Having paid over the ransom for the town in Clegg's cabin on the Imogene, McCallum came straight to the point with the most villainous frankness. He told Clegg, quite engagingly, that he had no love for Black Nick, and would give a lot to see him badly frightened before being killed. He then asked casually:
“How do you propose killing him?” Syn answered: “I shall force him to utter my name, Clegg. It is the sound a man will make when he is strangled. And I think I shall kill him with my bare hands. Then no doubt I shall dig out his heart with that harpoon upon the cabin wall, behind you.”
“You must hate the man vastly to be so bloodthirsty,” laughed the planter.
“I hate him enough,” replied Syn.
The next day, according to their arrangements, Syn was rowed ashore to the plantation beach. The planter was there to meet him, and the boat's crew were left guarding the boat, for, as the planter pointed out, should too many men appear, Black Nick would become suspicious.
Now, Clegg's crew had told him that they feared a trap would be set for their captain, and asked permission to stand by to rescue him. Knowing that McCallum could be no friend to him, though he hated Black Nick the worse, Syn was alert for any treachery, but seeing in the air an opportunity to impress his men with his utter disregard for danger, and somehow trusting in his own destiny, which always whispered to him that he would eventually kill Nicholas, he did not care, but walked gaily with McCallum through the woods to the house. This was a large wooden bungalow, built high upon a slope, the back of which afforded a dry store for cattle fodder. It was a hot day, and by the time they entered the front verandah they were ready for food and drink. But Syn resolved that there would be no food or drink for him in that house. Black Nick's capture was what he had come for, and that would be more than meat and wine. He was chancing no drugging from McCallum's hospitality. They entered a spacious living-room, with table laid for three.
“That is Black Nick's usual seat,” said the host. “If you sit there opposite, with your back to the door, he will not see you in that high-backed chair. The lazy devil is always late, so we will sit down now, and I will send a servant to tell him dinner is served. Then you may do what you like. You may prefer to kill a man before or after dinner. I suggest after, for personally I am hungry. So long as you do kill him, it's of no odds to me.”
“I shall be obliged if you will send for him,” said Syn, taking his seat, while McCallum ordered one of the servants to fetch Black Nick.
Syn heard the door open behind him, and a heavy step care round the table.
Although he was alive to treachery, Syn never doubted but that this was Black Nick, and he was something astonished to see confronting him a Spanish officer fully armed.
“I arrest you, sir, in the name of the Governor of Havana for piracy on the high seas. Come in, there.” A tramp of feet behind him made Syn glance quickly behind him to see a file of guards.
McCallum laughed. “It is quite true, Captain Clegg, that Black Nick is afraid of you. So much that he ran away to sea as a pirate rather than fight you to recover his ship which you stole so cleverly. But I am a man of different kidney. You do not steal my ships and treasure and go scot free. No, you shall hang on Havana docks.”
“So the Governor of Santiago lied to me when he said that Black Nick was with you in Havana,” said Syn calmly.
“Of course he did,” laughed the planter. “May not a Governor lie to a thief?”
“So much the worse for the Governor of Santiago,” replied Syn.
“Come, sir,” said the officer. “My men wait to escort you to the Town.”
“You had best hand over your sword,” said the planter.
“And let us get clear before his men know of this and attempt a rescue.” Syn rose and drew his sword, but had no intention of handing it to the officer. The twelve guards behind him were cavalry men with drawn sabres. As he was quickly weighing up his chances, he noticed blue smoke curling along between the floor-boards. He also heard an ominous crackling of burning wood, and felt a strange heat under his soles.
“I can assure you that my men will rescue me,” he said. “Oh yes. Alive or dead. If dead, God help your town. They will spare nothing.”
“That is for us to prevent,” replied the officer haughtily.
As he spoke he staggered back for a flame leapt up through the floor and caught the table-cloth, while screams of “Fire” echoed through the house. But that was not so terrifying as the half-naked red figure which dashed into the room and with a double swing of a tomahawk severed the necks of the two soldiers nearest to Syn, and then leapt upon the table in the midst of the flames crying out “Shuhshuhgah”.
“Shuhshuhgah,” echoed Syn with a mighty laugh, as he drove his sword through the neck of another soldier.
“I scalp you. You good enough. You officer,” cried the Redskin, swinging a blow at the captain of the Guard.
The planter dashed for the safety of the verandah, and jumping the rails to the grass below, ran for the woods, while Syn drove the frightened soldiers before him with his sword. And then with a shout the faithful Mipps, having disregarded orders, rushed through the smoke at the head of his boat's crew.
The soldiers broke and ran with the pirates after them, and as Syn rushed for the verandah he saw Shuhshuhgah in the blinding smoke calmly scalping the dead officer. Before he could finish this operation, Syn had dragged him clear of the burning house.
“I fired the house,” said the Redskin. “Heard that officer talk last night about the trap for you. Came up to join you. Saw fodder under floor. Fired it.
“Back to the boats, and we'll talk when on the ship,” said Syn.
That night the pirates sacked Havana, seized the Governor and hanged him on the docks where he had planned to hang Clegg. They then set sail for Santiago, “for I'll have no Governor of a mere town lying to me,” cried Clegg.
So was Santiago sacked and another Governor hanged.
A suitable island was found for their treasures to be hidden in, and for the careening of the Imogene, and from his secret base they sailed and sailed again, taking their toll of ship after ship. Even pirate ships were not secure from them.
Indeed, the crew noted that their Captain attacked these with the greater spirit, for on one of them he always hoped to meet with Nicholas.
