CHAPTER 25 “How do we know you won’t butcher us?”
Medusa!
Renato’s gut churned. In her present condition, L’Intrepide could neither fight nor run. And he himself, bound as he was, would be denied even a warrior’s death. If he survived, he’d be dragged back to New Orleans, tried in a puppet court and strung up on the waterfront until the flesh rotted from his bones.
The men’s strident voices brought him back to the crisis at hand. Every word dripped with anger, fear, desperation or doom. Some lined the rail, squinting against the sun and fighting over the telescope. Others hung from the rigging, reporting activity aboard Medusa. Still more sat with heads bowed, contemplating their sins.
Renato kept his silence as arguments boiled around him.
“We should make for the coast. Slip into a s
