"Let us demand the spy," whispered Giacinto.
"Are you crazy?" asked Louis Pierre. "What if the fellow leave them a letter for the government? No. The vessel that has rescued Volpetti must perish. Are you trembling? Have you contracted the scruples of the man who is praying on his knees in the cabin? I also believe in divine justice. I believe that 'tis we who accomplish it."
"Captain," called out the mate, "do you see that thin column of smoke rising from her right side?"
Soliviac dropped the telescope, for his eyes served him better at that distance than the instrument. He saw that the vessel was burning.
"She is afire!" he called out.
"Fire!" shouted the three Carbonari.
"The divine justice of which Naundorff spoke," said René.
"Nevertheless, inasmuch as a few buckets of water may extinguish that justice, let us send a salute to the English flag, Captain," ironically remarked Louis Pierre.
Soliviac gave the order and four little cannon, with a simultaneous precision which revealed practice, sent their load into the schooner's side.
"Load again!" shouted Soliviac. "At the masts and spars!"