one of your soldiers shot? Maximilien did it, but I killed him and
Congo! And now there is only you."

"That was--long ago." The prisoner rolled his eyes desperately; his
voice was uncertain as he whined, "I am rich--richer than anybody
knows."

"Others had more money than we, eh?"

The general nodded.

"Pierrine is dead, and you would have been the President. It is well
that I came in time." Again Captain Ruiz smiled, and the corpulent
soldier was shaken loosely as by an invisible hand. "Come now! Your
friends are approaching and I must prepare you to greet them."

He untied the knots at Laguerre's ankles, then motioned him toward the
cabin door.

That streamer of smoke had grown; it was a black smudge against the sky
when the two gained the deck, and at sight of it the general shouted:

"My ship! The gunboat! Ho! If harm comes to me--"

Inocencio took one end of the new rope which had been run through the
block at the masthead, and knotted it about his prisoner's wrists, then
with his knife he severed the other bonds.

"Give way!" he ordered.

The crew held back, at which he turned upon them so savagely that they
hastened to obey. They put their weight upon the line; Laguerre's arms
were whisked above his head, he felt his feet leave the deck. He was
dumb with surprise, choked with rage at this indignity, but he did not
understand its significance.

"Up with him! In a rush!" cried the captain, and hand over hand the
sailors hauled in, while upward in a series of jerks went Petithomme
Laguerre. The schooner listed and he swung outward; he tried to entwine
his legs in the shrouds, but failed, and he continued to rise until his
feet had cleared the crosstree.

"Make fast!" Inocencio ordered.

Laguerre was hanging like a huge plumbob now, and as the schooner heeled
to starboard he swung out, farther and farther, until there was nothing
beneath him but the glassy sea. He screamed at this, and kicked and
capered; the slender topmast sprung to his antics. Then the vessel
righted herself, and as she did so the man at the rope's end began a
swift and fearful journey. Not until that instant did his fate become
apparent to him, but when he saw what was in store for him he ceased to
cry out. He fixed his eyes upon the mast toward which the weight of his
body propelled him, he drew himself upward by his arms, he flung out his
legs to break the impact. The _Stella_ lifted by the bow and he cleared
the spar by a few