Read HF - 03 - The Devil's Own for Free Online Page A

burn. 'Aye,' he said at last. 'As of this moment, Kit, I have a heart of stone. And you had best develop one as well. We shall make them pay. Swear that, Kit.'
    'I swear it,' Kit said fiercely. 'We shall make them pay, Jean. A thousand times.'
    'A thousand times. Or may God heap such a fire on our heads. Now come, we'll not do it by staying here.'
    He rose to his hands and knees, and then stood up, began to find his way down the uneven slope.
    Kit stumbled behind him. 'Where shall we go?'
    'Hispaniola.'
    'But what shall we do there?'
    'Survive, in the first place, Kit. We shall be matelots, you and I. As we have no others left in the world, so shall we need no others. Back to back we shall face the world. And then we shall find, or if necessary we shall make ourselves a boat, and get away. Perhaps to your friends in the Leewards.'
    'God forbid that,' Kit said. 'To the Warners? They'd probably hang us quicker than the Dons. Anyway, when I see that little upstart again it shall be with gold pieces overflowing from my pockets.'
    'Which upstart did you mean?'
    'The man, of course. But it goes for her as well. There'll be naught she understands so well as money.'
    Jean felt the sand of the beach beneath his toes. 'And no doubt, by the time your pockets do overflow, she'll have learned some sense. Now come, we must shed our weapons.'
    'Then how will we survive?'
    'We'll not survive even the swim, encumbered by swords and pistols. Leave them here. We'll take a knife each, and make sure it lies in the middle of your back. Now mark me well, Kit, we'll go slow and steady, and we'll make as little splash as possible.'
    'We'll not go down,' Kit said confidently. ' 'Tis scarce a mile from shallow to shallow.'
    'A shade further, I think,' Jean said. 'And I was thinking more of sharks.'
    He waded into the water, and the next wave lapped at Kit's toes. Sharks. He had forgotten them. So they swam deep and seldom attacked men who were not already injured. But a mile was a long stretch of water. For a moment he felt that he would not be able to do it. Then he looked over his shoulder, at the house, burning like a beacon on the hilltop. He was too far away for detail, now, and yet he felt he could see the two women, hanging from the rafters. How much did he hate? He did not know. At the moment perhaps not at all. He just wanted to lie on the sand and die. And weep while he died. And think of Grandmama. But if he lay on the sand he would not die, at least not until the Dons found him, and then he would die slowly, and painfully. So why not die in the sea?
    Jean was already well out, swimming steadily, not looking back, and now that it was dark, the huge bulk of Hispaniola seemed close enough to touch.
    So perhaps he would not die, but would live, to fulfil his oath. He ran into the water with great splashing bounds, allowed it to grip him at the waist, fell forward and began to swim, too quickly at first, exactly as Jean had warned him not to, so that he lost his breath. Then he almost turned back, but after a few moments he regained control of himself, and struck out after his friend. Then the night became endless. Only a little over a mile. How long does it take to swim a mile? Fifteen minutes? Half an hour? No longer, surely. He could pretend he was walking it. But that was too exhausting. It was necessary to blot out the sea, and the growing agony of his arms, and the lurking fear in his belly. Because the sea was so dark, and contained so many things of which a man might be afraid.
    He thought of Marguerite Warner. Would she be married by now? He did not know. He knew so little about her, except that she was proud, and angry, and contemptuous of him. But he knew something of her feel. In that perhaps he was ahead even of her husband. Her feel and her smell. He dreamed of the softness of her flesh, the hardness of her thighs and the firmness of her belly, the tickle of her hair and the texture of her skin. Marguerite Warner. When he again saw