Men dressed and armed, as the sentinel of the preceding evening, were leaning here and there, conversing together in a low tone of voice.
Of all these things, the one which particularly attracted the attention of the strangers was the extraordinary device that everything on board the schooner bore; namely, a death’s head placed on the crossing of two dead men’s bones. This was imprinted on the rigging of the schooner, on its tackle, on the weapons which were arranged in the bulwarks, and the men wore it in front of their blood-red caps, and on their arms. This strange circumstance had a powerful effect on the prisoners: Jack Jimmy opened his mouth and eyes, and seemed, on contemplating that sign, to devote himself to death already; and the master fisherman became still more anxious than he had been from the first. He recollected that in the various stories with which he and his fellows in the same pursuit had beguiled many a tedious hour, pirates were represented as always displaying a black flag, on which the same sad mementoes of mortality, as those which he saw everywhere on board the schooner, were imprinted.
The thought immediately broke in upon him that he might at that moment be among those lawless men, about whose horrible cruelties he had heard so much, and he shuddered at the reflection.
It is true he had not, up to that moment, experienced any personal outrage or even incivility; but might he not be reserved for those shocking tortures to which he had heard pirates were accustomed to resort, for the purpose of forcing their victims to the confession of what was alike improbable and impossible? His reflections now became gloomy and distressing; and thoughts that rush upon a man only at his last moments, or in situations of imminent danger, began now to force themselves upon him.
This train of thoughts was broken by Lorenzo, who suddenly emerged from the companion of the chief cabin and approached him.
Lorenzo presented quite a different appearance from what he did under his Indian disguise of the day before.
He was cleanly washed of the red ochre with which he had painted his skin; it now appeared fresh and clear, as it was by nature, although a little embronzed by a tropical sun. His features, which could now be properly read, expressed a character of manly firmness, softened by much humanity and tenderness. He wore the same dress as the officer whom he met on duty the previous night, with the slight exception that his red cap was more richly decorated. This seemed to be a badge of distinction, and it could be at once perceived from the manner in which he acted, that Lorenzo was in high command on board the strange schooner.
“The prisoners will not be wanted for half an hour,” he said to the man on duty; “you may retire with them.”
He then went back, and descended the stairs by which he had ascended.