Ambush 28. Ambush TOM HATED the wool. Every morning the Spaniards brought it in, great rough greasy bales of it, for the English and Indians to card. All the long sultry day they worked, sweating and sullen on their benches, dragging the lumps and tangles out and packing the smooth, carded wool into sacks and bales for the Spaniards to take out. They were not fed until all the bales were done. For every bowl of thin, spicy, soup he ate, Tom thought he must have carded a dozen sheep. The carders themselves were flat, wooden tools with a handle and a row of sharp nails, which could be used as weapons. There were thirty English sailors and Indians imprisoned in the long, stinking, stone-built shed, and fights broke out once or twice a day. Men would crowd around to shout encouragement as the fighters, usually an Englishman and an Indian, punched and kicked and grappled with each other, trying to use the carder to leave a deep line of parallel scars across the other's face before the horse-whips of the Spanish overseers drove them apart.
