“No! Never!” cried Bart, incredulously.
“It’s true, Bart. I have just learned that it is he by Dinny, who has returned from Belize. She is commanded by the man I once thought I loved.”
“But you don’t love him now?”
“Love! Bart Wrigley, can you believe in a person’s nature being changed by cruelty and wrong.”
“No. Not yours,” growled Bart.
“Then you may believe it, Bart; and now the time has come, and I am going to have my revenge. Do you know what I am going to do?”
“You told me,” said Bart, roughly. “Fight.”
“Yes; but so as to spare my men, and to spare myself. Bart, I am going to teach the king’s grand officer what it is to trifle, and to treat those he holds beneath him as if they were meant for his pleasure, and made for that alone. I am going to destroy the ship of this grand officer, to scatter his men, and to take him prisoner if I can.”
“No!” said Bart, hoarsely. “Don’t do that.”
“Why!” cried the captain, mockingly. “Are you afraid that I shall be weak once more? Don’t be afraid, Bart. Mary Dell is dead, and it is the soul of her brother who moves this body, and he it is who will take a bitter revenge upon Captain Armstrong for slaying Mary Dell; for in spirit it is this he did.”