Instantly half-a-dozen stout fellows threw themselves upon Vasco, who still, however, contrived, before he was effectually gagged, to yell out in broken sentences— ‘Jerry—I say, Jerry—you do this because I prevent you marry my countrywoman, who keep tavern at Tortugas, and tell her, you have one, two, three wife already!’ But Jerry’s orders were speedily obeyed, and the Portuguese—with a stout rope passed through his mouth, keeping the jaws wide open, and made fast to the back of his head—could only grin and flash his one eye upon his successful persecutor. Jerry was now in his glory. His ugly face was all lighted up with the excitement of gratified spite; and roaring to the men, that now they would teach a cowardly Portuguese to lift his hand upon his betters he proposed that, as a punishment for what he had done, Vasco should be made to run the gauntlet, from the mizen-mast forward to the heel of the bowsprit and back again. This proposal was received with acclamations by the rest of the crew, most of whom were brutal fellows enough, and quite under the thumb of Jerry, who, as I have said, was really captain, though he pretended to be only second in command; and so, presently, Le Chiffon Rouge, after whispering to his mate, ordered an old pair of topgallant-sail haulyards to be cut up into lengths of about three feet each. This was soon done, and then each man was armed with a piece of the strong stiff rope, with which, of course, one could strike as with a cudgel. The culprit eyed all these preparations in sulky silence, and made no resistance, even when Jerry himself, with a devil-like leer of delight in his eyes, tore off his doublet and shirt, leaving his swarthy back bare for the blows which awaited it. ‘That man,’ whispered Rumbold to me, indicating Jerry, ‘is as great a fool as he is a brute. These Portuguese are not the fellows to forget a scar marked upon their backs. Sooner or later, unless he have very marvellous good luck, the knife which cut open Shambling Ned’s head will make itself acquainted with Mr. Jerry’s inward anatomy also.’ In this remark I very cordially agreed; but Jerry seemed to be under very little uneasiness on the score, for he went joking about, showing the men how to grasp the ropes, so as to lay on the most vigorous cuts. The punishment of running the gauntlet is one which its executors can make as light or as heavy as they choose; and in the present instance the culprit did not seem, judging from most of the faces around him, to have much to hope for; while those of the crew who had, perhaps, given and received over many knife-slashes themselves, to have any very great horror of the crime, stood too much in awe of Jerry to favour the culprit.