Chapters 4-5 Summary

Dr. Murphy gives Comber no chance of survival and Mrs. Spring nurses him. The rest of the crew stows the human cargo quickly to be underway before Gezo launches another attack. Sanchez brings word that Gezo does not want to lose Spring's business. Kirk is alive but unrecognizable as human. Flashy's duties increase with two mates lost. Spring and Murphy select the best 600 captives, who could easily revolt and tear them limb-from-limb. Residents of the Coast seem always resigned to slavery. Those selected are herded to branding and sizing and dispatched to the gangplanks, strictly segregated by sex. Flashy quickly learns to stow them economically and then shackle their right ankles. When the tallest slaves have been processed on the deck, the next tallest are processed to the lower shelf, and finally the shortest to the top shelf. Flashy is no...