Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/405

 A BOWL OF PUNCIL 377 have fire-water;a drop of fire-water for everydrop of the white man's blood." " and what îs more, you shall have it ail alight. We will give your majesty a bowl of blazing punch." The thought had struck Alvez, and he was himself delighted with the îdea, that he would set the spirît in fiâmes. Moené Loonga had complaîned that the "fire- water" did not justify its name as it ought, and Alvez hoped that perhaps, administered in thîs new form, it might rcvivify the deadened membranes of the palate of the king. Moené Loonga did not conceal his satisfaction. Wives and courtiers alike were full of anticipation. They had ail drunk brandy, but they had not drunk brandy alight And not only was their thirst for alcohol to be satisfied ; their thirst for blood was likewise to be indulged ; and when it is remembered how, even amongst the civilized, drunkenness reduces a man below the level of a brute, it may be imagined to what barbarous cruelties Dick Sands was likely to be .exposed. The idea of torturing a white man was not altogether répugnant to the coloured blood of either Alvez or Coïmbra, while with Negoro the spirit of vengeance had completely overpowered ail feeling of compunction. Night, without any intervening twilight, was soon draw- ing on, and the contemplated display could hardly fail to be effective. The programme for the evening consisted of two parts ; fîrst, the blazing punch-bowl ; then the torture, culminating in an exécution. • The destined victim was still closcly confined in his dark and dreary dungeon ; ali the slaves, whether sold or not, had been driven back to the barracks, and the chitoka was cleared of every one except the slave-dealers, the havildars, and the soldiers, who hoped, by favour of the king, to have a share of the flaming punch. Alvez did not long delay the proceedings. He ordered a huge caidron, capable of containing more than twenty gallons, to be placed in the centre of the market-place. Into thîs were emptied several casks of hîghly-rectified Bpirit, of a very inferior quality, to which was added a
 * Yes, yoù shall have the firé-water," assented Alvez,