This was an annual gory banquet, which the chief of the Skeleton Crew kept up to celebrate his career as the famous Scourge of the Sea!
He and most of his crew had come with the firm resolve to massacre every one in Darlington Hall.
This was but the commencement of their horrible sport.
Well might the Skeleton Crew and their charmed Phantom Ship have long been the terror and fright of all the coasts and seas around.
Many a family had been slaughtered in cold blood on shore, and many a good ship’s company mangled and their vessels plundered and sunk by these aptly termed Demons of the Deep.
But they had not come to Darlington Hall solely to satisfy their thirst for blood.
It was the villain and murderer, Redgill, they assisted.
He hated Wildfire Ned with bitter animosity because he could not supplant the brave youth in the affections of young Alice, the wealthy daughter of Countess Bluefield, sister to Sir Richard, whose estates were hard by.
But hitherto Redgill had been successful in his knavery.