“No—no—it was all a plot to ruin you—forgive—I—I——”
It was no faint this time. The brandy Fitzroy tried to pour into his mouth ran out again over his cheeks and chin.
Only one brief spasm, and the jaw dropped. The eyes were fixed for ever.
Fitzroy lowered him slowly to the ground and left the place, sad, though he did not know why, and wondering if all this could be true.
But he had the key, and before nightfall he would know everything.
CHAPTER VII.
She Sailed Away in the Middle Watch.
SO complete was the rout of the blackbirders, and so terrible a tale would the survivors have to tell when they returned to Australian waters, that many a long year, no doubt, would elapse before that blood-stained though beautiful island would be visited again.
I fear that a great carnival commenced on this very night, and that it lasted for days. Our people were glad to be out of it, and they had much to do. But as many of the bodies as could be recovered were taken out, by Stransom’s orders, and buried at sea. The cannibals might do what they pleased with their own dead. They would no doubt afford them decent interment after their own fashion.
The cannibals did, but over their orgies we must draw a curtain.
Only five of the blackbirders had escaped intact, and to these Stransom offered life and liberty if they would help to work the ship to the nearest British port.