When the Captain herself had at last collapsed upon the deck, I ran below to free my beloved Gabriela. Perhaps we simply should have rolled those cutthroats into the deep ocean—no better had they served their victims—but we had not the heart. So long as we could escape in peace, we decided to spare those unworthies. Together we gathered what we needed, and we made ready to leave.
I tore off the leathern harness which the lustful old seamstress had made me back in London and cut it into a dozen pieces. Before I dressed again, I threw the scraps of sweaty leather at the feet of the unconscious Captain. Once she had been my goddess, but now she was revealed for what she truly was. I stared down in disgust at the slack-lipped sot whose flaming red hair spilled unheeded about the deck. She was
