"Who threw that grating?" he cried.
"I, señor," composedly answered the priest, who understood English.
Morgan instantly snatched a pistol from de Lussan's hand and shot the man dead.
"I allow no one," he shouted, "to interfere between me and the discipline of my men! You speak well, L'Ollonois. And for you, hounds!" he roared, clubbing the smoking pistol and stepping toward the huddled, frightened men, "get back to your duties unless you wish instant death! Scuttle me, if I don't blow up the galleon unless you immediately obey! Bear a hand there! If you hesitate—Fire on them!" he cried to his officers, but the men in the front did not linger. They broke away from his presence so vehemently that they fell over one another in the gangways.
Morgan instantly snatched a pistol from de Lussan's hand and shot the man dead.
"Don't fire!" they cried in terror. "We'll go back to duty."
Morgan was completely master of the situation.
"I am to be obeyed," he cried, "implicitly, without question, without hesitation!"
"Ay, ay!"