them himself for Pedro's
daughter.

Presently he began to assert a more or less proprietary interest in the
family. It was no uncommon thing for him to issue orders to the nurses;
he hectored the Doctor; and on several occasions he went so far as to
offend such well-meaning ladies as Mrs. Spofford, Madame Careni-Amori,
Mrs. Block and others when they appeared at Pedro's cabin with
delicacies for the girl. And finally the people in that end of the camp
began to speak of Manuel Crust as a good fellow and a gentleman!

On Easter Sunday he stood guard over Pedro's cabin while that worthy and
his family went to the "Tabernacle" to attend the special services. Two
of the nurses were inside with the girl, but outside sat Manuel, a grim
watch-dog that growled when any one approached.

The horror of that black night and the days that witnessed the wiping
out of Sancho Mendez and Dominic hung like a pall over the camp. Both
executions had been witnessed by practically all of the inhabitants.
Captain Trigger came ashore.

With set, relentless faces the people watched two men go to their doom.
The women were as stony-faced, as repressed, as the men. Save for the
involuntary groans, and the queer hissing sound of long-pent breath as
the black-capped figures swung off into space, the tremulous hush of
intense restraint rested upon the staring crowd.

Twice they came out to see men they had known and respected "hanged by
the neck until dead," and on neither occasion was there the slightest
manifestation of pity, nor was there a single word of gloating. They
watched and then they went away, leaving the victims to be disposed
of by the men selected for the purpose. No shouts, no execrations, no
hysterical cries or sobs,--nothing save the grim silence of awe. For
these people, even to the tiniest child, had ceased to live in the light
of other days.

Peter Snipe, in his journal, wrote of that silent, subdued throng as
other historians have written of the rock-hearted people of Salem, and
of the soulful Puritans who grew heartless in the service of the Lord.

They stood afar-off and watched the small detachment of sailors carry
the bodies down to the basin, and every one knew that Sancho Mendez and
Dominic, heavily weighted, were rowed out to the middle and dumped into
a bottomless grave. Some there were who declared that their bodies would
sink for ages before reaching the bottom,--and no one thought of Sancho
Mendez and Dominic