Read Boyett-Compo, Charlotte - WindTales 02 for Free Online Page A

something else in mind,” Weir said quietly.
    “Aye. Kullen had ’em seize the lad's wrists to the shrouds and then they laid the cat-'o-nine on him. It
    was the fear of the storm they'd been through, I reckon, that made ’em so violent and all. The need to go
    at something to calm themselves down. The lad was...” Stevens searched for the right word.
    “Expendable,” Patrick furnished.
    “Aye. Handy, too. Who cares about a prisoner? I felt sorry for the lad ‘cause all the while they was
    whipping him, he was mumbling something about wanting to die, you see. That was when the Captain
    took it in his mind to kill him, I guess."
    “How many lashes did they give him?” Patrick had turned away, speaking over his shoulder to the old
    man.
    “I don't know. Thirty, Forty. What difference did it make? He'd been beat before. But I know this much:
    by the time they was through with him, the lad was a gibbering fool. That cat-'o-nine was slick with his
    blood ‘cause Kullen, himself, wielded the whip and he liked the sound of them metal barbs hitting flesh,
    he did; he put his back into that evil business that day, running that steel-tipped thong as hard as he could
    down the lad's back."
    “There are men like that,” Patrick mumbled, vicariously feeling the pull of a cat down his own back.
    “Aye, and Kullen was one of the worse. Then Janssen ordered him keelhauled.” Stevens shuddered for
    he could still hear the young man's screaming, pleading as Janssen had ordered him tied and dropped
    over the side.
    “He was already afraid of the water and that must have seemed like a true hell to him,” Weir said.
    “He was like a wild man, he was,” Stevens agreed. “He was thrashing about, spraying blood from his
    torn back everywhere, but they seized his wrists and ankles and threw him overboard, him screaming like
    a Chalean banshee all the way to the water."
    “But he survived that, too,” Paddy said, admiration filling his voice.
    “Aye!” Stevens said emphatically. “Aye, he did! They brought him up and he was still breathing."
    “That must not have set well with Janssen,” Tarnes remarked.
    “It might not have, but we got a code we live by on the seas, Tarnes, and I know you know it well: if a
    man survives what they did to that lad, he's charmed! There weren't a man on board that would have
    allowed Janssen to try keelhauling him again although he was about to."
    Patrick turned around. “He was going to throw him back overboard?"
    “Aye, he was! But we all voiced our opinion about that foolishness. So Janssen made them take him
    back below.” The old man shrugged. “He'd lost interest anyway, ‘cause the lad had come to and was
    just staring straight ahead of him like he was in another world. Janssen thought the lad's mind was gone,
    and who'd have blamed him?"
    “How did you get locked in the bulkhead with him?” Tarnes wanted to know.
    “It was right after the watch yelled: ‘sail ho!’ and we saw this clipper bearing down on us. She had
    poured on all her canvas and was streaking across that water like an avenging angel or the like. We
    knowed her to be a pirate ship ‘cause she was flying the skull and crossbones. Pretty soon she was
    steering sidewise our hawse and I knowed we was in trouble. Janssen had sent men aloft to spread all
    the canvas, to wet down the sails, but I knowed it weren't no use. She was going to catch us, and you
    know what pirates do to a penal colony crew.” He ran one gnarled finger across his neck.
    “So, I snuck down there and crawled in with the lad. I knew they wouldn't do no more than take the
    cargo and split the crew. We'd repaired that hole in the hull, but we was still shipping some water. She
    weren't all that seaworthy, you see, so I knowed they wouldn't want her."
    “And just what the hell were you going to do: sail her yourself?” Mr. Neevens snarled.
    Stevens glared at Neevens. “I was going to get him in one of the jolly boats and make for the