- Spooky Spenser quote about some evil guy.
- Off to Hood's Isle, and a story about a hermit named Oberlus, who killed people.
- Oberlus is evil-looking and dressed in rags. He lives all alone on the island.
- He gets delusions of grandeur and decides he wants subjects. He gets hold of a firearm from somewhere.
- Oberlus sees a black sailor working and tries to kidnap him for his slave.
- But the black man escapes, and Oberlus is captured and whipped. But then he escapes again.
- Oberlus gets craftier, and rather than trying to steal sailors by force, he lures them to his hut, gets them drunk, and then ties them up till their ships leave.
- He then keeps them as slaves (about four of them in all), using his blunderbuss and cruelty to keep them in line.
- Through ill-treatment they become in time allied with him and join him in his criminal endeavors. (This seems unlikely, but oh well.)
- Oberlus decides to try to capture a ship, murder the crew, and take off from the island.
- One ship lands, and Oberlus manages to steal a boat.
- When another ship comes in, it founds Oberlus gone with his slaves/confederates.
- He gets to Payta without his confederates (maybe he killed them).
- He finds a woman in Payta who he hopes to get to come back to Hood's Island, but before that can happen he is arrested for sneaking around.
- And the story leaves him in prison, though it doesn't say whether he died there.
- Then there's a paragraph assuring you that this story is really true, really. (It's like that "based on a true story" line in movies; it's supposed to be better or niftier because it actually happened.)