J. Allan Dunn

“ She was tiny and tawny-haired, golden of skin from the sun, curvingly lithesome and sweet and Todd was tall and lean, sun-dried almost to the texture and color of his strips of turtle-flesh. And they were very much in love.
The turtles only came with the tides, and, betweenwhiles, they paddled or bathed or lay in grass hammocks beneath a palmetto shelter. They lived out-of-doors night and day and were seldom out of sight of each other. She—her name was Mary—adored Todd and Tom worshiped Mary. He loved to pick her up in his arms and go striding off with her, laughing at her talk of weight. ”

“ There was an unspoken rule against women aboard Bane’s ships. “They raised the devil among the men,” he said. But a commander could break his own rules and there was a gleam in Bane’s eyes and a flush in his face that showed passion long repressed by force of circumstance, suddenly aroused.
It was none of his business if the captain sought a plaything. He would break it and cast it aside presently. A discarded woman among seven score conscienceless devils would have a hard time of it but his own soul was cankered with the rest. Decency as a pirate’s attribute was a thing to be mocked at. ”

“ An hour passed before Tom Todd came back, unconscious of what awaited him, half a dozen agoutis in one hand, his gun in another.
He stopped for a moment in a clearing, watching a brigantine that slashed through the seas at a long angle, puffs of smoke coming from the Long Tom at her stern and the after guns of her larboard battery, while a ship, smothered in canvas, replied, heading in to intercept the other. The topsails of another vessel showed on the horizon.
“Pirates,” commented Tom aloud. “I thought they had all surrendered. She sails like a witch. She’ll clear if nothing carries. Mary! ”