Again there was a stir among the ushers, and in the door appeared one at whose coming Tom Jordan ceased to smile.
The fellow's chin sagged and his eyes were wild and he ducked to His Lordship as if some one had pulled a string; and when they called on him to give the Court his name he cried very tremulously, "Yea, yea! Joseph Kirk, an it please you, my lord!"
"Come now, look about you at these men who are arraigned for piracy. Are there any there whom you have seen elsewhere?"
"Yea, yea, that there be! There! And there! And there!"
"Ah! Hm! Men you have seen elsewhere! Tell us who they are." And His Lordship smiled dryly.
"It is not to count against me, my lord? I have repented—yea, I have repented! 'Twill not undo the King's pardon?"
The very Judge on the bench gave a grunt as in disgust of the abject terror the fellow showed, and a murmur of impatience went through the room; but though he afforded a spectacle for contempt, they reassured him and urged him on.
"Yea, yea! That one there—he at the end—was our captain, and Tom Jordan his name. It was he who led us against a vast number of prizes, which yielded rich profit. It was he and Harry Malcolm—why, Harry Malcolm is not here. Huh! 'Tis passing strange! He hath so often stole beside them, I had thought he would hang beside them too. Yea, and as I was saying—Let us consider! Yea, yea, it was he and Harry Malcolm who contrived the plan for killing Captain Candle and taking the Rose of Devon. Yea, they called me apart on the forecastle and tempted me to sin and forced me with many threats. He it was—"
Tom Jordan was on his feet. "You lie in your throat, you drunken dog! It was you who struck him down with your own hand!"
"Nay, nay! I did him no harm! It was another—I swear it was another!"