are you doing here?" he shrieked.

"Keeping you back," replied Glasby, wrenching the match from his hand
and stamping out the light.

"Oho! Asphlant, Moody, here!" shouted Scudamore. "Here is a traitor.
Help me break into the powder magazine."

An uproar followed. Some of the pirates wanted to blow up the ship,
others opposed it, and while the two parties were contending Glasby
poured water into the kegs, so that the powder was useless.

An hour after the whole crew were prisoners.

Chapter IV

Retribution

The foaming wine is drained from the cup, nothing remains but the dregs,
which we will also empty.

During the battle Captain Hill released himself and his ship and, taking
possession of the pirates' money, sailed away.

The buccaneers, prisoners on board their own ship, were taken to Cape
Corso, but not even this disaster could subdue them. The injured men
would not allow their wounds to be bandaged, and when they were put in
irons, beat their aching, bleeding wounds with their chains, and died
uttering imprecations, reconciled neither to God nor man. The others
sang wild buccaneer songs and irritated their guards with sneering
jests.

Weighing the ration of bread in his hand one of them said, laughing:
"You want us to dry up to save hemp; we shall get so thin on this fare
that you can hang us by a thread of yarn."

They were chained together in couples. One began to sing and pray; his
companion gave him a violent thrust in the side.

"What do you expect to gain by that?" he asked.

"The Kingdom of Heaven," replied the other humbly.

"You? The Kingdom of Heaven? You passed that port long ago with the rest
of us. We're sailing for hell. The captain is already waiting for us,
and we shall enter according to our rank, and when we run into harbor
there we'll salute him with a salvo of thirteen shots. Hurrah for
Barthelemy and his luck."

The poor, penitent sinner did not stop singing and praying, spite of the
oaths of his companion, till the latter, in all seriousness, begged the
captain of the ship to relieve them from this fellow, whose howling
disturbed the good-humor of the others, and who had proved himself
unworthy of such distinguished company; or at any rate, for the
maintenance of order, to take away his prayer-book.

The most dangerous members of the pirate band were kept prisoners on the
Swallow, and among them were Moody and Asphlant. The latter formed a
plot to escape from their