he Practitioner, who raised it high and gave
a swinging slash downward with it, as if to test his eye and arm. The
Practitioner then rolled his right shirt-sleeve up to his shoulder; he
was the largest man in the party, and his arm was the arm of a
blacksmith.

"Stop!" cried Mr. Punch. "One moment! Captain Lingo! You are a
Henglishman, aren't you?"

"I am an Englishman," said the Captain, swelling out his chest. "Long
live King James!"

"Hi am a Henglishman also," said Mr. Punch, swelling out _his_ chest.
"You carn't murder a fellow-countryman in cold blood, now can you? Hi
s'y, you couldn't do that, you know. We're both subjects of her gracious
Majesty, we are. Long live Queen Victoria!"

"Who?" said Captain Lingo.

"Queen Victoria!" cried Mr. Punch. "She'd never, never forgive you
hif----"

"Never heard of her," said Captain Lingo calmly. "I'm a loyal subject of
his Catholic Majesty King James the Second,--may all the saints defend
him!"

"King James the Second!" cried Mr. Punch. "Why, 'e's been dead these two
'undred year, nearly! 'E's as dead as Christopher Columbus!"

Captain Lingo started violently, and his face became dark with anger.

"Dead? King James dead? Do you mark that, lads? He calls his blessed
Majesty dead! Aha! thou renegade Englishman, thou hast imagined the
death of the king! A felony, by St. George! And the punishment is death!
What, thou reprobate, dost thou not know 'tis a felony, punishable by
death, to imagine the death of the King?"

"But 'e _is_ dead. One carn't live two 'undred years, you know."

"You hear!" said Captain Lingo, his voice quivering with rage. "He
imagines the death of the King! Any judge in the kingdom would sentence
him to die for that! 'Tis the law! But enough talk. Captain Lingo is not
the man to stand by and see the law defied! For that, my pretty
Englishman, thou shalt die the death twice over. There shall be violence
in thy case. Thou shalt wish thou hadst never been born. Thou shalt be
kept for the last. Ay, ay; there shall be fine sport at his taking off,
eh, lads? Enough! Proceed with the ceremony. To imagine the death of the
King! Ketch, art thou ready?"

"Ay, ay, Captain," said the Practitioner.

The captain cast his angry eye over the terrified group shivering in
their damp garments. "One of you must be first. Who shall be first? Let
me see." Each person quailed as the pirate's eye rested on him. "One
moment. We will decide it by chance."

He plu