He got up with an air of indolent fatigue, still holding the mouth-piece of his pipe. "I surrender," he said, in Greek. "Where is your captain?" The men made way for the Capsina, and she walked up the deck between their lines. "I am the captain," she said. The man raised his eyebrows. "Indeed!" and he laughed softly to himself. "You are too handsome for the trade," he said. "You are better looking than any of my harem, and there are several Greeks among them. Well, I surrender." "For that word," said the Capsina, "you hang. Otherwise perhaps I should have done you the honor to shoot you." The man blanched a little, and his teeth showed in a sort of snarl. "You do not understand," he said. "I surrender." "You do not understand," she replied. "I hang you. For my mother was of Elatina." She came a step nearer him. "If it were not that I hold the cross a sacred thing," she said, "I would crucify you, very tenderly, that you might live long. Oh, man," and she burst out with a great gust of fury, "it is you and what you did in Elatina that has made a demon of me! I curse you for it. There, take him, two of you, and hang him from the mizzen yards. Do not speak to me," she cried to the captain, "or I will smite you on the mouth! It is a woman you are dealing with, not a thing from the harem." In a moment two men had bound his legs and pinioned his arms, and, with the help of two more, they carried him like a sack up the rigging and set him on the yard. Then they made fast one end of the rope to the mast and noosed the other round his neck, while the Capsina stood on the deck, unflinching, an image of vengeance. And at a sign from her they pushed him off into the empty air. Mitsos gave one short gasp, for though he would have killed a man, laughing and singing as he drove the knife home, in fight, his blood revolted at the coldness of this, and he turned to the Capsina. "You say you are a woman!" he cried. "Is that a woman's deed?" and he pointed to the dangling burden. "He insulted me," said the Capsina, "and I repay insults. As for the rest, shoot them," and she turned on her heel, with her back to Mitsos, and he could not see that her lip was trembling. But it was not at the hanging or the shooting that she trembled. She had sworn she would avenge the death of those in Elatina--for to her these were not prisoners of war, but murderers of women--and that she did without flinching. But Mitsos's words recalled her to herself, and thinking inwardly of the child's-play on the ship with him, she wondered if it were possible that this stone which seemed to be her heart could ever be moved again to tears or laughter, or that Mitsos could smile again or jest with so cold and cruel a girl. And at that thought she turned to him piteously.