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On the other hand, the bos'n seemed to be breathing regularly, and the man with whom he had fought would not be able to keep his chest from heaving a little after that violent effort. It was more probable that one of the men who lay in their bunks had made the attempt, but it would be useless to examine them. Then his glance fell on Kamasura, the cabin boy.
And he drifted into sleep, while she leaned against the bunk, almost unconscious from fear and exhaustion. Kamasura, in nowise loath to bring his work to an end, stood back and laid on the whip with redoubled vigor. The lash spatted sharply against the raw and bleeding flesh. The screams sank into moans, and the moans in turn declined to a mere horrible gasping of the breath.
Harrigan shouted at McTee: "Get Kate! Take her aft to the wireless house! I'll hold 'em here a minute and then join you!" McTee nodded and tore down the deck toward Kate's cabin, while Harrigan pulled the knife of Kamasura from his trousers and thrust it in the face of the first man up the ladder.
A moment later Kamasura was led up by Eric Borgson and Jan Van Roos. The two mates, under the direction of Henshaw, lashed the Japanese face down upon the hatch, pulling his arms and legs taut with ropes that fastened to the bolts on all sides of the hatch cover.
"Angus, the steel ain't been sharpened that can kill me." "Don't be too confident. Get every word I say. I'm washing my soul out for you. It's Hovey and the little Jap, Kamasura, that you'll have to guard against." "I know 'em both." "D'you mean to say " "No, I didn't make 'em confess, but I saw 'em lookin' at each other. What made you hitch up with swine like them? Was it because of her?" "Yes."
The Japanese are a brave people, but in that dreadful presence Kamasura made no effort to regain his feet, but remained on his knees, groveling and clinging to the hands of the captain, while he shrieked out an explanation. To remove his hands from those clinging fingers, Henshaw simply raised his foot, laid it against the breast of the Jap, and thrust out.
"Henshaw and Borgson and Van Roos have really put those wild men through hell, and now they're going to get it back with interest." In the meantime little Kamasura stepped out from the crowd. He was naked to the waist, for the raw incisions which the lash had left would not bear the weight of clothes.
He had forgotten death. "You will live!" rumbled Sam Hall. "A man would be a fool to die when there's so much money in sight. Where's your hurt?" "I have no hurt," whispered Klopp hoarsely, "but I'm on fire inside. Water! Something to drink!" "Something to drink, but not water," responded Hovey. "Hey, Kamasura! Drink! Whisky!"
They could see Borgson wince as the lash sang above him, and the muscles of his bare back flexed and stood up in knots that glistened under the sunlight. But the stroke did not fall. Kamasura had learned the lesson of creating suspense from the very man he was now about to torture. Harrigan bowed his head in his hands. "I can't look, McTee," he muttered. "I'm sick inside sick sick!"
Also they were not looking at Kamasura; they were staring, every man, at the bos'n, who stood with his whistle hanging from a cord around his neck. "Begin!" said Henshaw. The blacksnake whistled around the head of the third mate and there was a long scream from Kamasura but the blacksnake only cracked loudly in the air. Borgson laughed with a hideous delight.
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