ne? Go down on your knees, rascal!"

He hurls Khorre to the ground.

"String him up with a rope! I would have crushed your venomous head
myself--but let them do it. Oh, devils, devils! String him up with a
rope."

Khorre whines harshly:

"Me, Captain! I was your nurse, Noni."

"Silence! Rascal!"

"I? Noni! Your nurse? You squealed like a little pig in the cook's room.
Have you forgotten it, Noni?" mutters the sailor plaintively.

"Eh," shouts Haggart to the stern crowd. "Take him!"

Several men advance to him. Khorre rises.

"If you do it to me, to your own nurse--then you have recovered, Noni!
Eh, obey the captain! Take me! I'll make you cry enough, Tommy! You are
always the mischief-maker!"

Grim laughter. Several sailors surround Khorre as Haggart watches them
sternly. A dissatisfied voice says:

"There is no place where to hang him here. There isn't a single tree
around."

"Let us wait till we get aboard ship! Let him die honestly on the mast."

"I know of a tree around here, but I won't tell you," roars Khorre
hoarsely. "Look for it yourself! Well, you have astonished me, Noni. How
you shouted, 'String him up with a rope!' Exactly like your father--he
almost hanged me, too. Good-bye, Noni, now I understand your actions.
Eh, gin! and then--on the rope!"

Khorre goes off. No one dares approach Haggart; still enraged, he paces
back and forth with long strides. He pauses, glances at the body and
paces again. Then he calls:

"Flerio! Did you hear me give orders to kill this man?"

"No, Captain."

"You may go."

He paces back and forth again, and then calls:

"Flerio! Have you ever heard the sea lying?"

"No."

"If they can't find a tree, order them to choke him with their hands."

He paces back and forth again. Mariet is laughing quietly.

"Who is laughing?" asks Haggart in fury.

"I," answers Mariet. "I am thinking of how they are hanging him and I
am laughing. O, Haggart, O, my noble Haggart! Your wrath is the wrath
of God, do you know it? No. You are strange, you are dear, you are
terrible, Haggart, but I am not afraid of you. Give me your hand,
Haggart, press it firmly, firmly. Here is a powerful hand!"

"Flerio, my friend, did you hear what he said? He says the sea never
lies."

"You are powerful and you are just--I was insane when I feared your
power, Gart. May I shout to the sea: 'Haggart, the Just'?"

"That is not true. Be silent, Mariet, you are intoxicated with blood. I
don