vengeance!"

The sun rose high and higher over our quarter, beating down upon
our naked backs and adding greatly to our torments thereby,
waking the pain of old stripes and lending an added sting to new.

Ever and anon would come the sharp crack of the drivers' whips
followed by the squealing cry of quivering flesh (a cry wherein
was none of the human) the which, dying to a whine, was lost in
the stir and bustle of the great galleass. But ever and always,
beneath the hoarse voices of the mariners, beneath the clash of
armour and tramp of feet, beneath the creak and rumble of the
long oars, came yet another sound, rising and falling yet never
ceasing, a dull, low sound the like of which you shall sometimes
hear among trees when the wind is high--the deep, sobbing moan
that was the voice of our anguish as we poor wretches urged the
great "Esmeralda" galleass upon her course.

The oar whereto I was chained along with my three bench-mates had
at some time been badly sprung, so that the armourers had made
shift to strengthen it with a stout iron fillet some six inches
wide. Now it so happened that my grasp came upon this fillet,
and, with every stroke of the oar, day after day, week in and
week out, it had become my wont to rub the links of my chain to
and fro across this iron band, whereby they had become very
smooth and shining.

The words of my prayer were yet upon my lips, when, chancing to
look upon one of these links, I beheld that which set my heart a-
leaping and my riotous blood a-tingle to my fingers' ends; yet