The Captain got angry, and dismissed the sailor—Satan with the wondrous belt.
When the Captain came down he began to talk to his wife, but Maire was sufficiently old to understand that he told her nothing of the big sailor or of his conversation with him. If he had told her all she surely would have regretted having brought her children on the most dangerous voyage ever undertaken by her husband. Nobody except the Captain knew that the crew were a band of ruffians as bad as ever sailed the seas and that Satan might rouse them to strife and mutiny. The Captain knew that he would only want an excuse and such an excuse was ready to hand. He had only to tell the superstitious crew that they had aboard a fox's head, a black cat and a red-haired woman and bad work would begin. He would not need to remind them that they had set sail on a Friday, the 13th of November.
Despite her agitation the child saw with relief that the Burla had fallen asleep and had not seen the hideous sailor.
VIII.
The Captain was most uneasy, and anyone could see it. Satan was planning mischief, and when an order was given to any of the crew it was carried out sulkily. The Captain spoke to the
