“Who are killed, Simpson?” I asked.
“Hush, sir! better not talk any more just now,” murmured the carpenter. “If these chaps got the notion into their heads that you was alive, as like as not they’d put a bullet through your skull. They’ll soon be finished with their job now, and then we shall see what sort of fate they’re going to serve out to us.”
I dared not look up nor move my head in any way, to see what was going on, but by listening I presently became aware that the last of the slaves had passed over the side, and that the pirates were now transferring the casks of water and the sacks of meal from our ship to their own, which—the water being perfectly smooth—they had lashed alongside the schooner, with a few fenders between the two hulls to prevent damage by the grinding of them together as they rose and fell upon the long scarcely perceptible undulations of the swell. About a quarter of an hour later the rumbling of the rolling water-casks and the loud scraping sound of the meal-sacks on the deck ceased; there was a pause of a minute or so, and then I heard a voice say in Spanish:
“The last of the meal and the water has gone over the rail, señor capitan. Is there anything else?”
“No,” was the answer, in the same language; “you may all go back to the brig. And, Dominique, see all ready for sheeting home and hoisting away the moment that I join you. There is a little breeze coming, and it is high time that we were off. Now, Juan, are you ready with the auger?”
“Quite ready, señor,” answered another voice.
“Then come below with me, and let us get this job over,” said the first voice, and immediately upon this I heard the footsteps of two people descending the schooner’s companion ladder. Some ten minutes later I heard the footsteps returning, and presently the two Spaniards were on deck. Then there came a slight pause, as though the pirate captain had halted to take a last look round.
“Are you quite sure, Juan, that the prisoners are all securely lashed?” asked he.
“Absolutely, señor,” answered Juan. “I lashed them myself, and, as you are aware, I am not in the habit of bungling the job. They will all go to the bottom together, the living as well as the dead!”
“Bueno!” commented the captain. “Ah, here comes the breeze! Aboard you go, Juan, amigo. Cast off, fore and aft, Dominique, and hoist away your fore-topmast staysail.”