Part 19 (2/2)

”What!” cried Blackbeard, putting his head down like a charging bull. ”I order you to row back to your vessel and take my message; and if you do it not I will sink you all in a bunch! Into your boat, sir, and waste not another minute. If you are not able to command your men, I will keep you here and give them a c.o.xswain who can.”

Without another word, Bittern scuffled over the side, and, his boat being brought up, he dropped into it.

”Now, men,” he said, ”I have a message from Captain Blackbeard to the Revenge; bend to it as I steer that way.”

”Give my pious regards to your Sir Nightcap,” shouted Blackbeard. And then, in a still higher tone, he yelled to them that if they disobeyed their c.o.xswain and turned their bow sh.o.r.eward he would sink them all to the unsounded depths of Hades. Without a protest the men pulled vigorously towards the Revenge, while Black Paul, considering it a new affront to be called ”c.o.xswain” when he was in reality captain, earnestly sent Blackbeard to the same regions to which he had just referred.

CHAPTER XVII

AN ORNAMENTED BEARD

It was about the middle of the afternoon when a large boat, well filled, was seen approaching the Revenge from Blackbeard's vessel. As soon as it had become known that this chief of all pirates of that day, this Edward Thatch of England, was really coming on board the Revenge, not one word was uttered among the crew on the subject of going ash.o.r.e, although they had been long at sea. The sh.o.r.e could wait when Blackbeard was coming.

Even to look upon this doughty desperado would be an honour and a joy to the brawny scoundrels who made up the crew of the Revenge.

It might have been supposed that everything upon Captain Bonnet's vessel had been made ready for the expected advent of Blackbeard, but nothing seemed good enough, nothing seemed as effectively placed and arranged as it might have been; and with execrations and commands, Bonnet hurried here and there, making everything, if possible, more s.h.i.+p-shape than it had been before.

”Stay you two in the background,” he said to Ben Greenway and d.i.c.kory; ”you are both landsmen, and you don't count in a ceremony such as this is going to be. Station your men as I told you, Bittern, and man the yards when it is time.”

Captain Bonnet, in his brave uniform and wearing a c.o.c.ked hat with a feather, his hand upon his sword-hilt, stood up tall and stately. When the boat was made fast and the great pirate's head appeared above the rail, six cannon roared a welcome and Bonnet stepped forward, hand extended and hat uplifted.

The instant Blackbeard's feet touched the deck he drew from their holsters a pair of pistols and fired them in the air.

”Now then,” he shouted, ”we are even, salute for salute, for my pistols are more than equal to the cannon of any other man. How goes it with you, Sir Nightcap--Bonnet, I mean?” And with that he clasped the hand reached out to him in a bone-crus.h.i.+ng grasp.

His fingers aching and his brain astonished, Bonnet could not comprehend what sort of a man it was who stood before him. With hair purposely dishevelled; with his hat more slouched than usual; with his beard divided into tails, each tied with a different-coloured ribbon; with half a dozen pistols strung across his breast; with other pistols and a knife or two stuck into his belt; with his great sword by his side, and his eyes gleaming brighter than ever and a general expression, both in face and figure, of an aggressive impudence, Blackbeard stood on his stout legs, clothed in rough red stockings, and gazed about him. But the captain of the Revenge did not forget his manners. He welcomed Blackbeard with all courtesy and besought him to enter his poor cabin.

Blackbeard laughed. ”Poor cabin, say you? But I'll tell you this one thing, my valiant Captain Cap; you have not a poor vessel, not a poor vessel, I swear that to you, my brave captain, I swear that!”

Then, with no attention to Bonnet's invitation, Captain Blackbeard strolled about the deck, examining everything, cursing this and praising that, and followed by Captain Bonnet, Black Paul, and a crowd of admiring pirates.

Ben Greenway bowed his head and groaned. ”I doubt if Master Bonnet will ever go to the de'il as I feared he would, for now has the de'il come to him. Oh, d.i.c.kory, d.i.c.kory! this master o' mine was a worthy mon an' a good ane when I first came to him, an' a' that I hae I owe to him, for I was in sad case, d.i.c.kory, very sad case; but now that he has Apollyon for his teacher, he'll cease to know righteousness altogither.”

d.i.c.kory was angry and out of spirits. ”He is a vile poltroon, this master of yours,” said he, ”consorting with these b.l.o.o.d.y pirates and leaving his daughter to pine away her days and nights within a little sail of him, while he struts about at the heel of a dirty freebooter dressed like a monkey! He doesn't deserve the daughter he possesses. Oh, that I could find a s.h.i.+p that would take me back to Jamaica! And I would take you too, Ben Greenway, for it is a foul shame that a good man should spend his days in such vile company.”

Ben shook his head. ”I'll stand by Master Bonnet,” he said, ”until the day comes when I shall bid him fareweel at the door o' h.e.l.l. I can go no farther than that, d.i.c.kory, no farther than that!”

From forecastle to quarter-deck, from bowsprit to taffrail, Blackbeard scrutinized the Revenge.

”What mean you, dog?” he said to Bittern, Bonnet being at a little distance; ”you tell me he is no mariner. This is a brave s.h.i.+p and well appointed.”

”Ay, ay,” said the sailing-master, ”it has the neatness of his kitchen or his storehouses; but if his cables were coiled on his yard-arms or his anchor hung up to dry upon the main shrouds, he would not know that anything was wrong. It was Big Sam Loftus who fitted out the Revenge, and I myself have kept everything in good order and s.h.i.+p-shape ever since I took command.”

”Command!” growled Blackbeard. ”For a charge of powder I would knock in the side of your head for speaking with such disrespect of the brave Sir Nightcap.”

The supper in the cabin of the Revenge was a better meal than the voracious Blackbeard had partaken of for many a year, if indeed he had ever sat down to such a sumptuous repast. Before him was food and drink fit for a stout and hungry sea-faring man, and there were wines and dainties which would have had fit place upon the table of a gentleman.

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