In the clamor of shouts and cheers Cobb was lifted onto unsteady feet. He struggled to breathe through the pain in his ribs, which shot through his torso with each attempt to inhale. He could feel hands all around him, shoving and prodding at him and then there was a driving sharp point pressed hard against his back.
“And what do we do with this one?” a voice shouted out above the others.
“Throw him over for the cold depths!” another answered.
“No! Hang him! He committed mutiny and brought us all along for the ride, let him taste the noose!” yet another cried out.
Cobb’s heart pounded harder and harder with each response while the crew’s appetite to see him dead was voiced. A slight jab from the point in his back prodded him forward to some grizzly fate he could not yet see. Footfalls on the wooden deck around him urged him on through driving mystery hits on the bag covering his head. He stumbled, but before he could fall hands were grabbing at him, forcing him to his feet and the point in his back continued urging him on. The process repeated several times as they marched him blindly up the deck, Cobb knew they were moving toward the bow, but he couldn’t see enough detail through the tiny holes in the bag to collect where he was exactly. The voices around him hushed slightly and the point pulled away from his back. Hands that had been tugging his blouse pulled away and Cobb was left standing alone with the deck shifting beneath his feet. A sudden hit to his belly doubled him over, driving the wind he had just recovered right back out again followed by another to the back of his legs collapsing him to the deck, driving his knees onto the hard wooden planks.
When the burlap hood was ripped away a world of blinding light rushed into Cobb’s eyes. His vision was blurred, and his head pounded from being struck, blood trickled down from his brow and ear where he had been hit several times on the march up the ship. The bleary forms of sailors crowded around him and as his vision began to clear, he could see they were all looking down on him with dreadful expressions of murderous intent.
“Let me see him.” Tim’s voice came from behind the crowd, parting the sailors until Cobb could see him, looking down from the forecastle. “Mr. Cobb, as you can see, your crew holds no great love for you. I suspect they never have. We will make your departure from us as dignified as you deserve.” Sladen said with a sickening grin.
Shouted threats and insults pelted Cobb from the crowd while an abrasive course rope was lowered from the rigging. A sailor standing by Mr. Sladen fashioned a noose from the bitter end of the line while they all continued to hurl insults and jeers down on him. Tim’s stare focused in on Cobb and when their eyes locked all faded from existence to Cobb but that grotesque smile. He was lording victory over the ousted commander and using Cobb’s own crew to do the deed. The heavy loop of a noose dropping over his head broke their death stare and even before it was cinched tight, he could feel it gnawing at the flesh of his neck. Cobb was dragged to his feet in a rough manner by a sailor at each side.
“Heave away and farewell Mr. Cobb,” Tim said with a sloppy mocking salute repeated by many of the sailors surrounding him.A crew of men out of sight from Cobb began to heave the heavy line taking slack out in long jaunts until the rope was taut. The next heave took Cobb’s feet from the deck, biting the fibers of the rope into his flesh. He sucked for air getting only a gulp before his airway closed, the next heave rose him in a violent leap well over the heads of the sailors on deck. Cobb struggled against his wrist binding while the rope at his throat burned while it tore at the skin under the strain of his weight. His heartbeat screamed in his chest, sending a throbbing up through his neck radiating around his head. Cobb’s eyeballs felt as if they would explode with pressure while his lungs burned for air, pulsating against the airway closed off by the combination of rope and gravity. Another heave on the line sent a gush of blood from Cobb’s throat down amongst the crowd of sailors on deck, he could feel the warm fluid running from his ripped flesh down his chest and belly. Through bulging eyes, he could see the pirate ship, not so far off in the distance. A black banner rippling through the wind behind her stared back at him with hollow eyes from a menacing horned skull. Cobb kicked his feet and bucked himself, straining his bound hands desperately. His vision blurred and doubled, pain seared the fibers of his mind, white hot and relentless. His body tensed and seized erratically beyond his control. All sound faded from the world and he could feel another warmth drip from his pants as he lost control of his bladder. His final fading thoughts seemed to echo over and over in his mind. Good. Piss on them.
Chapter 14
Drowned Maiden
27 Sept 1808
19 Degrees 12 minutes N, 74 Degrees
