15/16 The Marquis, who had understood nothing, took a torch from the hand of a bystander and held it down toward the face of the man they had brought last. After all, as John Turner had said, Loo Barebone had come back to her. She had denied him twice, and the third time he would take no denial. The taciturn sailors laid him there and stepped back--as if he was hers and this was the inevitable end of his short and stormy voyage. She had done the right, and this was the end. |