The Pirate of Panama, page 119 by William MacLeod Raine
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our punishment will depend on how faithful you are for the rest of the cruise."
Once I saw a man acquitted of murder in a courtroom. The verdict was such a relief that he fainted. The captain's unexpected clemency took these men the same way, for virtually he had untied the noose from their necks. Tears started to their eyes. Plainly they were shaken with emotion.
"You'll not regret it, sir. We'll be true to the death, Captain Blythe," the Irishman promised, his white lips trembling.
After Alderson's turn at the wheel came mine. Evelyn presently joined me in the pilot-house.
"When shall we get ashore?" she asked me.
We were at the time, I remember, passing Taboga Island.
"Not till morning. We'll have to be inspected. To-night we'll lie in the harbor."
"How is your hand?" she asked, glancing at my bruised fingers.
I flashed a look quickly at her.
"My hand! Oh, it's all right now."
"Jimmie's is better, too," she said quietly.
In the language of my boyhood I was up a stump. So I played for time.
"Jimmie's?"
"Yes. I have been taking care of it for him. His fingers were not bruised much, though. It's odd, isn't it, that both of you were hurt in exactly the same place--by accident?"
I murmured that it was strange.
"So I had a little talk with him," she went on quietly.
"Yes?"
"And he told me all about it. Oh, Jack, I didn't think even Boris would do a thing like that!" She looked up at me with bright, misty eyes. "I asked Gallagher and Neidlinger about it. They both told me how brave you were."
"I'm grateful for their certificate of valor," I answered lightly.
Before I knew what she was at my sweetheart had stooped to kiss the bruises above my knuckles. I snatched my hand away.
"Don't do that," I said gruffly. "It isn't exactly--you know--right."
"Why not?" She looked at me with head flung back in characteristic fashion. "Why not? They suffered for us, the poor, bruised fing