Fully five minutes must have elapsed before I saw my lieutenant emerge from the tower of the _Yan_ with his two prisoners. He conducted them down the companionway and across the main deck toward the _Sofal_, while a hundred members of my pirate band watched them in silence. Not a hand was raised against them as they passed. Kamlot breathed a sigh of relief as the two men clambered over the rail of the _Sofal_ and approached us. “I think that our lives hung in the balance then, quite as much as theirs,” he said, and I agreed with him, for if my men had started killing aboard the _Yan_ in defiance of my orders, they would have had to kill me and those loyal to me to protect their own lives. The ongyan was still blustering when they were halted in front of me, but the captain was awed. There was something about the whole incident that mystified him, and when he got close enough to me to see the color of my hair and eyes, I could see that he was dumfounded. “This is an outrage,” shouted Moosko, the ongyan. “I will see that every last man of you is destroyed for this.” He was trembling, and purple with rage. “See that he does not speak again unless he is spoken to,” I instructed Kiron, and then I turned to the captain. “As soon as we have taken what we wish from your ship,” I told him, “you will be free to continue your voyage. I am sorry that you did not see fit to obey me when I ordered you to stop for boarding; it would have saved many lives. The next time you are ordered to lay to by the _Sofal_, do so; and when you return to your country, advise other shipmasters that the _Sofal_ is abroad and that she is to be obeyed.” “Do you mind telling me,” he asked, “who you are and under what flag you sail?” “For the moment I am a Vepajan,” I replied, “but we sail under our own flag. No country is responsible for what we do, nor are we responsible to any country.” Pressing the crew of the _Yan_ into service, Kamlot, Kiron, Gamfor, and Zog had all her weapons, such of her provisions as we wished, and the most valuable and least bulky portion of her cargo transferred to the _Sofal_ before dark. We then threw her guns overboard and let her proceed upon her way. Moosko I retained as a hostage in the event that we should ever need one; he was being held under guard on the main deck until I could determine just what to do with him. The Vepajan women captives we had rescued from the _Sovong_, together with our own officers who were also quartered on the second deck, left me no vacant cabin in which to put Moosko, and I did not wish to confine him below deck in the hole reserved for common prisoners. I chanced to mention the matter to Kamlot in the presence of Vilor, when the latter immediately suggested that he would share his own small cabin with Moosko and be responsible for him. As this seemed an easy solution of the problem, I ordered Moosko turned over to Vilor, who took him at once to his cabin.