Lafitte nor Kidd never looked down such desperate faces as
this gristly privateer, when his buccaneers were around him.
"Seamen," he spoke aloud, "you are afloat! Gold and glory await you; you
shall glut yourselves by the ruin of your enemy, and count your plunder
by the light of his burning merchantmen."
The knives flickered in the torchlight, and a cheer, like the howl of
the damned, went up.
"On the brink of such fortune, you find yourselves imperilled; treason
is with you; this pursuit, which we attend, is a part of its programme!
There is, within the sound of my voice, a spy!--a Yankee!"
The weapons rang again; the desperadoes pressed forward, demanding with
shrieks and imprecations that the man should be named.
"He is here," answered the captain, turning full upon the astonished
fugitive. "He came to me with a story of distress. I pitied him, and
gave him shelter; but I telegraphed to Paris to test his veracity, and I
find that he lied. No man has been slain in a duel as he states. I
believe him to be a Federal emissary, and he is in our power."
A dozen rough hands struck Plade to the deck; he staggered up, with
blood upon his face, and called Heaven to witness that he was no
traitor.
"Did you speak the truth to me to-day?" cried the accuser.
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