in the early morning they led me out beside the foremast. there were present the petty officer told off to wield the cat-o'-nine-tails, an officer to tally the strokes, dr. cuthbert, and my guard. this was at the first. before the punishment had begun, half a hundred of the crew had assembled to witness it, drawn i suppose by varying motives of curiosity, pity, or craving for the exhibition of brutality.
my guard was about to strip off my shirt, when dr. cuthbert interposed. "one moment." they stepped back, and he addressed me: "dr. robinson, i have never known a man possessed of a finer physique than yours. on the other hand, none can say beforetime what any man can endure unless he has been tested. you may succumb to this punishment."
i looked at him a long moment, and for my lady's sake, found power to beg a favor of this most insistently kind enemy.
"dr. cuthbert," i replied, "may i ask you to remove the rosary from about my neck?" he did so. "sir, i now request you to guard my treasure. if i survive this shame, restore it to me. if i succumb, i trust you as a gentleman and a brother physician to give the cross into the hands of señorita alisanda vallois, with the simple statement that i died in your care."
"señorita vallois?—you know her?" he exclaimed.
"yes; but in god's name, doctor, do not tell her of my shame!"
"dr. cuthbert!" interposed the officer in charge.
the doctor stepped away, and my guard and executioner seized me fast. with the deftness of sailors, they removed my handcuffs, stripped me to the waist, and triced me up by the wrists to the foremast.
"ready!" called the officer. "one!"
down came the lash upon my bare back. but the sting of its thongs was as nothing to the sting of shame which pierced my heart. death would have been far less bitter than this disgrace!
the count went on. stroke after stroke slashed across my back and shoulders as heavily as my imbruted executioner could strike. soon the blood began to ooze, then trickle, then stream down. by the fiftieth stroke i should judge that my back was a mass of raw flesh. yet the count continued, the strokes fell without ceasing, mercilessly.
coming as i did from a people bred to endure the utmost torture of the indian savage, i found no difficulty in restraining any outcry under this equally fiendish torture of so-called christians. but as the little surgeon had said, no man can foresee the limits of endurance. at the seventy-third stroke i swooned. they did not cut me down, but let me hang by the wrists, and drenched me with buckets of sea-water, until i revived.
i gasped, stiffened, and writhed in the hell of agony which beset me with returning consciousness.
"seventy-four!" called the officer.
the lash descended, all the more forcefully for the rest enjoyed by the wielder.
"seventy-five!—seventy-six!—seventy-seven!" went on the merciless tally.
i gritted my teeth, and vowed to endure and live, that i might overturn heaven and earth to accomplish the shame and destruction of britain. my glaring eyes looked out past the mast upon the sailors before me with such murderous rage that one by one they edged back and around beyond reach of my vision.
the count had now passed the eighties—it was at ninety. only ten more strokes! but despite my rage, a deathly sickness was fast creeping upon me. i could no longer hold up my head. try as i might, it sank lower and lower, until my chin was upon my quivering breast.
"ninety-five!" the words came faint, from an immeasurable distance. i was again about to swoon.
suddenly i heard a cry of anguish such as i trust never to hear again. it was the voice of my lady! i looked up. she was darting toward me, her beautiful hair flying wildly in the breeze, the rosary in her outstretched hand.
"ninety-six!" again the lash fell.
"ninety-seven!" but now she was beside me—she had flung herself between me and the descending lash. i heard the sailors cry out. the executioner whisked his lash aside by so narrow a margin that the tip of one of the thongs left a crimson weal across her white forehead.
"god!" cried the officer. there was a moment's breathless pause. then he called harshly, "mademoiselle, stand aside. there are yet three strokes."
"strike if you dare!" she cried. "i am here to defend him! strike me!"
"mademoiselle, i would not force you away. but if i send for captain powers—"
"send!" she cried. "poder de dios! this gentleman is my betrothed husband!"
there was a gleam above my head, and the blade of a little dagger slashed through the lashings which bound my wrists to the mast. i attempted to turn, but tottered, and my knees bent and doubled beneath me. i should have fallen headlong had she not eased me to the deck with her arm across my naked, sweaty, blood-streaked breast.
she knelt beside me, and drew my head against her knee. then all again became black.
