Also they were not looking at Kamasura; they were staring, every man, at the bos'n, who stood with his whistle hanging from a cord around his neck.
"Begin!" said Henshaw.
The blacksnake whistled around the head of the third mate and there was a long scream from Kamasura--but the blacksnake only cracked loudly in the air.

Borgson laughed with a hideous delight.

Harrigan, sickly white, bowed his head.

Again the blacksnake whirled and again it cracked, but this time on naked flesh, and the scream of Kamasura was like the cut of a knife.
Again, again, and again the blacksnake fell, and now Kamasura twisted his head toward the captain and cried in a voice made thin by pain and rage at once: "I confess! Captain, let me speak!" At a gesture from Henshaw, the third mate reluctantly stepped back, drawing the lash of the blacksnake slowly through his hands with a caressing touch.

Van Roos, the color completely gone from his usually blooming cheeks, cut the ropes, and Kamasura rose, facing the captain.
He extended a naked, trembling arm toward Hovey.
"Mutiny!" he yelled.