Mason and the other loyal pirates hurried back along the tunnel the way they had come. With nothing else to use as bandages, Mason removed his shirt and ripped a few long strips from it, wrapping and tying them around his head to stop the bleeding from the wound he had gotten. He should have guessed he wouldn't be able to make it back to Ilona without some kind of injury that would require stitches.
The men stopped again when they got back to where they had rested before. They all sat, exhausted and hungry. In the middle of them, Jamie propped the little branch that was now burned down to almost nothing. Mason looked around at the haggard group and felt a pang of guilt. He was their leader. He should have taken better care of them. What would his brother Daniel have done? Or, better yet, what would Vincent have done?
