Behind the smoke-screen, two cruel eyes could be made out, shining like boiling ice. He was holding a sabre in his right hand.
Blackbeard had come at last.
***
The situation was changing for the worse and Johnny could understand it when he saw the old man’s grim look: a deadly paleness had turned him into a sort of ghost, and that was highlighted by his crossed eyebrows.
Johnny couldn’t see the bay very well from where he was standing, but the faint red halo hovering over it didn’t give rise to doubts. He could feel a gloomy dread rising slowly inside himself, a dull fear.
“We must get away from here!” Avery caught him violently by his arm. “We aren’t safe anymore.”
Johnny kept staring at him doubtfully, unable to understand clearly what he was talking about: hundreds of images were
