She shook her head, yet without trusting herself to look upon him.
Fetching a sigh, Rodrigues seated himself near her, and says he:
"Doubtless you think me cold-blooded and heartless; yet I do assure you I am not. But while I command this ship I must exercise severity, for only by inspiring fear can I obtain the respect and obedience of my company. When I am no longer a pirate you will see that my nature is different. Heaven knows I shall be enchanted to abandon this horrid career—to quit for ever a lawless life, and give example of humane sentiments. It is in your power to make that hand an instrument of charity and mercy which, hitherto, you have seen exercised only in necessary severity; and this reflection will, I trust, reconcile you to our speedy union."
With this hint he leaves her—to my lady's satisfaction.
Meanwhile the company, after conferring together, laid hands on Tonga, vowing that if he would not willingly confess who had stabbed him they would certainly avail themselves of their captain's permission and force him to do so by torture. But the black could do no more than repeat what he had told already—viz., that he had been stabbed and thrown down into the armory as he was entering the cabin above, adding that if Lady Biddy had not struck the blow he knew not who had, for there was no light to see what hand it was.
"Well," says the boatswain, "you'll have to name one of us, that's certain, for the comfort of the rest. But mark you, be careful not to name any who can prove his innocence, for if you play us a scurvy trick of that sort we'll burn the soles off your feet."
As he made no reply, for fear of subjecting himself to the horrid torture they threatened, they took a cord that ran through a block at the yard-arm, and with one end they bound his wrists together behind his back. When he was thus secured, they pulled upon the other end of this same cord till he swung over the bulwarks and hung over the sea.
By keeping his muscles tense and his wrists well down against the small of his back, Tonga hung in mid-air for some time without suffering. But gradually the effort to keep his position increased as the weight of his great body inclining forward taxed the muscles of his arms, as you shall find if you do but try such an experiment. Presently one of those who held the other end of the line hitched over a spar, growing impatient of his endurance, gave the cord a sudden jerk, whereby the black's wrists were wrenched away from his loins, so that now his muscles were powerless, as one may say, while his vast bulk, hanging thus at an angle with his wrists, threatened to drag his arms out of their sockets.
This torment the black endured for some while in peace; but at length, when another jerk was given to the cord, he uttered a great yell of rage and agony.
Hearing that terrible cry, Lady Biddy could no longer endure to witness such suffering, and again ran from her cabin, bidding the seamen in mercy to desist from his further torture.