ly. No admiral of the fleet was ever served more promptly and
respectfully than he. Even his nearest associates were treated with a
certain haughtiness, which they bitterly resented and which they would
have called in question had the situation been other than it was. Truth
to tell, influenced by Hornigold, they had embarked upon a mad
enterprise, and they needed Morgan to bring it to a successful
conclusion. Without him the slender coherence which already existed
would fail, and anarchy would be the state upon the ship. There would
be nothing left to them but to scatter if they could make an unheeded
landing at some convenient place, or be captured, if they could not,
with a certainty of being hung forthwith. So long as they remained
together, it was certain that Morgan would lead them on some successful
enterprise and they might get some reward for their risks and crimes. In
his safety lay their safety.

The buccaneer was entirely aware of this, and therefore counted freely
upon the backing of the veterans among the officers and crew. He would
take care of the rest.

The ship, however, was a floating colony of suspicion, treachery, and
hatred. Morgan himself never appeared without being loaded with weapons,
not for bravado but for use should occasion rise, and his back was
always protected by the silent and gigantic maroon, whom the sailors,
catching the title from those who had known him of old, referred to with
malignant hatred as "Black Dog." That was a name, indeed, which the
taciturn half-breed rather rejoiced in than resented. Morgan had been
able to awaken love in no hearts except those of young Teach, whose
feeling was admiration rather than affection, and this half-breed
maroon. Whether it was from his black African mother or from his fierce
red Carib father he inherited the quality of devotion was not apparent.
Devoted he had been and devoted he remained.

Close association in the narrow confines of the ship with the man who
had, as he believed, wronged him, had but intensified Hornigold's
hatred. The One-Eyed found it difficult to dissemble, and took refuge in
a reticence which was foreign to his original frank and open character.
Morgan half suspected the state of affairs in his old boatswain's moiled
and evil soul, and he watched him on account of it more closely than the
others, but with no great disquiet in his heart. Truth to tell, the old
pirate was never so happy as in the midst of dangers, imminen