"Now, you black scoundrels, you have seen how we served your families. The same fate awaits you, down to the last man, if you don't submit and surrender our friends, whom you dragged away with you."
Kennedy saw through the stratagem and protested violently.
"Don't believe a word he says, the whole thing is a fiendish plot, we are no friends of his, we don't know one another."
"Kennedy, don't be a coward," said Scudamore reproachfully, "why should you deny that you agreed to lead these people astray so that they would run into the mouths of our guns? Be bold, and with the help of your stout comrades throw them down on our knives; I, a pirate, am worth a hundred negroes; don't disown me."
The negroes, with threatening gestures began to surround Kennedy and his men, who in great terror, tried to defend themselves.
"Brave friends, don't believe the words of that devil, we never saw him; those men are our worst enemies."
"Oh, Kennedy, you disgrace us, how can you disown us when you, too, sail under the black flag? If we had never seen each other how should I know that you have, on your left shoulder, the mark of a gallows, branded there when you were in the pillory?"
The negroes instantly seized Kennedy, stripped his coat from his shoulders and, as soon as they had convinced themselves that Scudamore's words were true, they flung him down and one, raising his copper axe, set his foot upon his victim's neck.
"Don't hurt a hair of his head!" shouted Scudamore, feigning fury. The next instant the axe fell, and Kennedy's head was hurled over the cliff.
The others followed.