of intoxication arising
from the bloodshed still held him in thrall, and he allowed himself to
be persuaded to return to the Royal Fortune and let the doctor work his
will. As soon as the captain was out of sight, Scudamore ordered the
pirates to go to the deserted cabins and murder the families of the
fugitives.

Shouting exultingly, the fierce crew, thirsting for revenge, obeyed;
from the lofty cliff the blacks saw their wives killed, their children
slaughtered, and when all were slain, their homes set on fire and
destroyed amid clouds of smoke that rose to their eyrie.

Then Scudamore stepped forward and shouted:

"Now, you black scoundrels, you have seen how we served your families.
The same fate awaits you, down to the last man, if you don't submit and
surrender our friends, whom you dragged away with you."

Kennedy saw through the stratagem and protested violently.

"Don't believe a word he says, the whole thing is a fiendish plot, we
are no friends of his, we don't know one another."

"Kennedy, don't be a coward," said Scudamore reproachfully, "why should
you deny that you agreed to lead these people astray so that they would
run into the mouths of our guns? Be bold, and with the help of your
stout comrades throw them down on our knives; I, a pirate, am worth a
hundred negroes; don't disown me."

The negroes, with threatening gestures began to surround Kennedy and his
men, who in great terror, tried to defend themselves.

"Brave friends, don't believe the words of that devil, we never saw him;
those men are our worst enemies."

"Oh, Kennedy, you disgrace us, how can you disown us when you, too, sail
under the black flag? If we had never seen each other how should I know
that you have, on your left shoulder, the mark of a gallows, branded
there when you were in the pillory?"

The negroes instantly seized Kennedy, stripped his coat from his
shoulders and, as soon as they had convinced themselves that
Scudamore's words were true, they flung him down and one, raising his
copper axe, set his foot upon his victim's neck.

"Don't hurt a hair of his head!" shouted Scudamore, feigning fury. The
next instant the axe fell, and Kennedy's head was hurled over the cliff.

The others followed.

When the half hour expired, Scudamore returned to Barthelemy and,
pointing to the boat, said: "There are the heads of the traitors!"

Chapter III

Revenge

The time of the monsoons had come. News of shipwrecks