Sword - Makes people disappear

"Right. I was just about there when I hear the cry go up. 'Pirates!' The townsfolk were all yelling, screaming, scattering in every direction. I was ready to join them, too! But then the captain of 'em--big fellow, flaming red hair--looked all savage--"

"Louis." Arabella shivered.

"You know the fella?" the bearded man asked.

“Never mind us," Fitzwilliam said. "Just go on with your story."

"Well, the captain, he holds up this great fancy sword and shouts, 'Let every honest person be gone from this town!' Just like that--they all vanished!" The curly-bearded man's eyes were wide. "As though they were swallowed up by thin air! Frightened me worse than anything else in my whole life, I tell you that. Wasn't anyone left but the pirates--and me, of course."

Fitzwilliam and Arabella stared at each other, aghast. "It's horrible," Arabella said. "All those people, lost or perhaps even dead, only because they were honest!"

"Yes," Fitzwilliam added with bitterness, "while you, a thief, were spared!"

"Just goes to show you," the curly-bearded man said with a shrug, "honesty's not actually the best policy."

***

The Pirate Chase, Chapter 4