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Updated: June 25, 2025
"Aye, skipper, aye," returned Bill Brennen, with an unsuccessful attempt to put some heartiness into his tones; but the others did not say a word. They made litters for the dead and wounded, gathered up the spoils of the cabins, and set off sullenly for Chance Along. The skipper stood to one side and watched them from under lowering brows.
Her eyes kindled to his, flame for flame, throb for throb. "I am glad you have found me," she said. "You you did not forget me." At that moment the door was flung open and Black Dennis Nolan sprang into the room, followed closely by Bill Brennen and Nick Leary.
"We sure put the witchery into them squid, skipper, sir," he said. "We sure larned 'em the black magic, by Peter!" The skipper kept his two unswerving henchmen to supper and brewed a mighty bowl in their honor. He even condescended to thank Nick for his warning, roundabout and prolonged though it had been, and to throw a word of praise to Bill Brennen.
Then he turned back, heaped a pile of straw and rubbish under the stairs, and flung the contents of a lighted charcoal brazier on it. As the fire blazed up he heard the snarl of the mob coming down the street which passed the front entrance. He could hear words in the incoherent shouting- "Die Hexe! Die Hexe! Brennen brennen!"
None but fools would come ashore on this coast, from a wreck, widout their weepons." "Aye, an' they'll be carryin' their gold an' sich, too," said the skipper. "Lads, we'll do our best an' that bain't fightin' an' killin', i' this case, but the usin' o' our wits. Bill Brennen, tell off ten men an' take 'em along the path to the south'ard wid ye.
He saw that Bill Brennen, Nick Leary, his brother Cormick and several of the men whom he had rescued from the flooded cabin had clustered around the shore-end of the hawser. He saw that they feared treachery. He made his way across, cool, fearless, with a dangerous smile on his lips. "She lays snug enough. We'll break out the freight, to-morrow," said the skipper.
He touched ground in the centre of the front rank of the mob, and as his feet touched the ground his billet of green birch cracked down upon a skull. And still he continued to roar; and still the club cracked and cracked; and then Bill Brennen got heartily to work on the rear rank with his broken oar.
"There bes some men in this harbor I wouldn't trust as far as I could t'row 'em over my back," said the skipper. Bill and Nick agreed with him. The skipper glanced up at the starless sky. "There'll be snow by sun-up," he said. "Aye, skipper, a desperate flurry out o' the nor'-west," replied Brennen. "D'ye mean wind, too?" "Aye, skipper, mark that!"
The light breeze wafted them northward. At last George Wick broke the silence. "Hark! What bes that?" he exclaimed. "It sounded like gun-shots," said John, indifferently. "I suppose that mad skipper is fighting with his men," said Flora and the breath of her words touched the sailor's cheek. Black Dennis Nolan and Bill Brennen brought the loose jewels from their hiding-place to the harbor.
"And why not go to sea, mother?" replied Philip; "what's the use of my staying here to starve? for, by Heaven! it's little better, I must do something for myself and for you. And what else can I do? My uncle Van Brennen has offered to take me with him, and will give me good wages. Then I shall live happily on board, and my earnings will be sufficient for your support at home."
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