"Oh, captain!" he cried falling on his knees before Barthelemy, "if you believe in God and the angels, let me leave this accursed place. You are all doomed to hell, permit me to save my soul from the flames of purgatory. Oh! all you saints of Heaven, have mercy on my sinful head."
A horrible roar of laughter from the pirates greeted these imploring words.
"You shall die," said Barthelemy coldly, motioning to the men to lead him away.
"Captain! For heaven's sake, you won't let me die thus, without the sacrament or extreme unction, to the ruin and eternal perdition of my soul?"
"Wait, I'll confess you," said Scudamore with a diabolical laugh, putting the rope around the doomed man's neck.
"Oh God, my Creator, is there no one to say a prayer for me? Alas, I once knew so many and have forgotten them all."
The pirates, laughing loudly, dragged to the mast the unhappy man, who began to roar the air of a song whose words he had long since forgotten. A minute later the song ceased, the man was hanging above.
The second prisoner was now brought forward. He, too, was only a common sailor. His companions were forced to bind him hand and foot in order to drag him before the captain, and he kept up a constant torrent of oaths.
"Yes, I ran away from you because I loathed this vile, roystering life, toiling and fighting every day and when, at the risk of death, one gained a little money, a man had to throw it away. I'll run from you a hundred times more."
"Not once," replied Scudamore grinning. He apparently had far more taste for the hangman's trade than for the physician's. Barthelemy silently waved his hand, and the pirate hung.