CHAPTER 48 “Yer captain is afeared of slaves.”
“God’s blood, Cap’n! These hummingbirds won’t leave me be.”
“Those aren’t birds, you twit. They’re mosquitoes.” Renato had already made the mistake of swatting one of the pests from his neck, earning a stinging reminder of his scarred and tender flesh.
“Wait ’til you see the grasshoppers,” another man snorted. “Them buggers are big as jackrabbits.”
The surviving pirates lay in the shade of a golden-boughed cottonwood, catching their breath and reloading their weapons.
Besides himself, LaChaise and the hunchback, only two pirates had come unscathed from the battle. One of LaChaise’s men limped from an arrow that had passed clean through his calf, while Renato’s last rower still had an arrowhead lodged in his neck. The group had plenty of w
