"
"And what did they do with their prisoners?" said Peechy Prauw
eagerly.
"Threw them all overboard," was the answer. A dead pause followed
the reply. Peechy Prauw sank quietly back, like a man who had
unwarily stolen upon the lair of a sleeping lion. The honest
burghers cast fearful glances at the deep scar slashed across the
visage of the stranger, and moved their chairs a little farther
off. The seaman, however, smoked on without moving a muscle, as
though he either did not perceive, or did not regard, the
unfavorable effect he had produced upon his hearers.
The half-pay officer was the first to break the silence, for he was
continually tempted to make ineffectual head against this tyrant of
the seas, and to regain his lost consequence in the eyes of his
ancient companions. He now tried to match the gunpowder tales of
the stranger by others equally tremendous. Kidd, as usual, was his
hero, concerning whom he seemed to have picked up many of the
floating traditions of the province. The seaman had always evinced
a settled pique against the one-eyed warrior. On this occasion he
listened with peculiar impatience.
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