"Not a blow, men! He is mine! I will tame him down ere long!"
For a few seconds longer they battled with terrible fury, neither having the advantage; now on one side of the deck, now on the other; now striding the body of the insensible Edwin, now fighting together in the waste, retreating and advancing alternately. At length the bucanier began to gain an advantage over his less athletic antagonist; he pushed him hard, and, step by step, compelled him to retreat towards the stern. Finally, by a strong and sudden stroke, he shivered his sword to his hand and left him defenceless. The blow with which he was about to follow up his advantage was arrested in its descent, and, turning away with a gesture of triumph, he said, as the other, with his arms folded, stood passive to receive the blow,
"'Tis enough for me that I have worsted thee! I have struck my game, so now let the pack worry him! Set upon him, men, and cut him down; he is yours!" he cried, with savage ferocity, pointing to the young officer.
The pirates, with a yell of joy, rushed aft like a pack of wolves and leaped upon him. With the strength and skill of desperation, he wrested the cutlass from the first who reached him, and, springing backward upon the taffrail, defended himself a few seconds against the fearful odds. But at length, yielding to superior numbers, he cast his sword into the air, and, leaping over the stern, amid the yells of the pirates and the firing of pistols, sunk from their sight.
Kyd cast a glance into the dark wave, and, after a few seconds' survey, said half aloud,
"He is no more! Henceforward I am sole Lord of Lester!"
These last words gave the clew to his strange and vindictive thirst for the death of his victim, and was a key to his otherwise unaccountable bloodthirstiness. "Ho! there, villains! why do you gaze upon the water? Make sail on the brig! Man the braces all! Helm hard up! There she yields! Now she falls off. Steady! belay all!"
The after sails swung back to their original position as the vessel obeyed her helm; and at first with scarcely perceptible motion, but gathering momentum as she moved, she parted the moonlit waves before her, and went careering over the sparkling seas in the direction of New-York.