head grimly out-thrust, his arms
crossed upon his breast, a pistol in the fist and deadly menace in
every line of his small, spare figure.

"I'm here, Tressady!" says he, his voice ringing loud and clear. "And I
am come to make an end o' you this night. It hath been long
a-doing--but I have ye at last, Roger."

"Be ye sure, Adam, so sure?"

"As death, Tressady, for I have ye secure at last."

"Bleed me but you're out there, Adam, you're out there! The boot's on
t'other leg, for hereabouts do lie thirty and eight o' my lads watching
of ye this moment and wi' finger on trigger."

"I know it!" says Adam nodding. "But there's never a one dare shoot
me, for the first shot fired ashore shall bring a whole broadside in
answer, d'ye see. But as for you, Tressady, pray if you can, for this
hour you hang."

"Hang is it, Adam?" says Tressady, and with swift glance towards the
sinking moon, "And who's to do it--who?"

"There be thirty and eight shall swing ye aloft so soon as I give 'em
the word, Tressady."

"You do talk rank folly, Adam, folly, and ye know it!" says he smiling
and stealing furtive hand to the dagger in his girdle. "But and I
should die this night I take you along wi' me and you can lay to--"
But he got no further, for Smiling Sam (and marvellous nimble) whipped
up a stone, and leaping on him from behind smote him two murderous
blows and, staggering helplessly, Tressady pitched forward upon his
face and lay upon the verge of the incoming tide.

Beholding his handiwork, Smiling Sam uttered a thin, high-shrilling
laugh, and spitting upon that still form kicked it viciously.

"Oho, Cap'n Penfeather," cries he, "'tis the Smiler hath saved ye the
labour, look'ee! 'Tis Sam hath finished Tressady at last and be damned
t' him! And now 'tis the Smiler as do be first to 'list wi' ye!" and
he began to shamble across the sands; but passing that rock where
crouched Abnegation Mings he tripped and fell, and I saw the flash