Chapter Ten
The Captain left me in charge of our captive Gabriela, for I was, of course, the crew member least occupied with other duties. Perhaps she considered me the most trustworthy of her vile band as well, imagining me so deep within her thrall that I would scarcely think of betraying her in even the slightest—for this was how I scrupulously comported myself. The Captain, blinded by her own image of herself as some all-powerful goddess, never suspected me of any treachery. Ah, foolish, vain woman!
As day by day we sailed back toward one of the minor ports of the Spanish Main to deliver the Captain’s ransom demands, I brought the girl her meals and occasionally gave her a change of our commonplace sea clothes. She had loosed the ribbons from her hair, and those lustrous waves of fra
