of the flames
fell on their faces and heightened the evil in them, if that were
possible. Several of them, drinking heavily of the spirits, were already
in a bestial state, and were quarreling with one another. The others
paid no attention to them. There was no discipline.

Apparently they were going to make a night of it, and Robert watched,
fascinated by the first sight of his own kind in many months, but
repelled by their savagery when they had come. Some of the men fell down
before the fires and went to sleep. The others did not awaken them,
which he took to be clear proof that they would remain until the next
day.

A drop of water fell on his face and he looked up. He had been there so
long, and he was so much absorbed in what was passing before his eyes
that he had not noted the great change in the nature of the night. Moon
and stars were gone. Heavy clouds were sailing low. Thunder muttered on
the western horizon, and there were flashes of distant lightning.

Hope sprang up in Robert's heart. Perhaps the fear of a storm would
drive them to the shelter of the ship, but they did not stir. Either
they did not dread rain, or they were more weatherwise than he. The
orgie deepened. Two of the men who were quarreling drew pistols, but the
swart leader struck them aside, and spoke to them so fiercely that they
put back their weapons, and, a minute later, Robert saw them drinking
together in friendship.

The storm did not break. The wind blew, and, now and then, drops of rain
fell, but it did not seem able to get beyond the stage of thunder and
lightning. Yet it tried hard, and it became, even to Robert, used to the
vagaries of nature, a grim and sinister night. The thunder, in its
steady growling, was full of menace, and the lightning, reddish in
color, smelled of sulphur. It pleased Robert to think that the island
was resenting the evil presence of the men from the schooner.

The ruffians, however, seemed to take no notice of the change. It was
likely that they had not been ashore for a long time before, and they
were making the most of it. They continued to eat and the bottles of
spirits were passed continuously from one to another. Robert had heard
many a dark tale of piracy on the Spanish Main and among the islands,
but he had never dreamed he would come into such close contact with it
as he was now doing for the second time.

He knew it was lucky for the men that the storm did not break. The
schooner in her