berville dryly. "We cannot keep it up."

All this while a boat was rowing swiftly from the shore of the island
towards a craft carrying Nell Gwynn beneath the curious, antique
figurehead. There were two men in her, and they were talking gloatingly
and low.

"See, bully, how I have the whole thing in my hands. Ha! Received by the
governor and his friends! They are all mad for the doubloons, which are
not for them, my Radisson, but for you and me, and for a greater than
Colonel Richard Nicholls. Ho, ho! I know him--the man who shall lead
the hunt and find the gold--the only man in all that cursed Boston whose
heart I would not eat raw, so help me Judas! And his name--no. That is
to come. I will make him great."

Again he chuckled. "Over in London they shall take him to their bosoms.
Over in London his blessed majesty shall dub him knight--treasure-trove
is a fine reason for the touch of a royal sword--and the king shall
say: 'Rise, Sir William'--No, it is not time for the name; but it is not
Richard Nicholls, it is not Hogarth Leveret." He laughed like a boy.
"I have you, Hogarth Leveret, in my hand, and by God I will squeeze you
until there is a drop of heart's blood at every pore of your skin!"

Now and again Radisson looked sideways at him, a sardonic smile at his
lip. At last: "Bien," he said, "you are merry. So--I shall be merry too,
for I have scores to wipe away, and they shall be wiped clean--clean."

"You are with me, then," the pirate asked; "even as to the girl?"

"Even as to the girl," was the reply, with a brutal oath.

"That is good, dear lad. Blood of my soul, I have waited twelve
years--twelve years."

"You have not told me," rejoined the Frenchman; "speak now."

"There is not much to tell, but we are to be partners once and for all.
See, my beauty. He was a kite-livered captain. There was gold on board.
We mutinied and put him and four others--their livers were like his
own--in a boat with provisions plenty. Then we sailed for Boston. We
never thought the crew of skulkers would reach land, but by God
they drifted in again the very hour we found port. We were taken and
condemned. First, I was put into the stocks, hands and feet, till I
was fit for the pillory; from the pillory to the wooden horse." Here he
laughed, and the laugh was soft and womanlike. "Then the whipping-post,
when I was made pulp from my neck to my loins. After that I was to hang.
I was the only one they cooked so; the rest were