“Ah, my young friend, how humble we are! Our tone ain’t quite as defiant as it was!”
“I want to speak to you about Tom, sir.”
“We’ll clip his wings, and yours, too, before this voyage is ended. You got him to run away. I told you I’d get even with you, and you’ll soon find out how well I keep my word.”
“Captain Morris,” said Will, earnestly, “you have no right to abuse that boy, and you don’t dare to whip me!”
Captain Morris terminated Will’s appeal by going below and reappearing a minute later.
The dreaded instrument of torture, the cat-of-nine-tails, was in his grasp.
His big, brawny hand seized Tom’s jacket and fairly tore it from his back.
He did not wait to have his victim tied up, but began slashing at the poor cabin boy with fiendish satisfaction in his evil face.
“Take that, and that. Ah! you squirm, do you!”
“You coward!”