The Enemies

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On his return to his ship, Captain Waverlie brings with him his sister Minnie, a woman once beautiful but now emaciated from the continual use of stimulants. The Captain showers every tenderness upon her, but after a week ashore at New York he returns alone, brokenhearted, and tells the steward she is dead. The ship-owner's daughter Irene falls in love with Captain Waverlie, but he courteously keeps his distance. She is piqued and accepts the attentions of Sargent, a prominent lawyer in whom the Captain instantly recognizes that man he has long sought. He has a dermatological operation performed, transforming his facial characteristics into those of a handsome man, and shortly afterwards is promoted to the command of a new four-masted vessel. The Captain is filled with a fierce joy at the realization of the power invested in him. In accordance with his plans, Waverlie engages a couple of heavy-fisted brutes for mates, then has "Glasgow Mike" shanghai a wild crew of roustabouts aboard his ship. The Captain double-crosses "Glasgow," against whom he has an old grudge, by having him shanghaied in turn, together with Sargent, the lawyer. Once at sea, the two men are treated to tastes of the rope's end and the first mate's fists. Blaming Sargent for their predicament, "Glasgow" hurls a marlinspike at him, but it misses and Sargent kills the fellow, for which he is put in irons. After enduring every variety of abuse, Sargent receives a fatal hurt at the mate's hands. Then the Captain reveals his identity and, in a terrible denunciation, reminds Sargent of how he had wrecked his sister's life, after which he leaves the miserable man alone with three pictures: Irene, Waverlie and Minnie, the woman for whose death he is responsible. That night the moonlight reveals to the Captain that his enemy is dead.