s. They now dragged the boy forward, still in a half-fainting
condition and made fast his feet in a loop in one end of the rope, then,
stretching his arms along the deck in the other direction, bound his
wrists in a similar way. He was practically made a part of the ring of
hemp that circled the ship's middle.

Without further ceremony other than a parting kick or two, the crew took
their places at the rope, ready to pull the lad to destruction. He set
his teeth and a wordless prayer went up from his heart.

The wrench of the rope at his ankles never came. As he lay with his eyes
closed, a high-pitched voice broke the quiet. "If a man starts to haul
on that line, I'll shoot him dead!" Jeremy turned his head and looked.
There stood Stede Bonnet, his face ashen gray and trembling, but with a
venomous fire in his sunken eyes. He held a pistol in each hand and two
more were thrust into his waist-band. Not a man stirred in the crew.

"That boy," went on the clear voice, "had no hand in the business, and
well you know it. It is for me to give out punishments while I am
Captain of this sloop, and by God I shall be Captain during my life.
Pharaoh Daggs, step forward and unloose the rope!" The man with the
broken nose fixed his light eyes on the Captain's for a full five
seconds. Bonnet's pistol muzzle was as steady as a rock. Then the
sailor's eyes shifted and he obeyed with a sullen reluctance. Jeremy,
liberated, climbed to his knees and stood up swaying. Just then there
was a rush of feet behind. He turned in time to see Job Howland vanish
head foremost over the rail in a long clean dive. The astonished crew
ran cursing to the side and stared after him, but no faintest trace of
the man appeared. At dawn a breeze had sprung up and now the little
waves chopped along below the ports with a sound like a mocking chuckle.
They had robbed the buccaneers of their cruel sport.

Mutiny might have broken out then and there, but Stede Bonnet, cool as
ever, stood amidships with his arms crossed and a calm-looking pistol in
each fist. "Herriot," he remarked evenly, "better set the men to
cleaning decks and repairing damage. We'll start down the Jersey coast
at once."

Jeremy got to his bunk as best he might and slept for the greater part
of twenty-four hours. When he awoke, the crew had just finished
breakfast and were sitting, every man by himself, counting out gold
pieces. Bonnet had divided the booty found on the brig and in their