While they were away the bulk of the crew began to sing again. They had reached the stage when bawdy songs claimed priority over all else, and for the next quarter of an hour obscenities in French, English and Spanish echoed out over the tranquil moonlit waters.
They died away in a triumphant shout from the starboard entrance to the after cabins. Marlinspike Joe and his friends emerged bearing shoulder high on a scantling Clarissa in her Mermaid's costume.
At the sight of her the men broke into a ragged drunken cheer, interspersed with shouted comments of indescribable indecency. Her bearers set her down in front of the two thrones and for a few minutes she was subjected to a hail of ribald comment. With a view to moderating her previous appearance in the role, she had not brushed out her hair, and wore a cloak draped over the upper part of her body, but when her bearers had lowered the scantling to the dais. Marlinspike Joe pulled the cloak from her, so that her naked shoulders gleamed white in the moonlight. There fell a sudden hush and one could almost hear the intake of breath as scores of eyes fastened upon her.
Lucette leant forward and shouted at the fiddler: "Play man; play a dance."
Bloggs was standing near her and asked her to partner him. She hesitated only a moment, then agreed. The fiddler struck up and once again the deck was filled with a mass of lurching couples. But Joao did not rise from his chair and Marlinspike Joe remained standing just below him, his lecherous gaze riveted on Clarissa. Suddenly he leant forward, grasped Clarissa's tail and dragged it from her. Beneath it she had on only her shift and now her bare legs were displayed up to the knee for all to see.
With a drunken laugh Joao bent down, caught her in his arms and lifted her on to his knees. Her scream rang out above the fiddler's music. Everyone stopped dancing. Lucette thrust Bloggs from her and marched up to the dais.
"Enough!" she cried. "Put down that wench, or it will be the worse for you when we reach our lair."
"To hell with that!" he shouted back. "I claim a Captain's privilege. Tonight this pretty baggage sleeps with me."
chapter VII
ORDEAL BY MOONLIGHT
The moon was now high in a cloudless sky. Its brilliant light eclipsed the stars and dimmed that of the lanterns hanging in the rigging. Flooding the scene it splashed the deck with jagged patches of silver between the stark black shadows of the groups of revellers, and threw their features into sharp relief.
But Clarissa's scream had brought an abrupt pause in their revelry. The fiddler stopped his scraping, feet no longer stamped and shuffled on the deck, all movement ceased; the whole company had become as rigid as though suddenly turned to stone by the baleful glare from a Medusa's head.
Every face was turned towards the dais. Upon it Joao still sat enthroned, one of his long arms tightly encircling Clarissa's waist. She lay where he had dragged her, half sprawled across his knees. Her face had flushed scarlet and, sobbing with shame, she buried it in her hands; but she could not hide her naked legs and shoulders. Lucette stood just below them, her arms akimbo, her fine head thrown back. All eyes were riveted upon the group. The tropic night was warm and still. Even the seamen who were drunk held their breath as they awaited the outcome of the quarrel. Lucette's voice rang out. It was loud and angry, but Rodger detected a nervous tremor in it.
"You will sleep alone!" she shouted. "Leave the little one be! I'll not permit that you should have your pleasure of her."
"So you're jealous, eh?" Joao retorted, with an ugly leer.
"Nay!" she brazenly flung back. "'Twas only your repertoire of strange blandishments that has reconciled me these past few weeks to waking each morning with your skull's-head next to mine. Now they are stale to me, and among the new men aboard there are others I have a mind to try as bedfellows. I care not for you, nor who is the first to rape her once we get ashore; but I am determined that you shall follow the rules of our fraternity."
"Well and what are those rules?" he cried mockingly. "By ancient custom it is declared that a Captain should have first pick of any captured women. After that, lots are drawn by all and a roster made by which each watch of the night some man gets his turn with one or other, till all have spliced each of them. Then come the daily auctions for further turns; the highest bidder securing first choice and the cash going into a common kitty. What could be fairer? I stand by it, and claim nought but a Captain's right to take this tender chick's maidenhead—if so be she still has one to be taken."
A guffaw of laughter greeted the sally with which he ended. It drowned the groan that Roger could not stifle. He could close his one good eye to the scene but not his ears, and Joao's brutal words confirmed his worst fears, bearing out all that he had heard of the customs -of the pirates. His bound hands were clasped behind him, and in an attempt to alleviate his agony of mind by agony of body he dug his nails into his palms with all the strength he could muster.
A sudden rustle and heavy thump beside him caused him to open his eye. Amanda had slid from the bench on to the deck in a dead faint. Beyond the place she had occupied Georgina and Jenny sat, clinging to one another, their faces dead white, their eyes staring in horrified apprehension. But no one even glanced at Amanda as she fell, for Lucette was speaking again.
"You are no Captain," she declared, "only a lieutenant given the task of bringing this prize back to our rendezvous. When M. le Vicomte decided to leave the women on board he charged me with their care. 'Tis he, and he alone, who has a Captain's rights over them, and I am answerable to him. I give not a jot what he does to you, but I've no mind to have him throw me to his crocodiles for having failed to protect his interests."
Releasing his hold on Clarissa, so that she slid half fainting to his feet, Joao stood up, stepped over her prostrate form and down on to the deck. Thrusting his face forward into Lucette's, he snarled:
"So I'm no Captain, eh? You spawn of hell, I'll soon teach you that I am, and one whose word is law aboard this ship."
She gave back a pace, but cried defiantly: "You besotted fool! Were you not drunk you would never have the courage to court M. le Vicomte's anger. You have but to wait a week at most to enjoy the wench in accordance with our rules, but do so this night and he'll have you flayed alive. Even a moron would have the sense to wait that long rather than pay such a price."
"Nay, I'll not wait an hour," he bellowed. "M. le Vicomte may be harsh but he is just. Having made me Captain of the prize he'll not take umbrage that I should have exercised a Captain's rights."
"You fool yourself!" Lucette began hotly, but broke off short owing to an unexpected diversion. Unseen by Roger, who had again bowed his head in helpless misery, Georgina had risen from the bench and walked forward until she was confronting Joao. Her voice was low but clear as she said in French.
"Perhaps I can provide a solution to this difficulty. It seems to me that Madame Lucette is right, and that should you take this girl you may pay for it with your life. But there can be no rule against your taking a woman who offers herself freely. Besides she is of tender years and untutored; so would provide you only with poor sport. Since you are so set on having a bedfellow I volunteer to take her place."
Her words filled Roger with mingled feelings of sickening revolt and admiration. All his life he had loved Georgina. She had meant more to him that even Athenals de Rochambeau or his dear Amanda, and the thoughts of her submitting herself to the embrace of this loathsome skull-headed creature filled him with horror. Yet he knew that she had slept with many men, some of whom she had not even cared for; so the ordeal would prove less ghastly for her than for a young virgin like Clarissa. Her bid to save the girl was but one more demonstration of her splendid courage, and on tenter-hooks between fear for her and dread for Clarissa, he listened for Joao de Mondego's answer.