[Illustration: SUKEY'S THUMB LIFTED THE HAMMER OF HIS GUN.]
It required a second look for Sukey to recognize in that miserable
creature, drawing every breath in pain, the haughty Captain Snipes, who
had scourged and disgraced him. Snipes had severe internal injuries and
was dying. Sukey's thumb lifted the hammer of his gun, then he gazed on
the agonized face of his enemy, and, the tears starting to his eyes, he
let down the hammer. At this moment Fernando came up, and Sukey cried:
"I can't do it, Fernando,--I can't do it! I've prayed for this, for
years, but now that it's given me, I can't. It's Captain Snipes, but
he's too bad hurt to kill."
"God has punished him," said Fernando, solemnly. "Verily, 'vengeance is
mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.'"
They lifted their enemy as gently as if he had been their dearest friend
and bore him to a fisherman's cottage, where Sukey did all in his power
to alleviate his suffering; but his time on earth was short. Captain
Snipes sank rapidly. That he was conscious and recognized his nurse no
one can doubt, for just half an hour before he died, he took Sukey's
hand and spoke the only words he was heard to utter after the wreck.
"Forgive me!" he said.
"I do, captain, God knows I do!" Sukey cried warmly, and the haughty,
cruel Captain Snipes passed away, the victim of God's vengeance.
The day after the wreck of the _Xenophon_, news came from Baltimore of
the repulse of the British fleet and army.
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