The short sharp scream had been uttered by Clarissa. Swaggering over to her, Joao had grasped her round the waist, and with one horny hand beneath her chin was forcing her head back so that he could kiss her. Amanda had jumped up and rushing at him seized his arm in an endeavour to drag him away from her young cousin; but lifting his heavy boot he gave her a kick on the thigh that sent her reeling.
Just as he did so, Clarissa seized the opportunity to jerk her head free. Next moment her teeth bit viciously into the pirate's wrist.
With an oath he tore his hand away and lifted it to strike her, but help came to her from an unexpected quarter. At Clarissa's cry Lucette swung round from the mirror. Quietly drawing her silver-mounted pistol from her sash, she pointed it at Joao and shouted at him:
"Stop that! You know our customs, and I am here to see that all of you keep to them."
With a shrug he let Clarissa go, and muttered surlily: "Don't be a fool, Lucette. I meant only to buss the wench. There's no harm in that."
"You'll buss no one without my permission," she snapped back. "You're mine as long as I have a use for you. Now get up on deck and relieve Pedro the Carib, so that he can have his victuals."
"Who's Captain here?" he blustered.
"You are, by favour of my good standing with M. le Vicomte," she retorted. "But cross me and when we get ashore I'll have him fling you to his pet crocodiles."
Joao's glance dropped before her angry stare. Sucking the blood from his bitten wrist he turned on Clarissa, and snarled: "You shall pay for this, my beauty. Ah, and before you're a night older." Then he gave a jaunty flip to his old-fashioned tricorne hat, picked up his cutlass and swaggered out of the cabin.
As soon as he had disappeared, Lucette said to Amanda: "I've a mind to see on you some of the things I'll be wearing. Go to your cabin and put on your best ball-dress."
Amanda was crying from the brutal kick that Joao had given her, and replied tearfully: "I am in no state to dress up for you. I pray you excuse me."
Lucette promptly pulled out her ivory-handled switch. Striking Amanda a vicious blow across the shoulders, she cried: "Do as I bid you, woman. The sooner you learn that you are now a slave the better."
With a burst of sobs Amanda stood up and limped across the cabin. Roger attempted to follow her, but his legs doubled under him again, and he fell back with a groan. Lucette gave him a contemptuous look, and said:
"They tell me you were on your way to become Governor of Martinique. A lovely island and I know it well, for I was born there. But you'll never reach it; M. le Vicomte has no friendship for Englishmen, and I do not doubt he'll send you to feed the fishes."
At that moment Pedro the Carib came in. He was a swarthy half-caste with lank black hair. Perched at a jaunty angle on it was one of the broad-brimmed straw hats that many sailors favoured when in the tropics. His breeches were of leather and he was naked to the waist except for two heavy necklaces made of pieces of eight. They were not like ordinary corns, but simply an ounce weight of silver which had been poured molten on to an iron bench, then, when it had partially cooled, stamped with the arms of Spain, and an 8, signifying its value in pesetas. It was a common practice for seamen to bore holes in them and carry them in this manner round their necks, as it made their loss by robbery less likely, and it was easy to take off one or more in payment for liquor or a woman.
Pedro barely gave the captives a glance from the slits which half concealed his reddish evil eyes, but picked up a bottle, let a third of its contents gurgle down his throat, then grabbed the remains of the ham and began to gnaw it like a dog.
While he ate. Lucette rifled the lockers round the cabin, showing a childish delight in anything she came upon that particularly interested her. Then Amanda rejoined them, now wearing a low-cut dress of peach-coloured brocade that had a drawn-back overskirt of chiffon sprinkled with small gold stars. She had regained her composure and stood stony-faced in the middle of the cabin while Lucette sauntered lazily round her like a huge graceful coffee-coloured cat.
"The mode will flatter me," was her comment. "But go take it off now. I do not wish that it is spoiled, and when we celebrate our victory this evening it is certain that you will be the subject of some rough games, for one cannot deny the men their pleasure."
Amanda closed her eyes, and half-fainting at the thoughts the mulatto's words had conjured up, staggered from the cabin.
When Pedro had finished his guzzling, Lucette said to him in a tone that brooked no reply: "Now I intend to sleep for a while in the cabin of the Countess. Go up to the poop and remain there. Keep an eye on Joao. Should he make one sign to come down here, you are to wake me up; for I'll not have him cheat the rest of you in the matter of the women."
He gave her a crooked grin, nodded and slouched away; then, after a final glance at the captives, she too left them.
Roger looked across at Georgina. For some time past she had been sobbing as though her heart would break; but he was glad of it, for it seemed a certain indication that Lucette's brutal treatment of her had brought her back to normal, and he had feared that her mind might have become deranged. The faithful Jenny, pale-faced but tight-lipped, was still beside her. Clarissa sat hunched in an elbow chair, her golden hair tumbled from her struggle with Joao, but dry-eyed and staring without expression through one of the cabin windows.
When Amanda came back she gave Roger a faint smile, and brought him some wine to drink before sitting down beside him. As he thanked her he thought that she looked ten years older than she had that morning, but there was nothing he could do and nothing that he could say to comfort her. His head still felt as though it were splitting, his eye had swollen up and was rapidly becoming black and blue, the place where the pike had laid open his right forearm now felt as though it were on fire, and the whole of his left side, with which he had hit the deck on being struck down, ached dully. He could only take one of her hands in his and put his other arm round her shoulders. Never before had he felt so utterly helpless and hopeless.
Gradually Georgina's weeping eased to a low sobbing and for a timeless interval they all sat silent in the depths of dejection. At length, as twilight began to fall, Amanda gently released herself from Roger's arms, stood up, and said:
"Come! Even if there is no longer anyone to summon us to supper we ought to eat something. In God is now our only hope; but I hold that He helps those who help themselves, and it would be flying in His face not to try to keep up our strength."
"Well said, my sweet," Roger murmured, and although he still felt groggy, he found that he could now walk to the table without assistance. Georgina stubbornly refused to join them, protesting that even a morsel of food would choke her; but she made Jenny take a place after helping Clarissa to fetch some plates, cutlery and glasses.
In a grim, brooding silence they forced themselves to swallow some of the remains left by their captors and to drink a few mouthfuls of wine. Most of the fruits brought aboard by the pirates were strange to them, and in other circumstances they would have sampled them all with interest, but, robbed of appetite by their fearful apprehensions, they hardly noticed what they ate; and they were still seated round the table in semi-darkness when the door was thrust open and the hunch-back came in.
He spoke in some uncouth jargon of mingled Spanish and Carib, but the significance of his gesture was plain. He had been sent to order them out on deck.
For a moment Roger contemplated rebellion, but he was still so feverish and weak that a child could have knocked him down. He had no doubts whatever that if he told the women to refuse to go they would be fetched, and it seemed better to go with them on the remote chance that by giving his life he might be able to save one of them in a crisis, rather than to remain behind and face the ghastly torture of not knowing what was happening to them. Rallying all his strength, he began to offer up frantic prayers for help, then led them from the cabin.