Cities of the Red Night

being minded to head for the West Indies. They had also conceived a contempt for Strobe as an effeminate dandy. After he had killed five of the ringleaders they were forced to revise this opinion. The mutinous crew was then put ashore and a crew of acrobats and dancing boys taken on, since Nordenholz had already devised a way in which they could be put to use.

Kelley claims to have learned the secrets of death on the gallows, which gives him invincible skill as a swordsman and such sexual prowess that no man or woman can resist him, with the exception of Captain Strobe, whom he regards as more than human. 'Voici ma lettre de marque,' he says, running his fingers along the rope mark. (A letter of marque was issued to privateers by their government, authorizing them to prey on enemy vessels in the capacity of accredited combatants, and thus distinguishing them from common pirates. Such a letter often, but by no means always, saved the bearer from the gallows.) Kelley tells me that the mere sight of his hemp marks instills in adversaries a weakness and terror equal to the apparition of Death Himself.

I asked Kelley what it feels like to be hanged.

'At first I was sensible of very great pain due to the weight of my body and felt my spirits in a strange commotion violently pressed upwards. After they reached my head, I saw a bright blaze of light which seemed to go out at my eyes with a flash. Then I lost all sense of pain. But after I was cut down, I felt such intolerable pain from the prickings and shootings as my blood and spirits returned that I wished those who cut me down could have been hanged.'*

* Daniel P. Mannix, The History of Torture (New York, Dell, 1964).

The reader may question how I find time to write this account on a sea voyage in a crowded forecastle. The answer is that I made very short notes each day, with the intent of expanding them later. I now have two hours of leisure each day to reconstruct a narrative from these notes, since Strobe has placed a desk and writing material at my disposal, being interested for some reason in printing my account.

Each evening all the boys strip and wash in buckets of salt water, whereupon various sexual games and contests take place. In one such game each boy places a gold piece on the deck, and the first to ejaculate wins the gold. There are also contests for distance.

Since there is plenty of powder and shot on board, there have been a few contests with pistols and muskets. I have won some gold, being careful not to best Kelley, though I am sure I could have done so. I feel that he could prove a most dangerous enemy. There is much here that I do not understand.

Are you in salt

Back in New York I call the Greens from my loft. I've put $5,000 worth of security into this space, The windows are shatterproof glass with rolling bars. The door is two inches of solid steel from an old bank vault. It gives you a safe feeling, like being in Switzerland.

Mr. Green can see me right away. He gives an address on Spring Street. Middle-class loft ... big modern kitchen ... Siamese cat ... plants. Mrs. Green is a beautiful woman, red hair, green eyes, a faraway dreamy look. I notice Journeys out of the Body, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, the Castaneda books. Mr. Green mixes me a Chivas Regal.

I clarify my position....'Private investigator...no authority to make an arrest ... I can only pass evidence along to the local police....Frankly, in this case I can't hold out much hope of obtaining an arrest, let alone a conviction.'

'We still want to retain you.'

'Why, exactly?'

'We want to know the truth,' said Mrs. Green. 'Whether the killers can be brought to trial or not.'

I pull out the questionnaire with Jerry's medical history. 'It says here that Jerry had scarlet fever at the age of four.'

'Yes. We were living in Saint Louis at the time,' said Mrs. Green.

'Who was the doctor?'

'Old Doctor Greenbaum. He lived next door.'

'Is he still alive?'

'No, he died ten years ago.'