Black was smothered in anger, but he showed it only with that terrible growling of the voice and his horrid calmness.
"Oh, you want to know, do you? Which of you, might I ask, is particler anxious about my business?"
There were thirty or forty of them round, and they pressed the closer at the question, as he continued—
"Let them as makes complaint step right here."
Only four joined the leader; but the captain suddenly snatched my revolver from me, and fired four shots; and for each shot a man dropped dead on the beach; but the American stood untouched. The appalling brutality of the action seemed to awe the rest of the crew. They stood motionless, dumb with their rage; but when they recovered themselves they rushed upon us with wild ferocity; and the Yankee fired at Black point-blank. I thought, truly, that the end was then; but I heard a shout from the water, and, looking there, I saw Dr. Osbart in the launch; and there was a Maxim gun in the bows of her.
"Clear that beach!" roared Black in awful passion; and instantly, as he dropped flat and I imitated him, there was a hail of bullets, and the main part of the crowd fell shrieking; but some threw themselves down, while many stiffened and rolled in death, and blood spouted from scores of wounds.
The victory was awful, instantaneous. As the men fled towards the hills, Black called after them—
"Bring to, you limp-gutted carrion, or I'll wipe you out, every one of you! Any man who'll save his throat, let him come here!"
At these words they turned back to a man, and came cowering to the water's edge. Thirty of their fellows lay dead or wounded on the stones, and many of those crawling towards us had bullets in their limbs. Yet Black had no thought for them.
"Where's your leader?" he asked, and they pointed to the American, who lay with the blood pouring from a wound in his left thigh.