"Now look sharp, lad," said the pirate in a stern voice, "and mind what I tell "ee. There"s nought to fear aboard this sloop for them as does what they"re told. We run square an" fair, an" while Major Stede Bonnet and David Herriot gives the orders, no man"ll harm ye. _But_"--and a hard look came into the tanned face--"if there"s any runnin" for sh.o.r.e "twixt now and come time to _set_ ye there, or if ever ye takes it in yer head to disobey orders, we"ll keel-haul ye straight and think no more about it. You"re big and strong, an" may make a foremast hand. For the first on it, until ye get your sea legs, ye can be a sort o" cabin boy. Cap"n wants ye below now. Quick!"
Jeremy scrambled down the companionway indicated by a gesture of Herriot"s pipe. There was a door on each side and one at the end of the small pa.s.sage. He advanced and knocked at this last one, and was told, in the Captain"s clear voice, to open.
Major Bonnet sat at a good mahogany table in the middle of the cabin.
Behind him were a bunk, two chairs and a rack of small arms, containing half a dozen guns, four brace of pistols, and several swords. He had been reading a book, evidently one of the score or more which stood in a case on the right. Jeremy gasped, for he had never seen so many books in all his life. As the Captain looked up, a stern frown came over his face, never a particularly merry one. The boy, ignorant as he was of pirates, could not help feeling that this man"s quietly gentle appearance fitted but ill with the blood-thirsty reputation he bore. His clothes were of good quality and cut, his grayish hair neatly tied behind with a black bow and worn unpowdered. His clean-shaven face was long and austere--like a Boston preacher"s, thought Jeremy--and although the forehead above the intelligent eyes was high and broad, there was a strange lack of humor in its vertical wrinkles.
"Well, my lad," said the cool voice at last, "you"re aboard the _Revenge_ and a long way from your settlement, so you might as well make the best of it. How long you _stay_ aboard depends on your behavior. We might put into the Chesapeake, and if there are no cutters about, I"d consider setting you ash.o.r.e. But if you like the sea and take to it, there"s room for a hand in the fo"c"s"le. Then again, if you try any tricks, you"ll leave us--feet first, over the rail." He leaned forward and hissed slightly as he p.r.o.nounced the last words. Something in the eyes under his knotted gray brows struck deeper terror into the boy"s heart than either Herriot"s threat or the cruel face of the man with the broken nose. For that instant Bonnet seemed deadly as a snake.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Stede Bonnet]
Jeremy was much relieved when he was bidden to go. The sailing-master stood by the companionway as he ascended. "You"ll bunk for"ard," he remarked curtly. "Go up with the crew now." The boy slipped into the crowd that lay around the windla.s.s as un.o.bstrusively as he could. A thick-set, bearded man with a great hairy chest, bare to the yellow sash at his waist, was speaking. "Ay," he said, "a hundred Indians was dead in the town before ever we landed. They didn"t know where to run except into the huts, an" those our round-shot plowed through like so much gra.s.s--which was what they was, mostly. Then old Johnny Buck piped the longboat overside and on sh.o.r.e we went, firin" all the time. Cap"n Vane himself, with a dirk in his teeth and sword an" pistol out, goes swearin" up the roadway an" we behind him, our feet stickin" in blood. A few come out shootin" their little arrers at us, but we herded "em an"
drove "em, yellin" all the time. At close quarters their knives was no match for cutla.s.ses. So we went slashin" through the town, burnin" "em out an" stickin" "em when they ran. Our sword arms was red to shoulder that day, but we was like men far gone in rum an" never stayed while an Indian held up head. Then we dropped and slept where we fell, across a corp", like as not, clean tuckered, every man of us. Come mornin", the sight and smell of the place made us sober enough and not a man in the crew wanted to go further into the island. There was no gold in the town, neither. All we got was a few hogs and sheep. We left the same day, for it come on hot an" we had no way to clean up the mess. That island must ha" been a nuisance to the whole Caribbean for weeks."
Job Howland nodded and spat as the story ended. "Ye"re right, George Dunkin," he said. "That was a day"s work. Vane"s a hard man, I"m told, an" that crew in the _Chance_ was one of his worst." He was interrupted by a villainous old sea-dog with a spa.r.s.e fringe of white beard, who sprawled by the hatchway. He cleared his throat hoa.r.s.ely and spoke with a deep wheeze between sentences.
"All that was nowt to our fight off Panama in the spring of "eighty," he growled. "We weren"t slaughterin" Indians, but Spaniards that could fight, an" did. What"s more, they were three good barks and nigh three hundred men to our sixty-eight men paddlin" in canoes. Ah, that was a day"s work, if you will! I saw Peter Harris, as brave a commander as ever flew the black whiff, shot through both legs, but he was a-swingin"
his cutla.s.s and tryin" to climb the Spaniard"s side with the rest when our canoe boarded. Through most of that battle we was standin" in bottoms leakin" full of bullet holes, a-firin" into the Biscayner"s gun-ports, an" cheerin" the b.l.o.o.d.y lungs out of us! When we got aboard, their hold was full of dead men an" their scuppers washin" red. They asked no quarter an" on we went, up an" down decks, give an" take. At the last, six men o" them surrendered. The rest--eighty from the one ship--we fed to the sharks before we could swab decks next day. Eh, but that was a v"yage, an" it cost the seas more good buccaneers than ever was hanged. Harris an" Sawkins an" half o" their best men we left on the Isthmus. But out of one galleon we took fifty thousand pieces-of-eight, besides silver bars in cord piles. Think o" that, lads!"
A fair, stocky, young deserter from a British man-of-war--his forearm bore the tattooed service anchor--broke in, his eyes gleaming greedily at the thought of the treasure.
"That was in New Panama," he cried. "Do you mind old Ben Gasket we took off Silver Key last summer! Eighty years old he was, and marooned there for half his life. He was with Morgan at the great sack of Old Panama before most on us was born. An" Old Ben, he said there was nigh two hundred horse-loads o" gold an" pearls, rubies, emeralds and diamonds took out o" that there town, an" it a-burnin" still, after they"d been there a month. Talk o" wealth!"
The man with the broken nose raised himself from his place by the capstan and stretched his hairy arms with an evil, leering yawn. Every eye turned to him and there was silence on the deck as he began to speak.
"Dollars--louis d"ors--doubloons?" said he. "There was one man got "em.
Solomon Brig got "em. All the rest was babes to him--babes an" beggars.
Billy Kidd was thought a great devil in his day, but when he met Brig"s six-gun sloop off Malabar, he turned tail, him an" his two great galleons, an" ran in under the forts. Even then we"d ha" had him out an"
fought him, only that the old man had an Indian princess aboard he was takin" in to Calicut for ransom. That was where Sol Brig got his broad gold--kidnappin". Twenty times we worked it--a dash in an" a fight out, quick an" b.l.o.o.d.y--then to sea in the old red sloop, all her sails fair pullin" the sticks out of her, an" maybe a man-o"-war blazin" away at our quarter. Weeks after, we"d slip into some port bold as bra.s.s an"
there, sure enough, Brig would set the prisoner ash.o.r.e an" load maybe a hundred weight of little canvas bags or a stack of pig-silver half a man"s height. The very name of him made him safe. I"d take oath he could have stole the Lord Mayor o" London and then put in for his ransom at Execution Dock.
"We got good lays, us before the mast, but there never was a fair sharin" aboard that ship. One night I crawled aft an" looked in the stern-port. "Twas just after we"d got our lays for kidnappin" the Governor o" Santiago--a rich town as you know. In the cabin sat ol"
Brig, a bare cutla.s.s acrost his lap, countin" piles o" moidores that filled the whole table. When a rope creaked the old fox saw me an" let drive with his hanger. Where I was I couldn"t dodge quick, an" the blade took me here, acrost the face. Why he never knifed me, after, I don"t know."
The scarred man stopped with the same abruptness that had marked his beginning. His fierce, light eyes, like those of a sea-hawk, swept slowly around the audience and lit on Jeremy. He reached forward, clutched the boy"s shirt, and with an ugly laugh jerked him to his feet.
""Twas havin" boys aboard as killed Sol Brig," he rasped.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Pharaoh Daggs]
"They hear too much! Look at this young lubber"--giving him a shake--"pale as a mouldy biscuit! No use aboard here an" poverty-poor in the bargain! Why Stede don"t walk him over the side, I don"t see. Here, get out, you swab!" and he emphasized the name with a stiff cuff on the ear. Job Howland interposed his long Yankee body. His lean face bent with a scowl to the level of the other"s eyes. "Pharaoh Daggs," he drawled evenly, "next time you touch that lad, there"ll be steel between your short ribs. Remember!"
He turned to Jeremy who, poor boy, was utterly and forlornly seasick.
"Here, young "un," he said kindly, "--the _lee_ rail!"
CHAPTER VII
Bright summer weather hovered over the Atlantic as the _Revenge_ ploughed smartly southward. Jeremy grew more accustomed to his new manner of life from day to day and as he found his sea-legs he began to take a great pleasure in the free, salt wind that sang in the rigging, the blue sparkle of the swells, and the circling whiteness of the offsh.o.r.e gulls. He was left much to himself, for the Captain demanded his services only at meal times and to set his cabin in order in the morning. In the long intervals the boy sat, inconspicuous in a corner of the fore-deck, watching the gayly dressed ruffians of the crew, as they threw dice or quarrelled noisily over their winnings. He was a.s.signed to no watch, but usually went below at the same time as Job Howland, thus keeping out of the way of Daggs, the man with the broken nose. As Howland was in the port watch, on deck from sunset to midnight, Jeremy often took comfort in the sight of his loved stars wheeling westward through the taut shrouds. He would stand there with a lump in his throat as he thought of his father"s anguish on returning to the island to find the sheep uncared for and the young shepherd vanished. In a region desolate as that, he knew that there was but one conclusion for them to reach. Still, they might find the ashes of the pirate fire and keep up a hope that he yet lived.
But the boy could not be unhappy for long. He would find his way home soon, and he fairly shivered with delight as he planned the grand reunion that would take place when he should return. Perhaps he even imagined himself marching up to the door in sailor"s blue cloth with a seaman"s cloak and c.o.c.ked hat, pistol and cutla.s.s in his belt and a hundred gold guineas in his poke. Not for worlds would he have turned pirate, but the romance of the sea had touched him and he could not help a flight of fancy now and then.
Sometimes in the long hours of the watch, Job would give him lessons in seamanship--teach him the names of ropes and spars and show how each was used. The boy"s greatest delight was to steer the ship when Job took his trick at the helm. This was no small task for a boy even as strong as Jeremy. The sloop, like all of her day, had no wheel but was fitted with a ma.s.sive hand tiller, a great curved beam of wood that kicked amazingly when it was free of its lashings. Of course, no grown man could have held it in a seaway, but during the calm summer nights Jeremy learned to humor the craft along, her mainsail just drawing in the gentle land breeze, and her head held steadily south, a point west.
One night--it was perhaps a week after Jeremy"s capture, and they had been sighting low bits of land on both bows all day--Dave Herriot came on deck about the middle of the watch and told Curley, the Jamaican second mate, he might go below. He set Job to take soundings and, himself taking the tiller, swung her over to port with the wind abeam.
Jeremy went to the bows where he could see the white line of sh.o.r.e ahead. They drew in, steering by Job"s soundings, and by the time the watch changed were ready to cast anchor in a small sandy bay. Herriot came forward, scowling darkly under his bushy eyebrows, and rumbling an occasional oath to himself. The sloop, her anchor down and sails furled, swung idly on the tide. The men were clearly mystified as the sailing-master started to give orders. "George Dunkin," he said, "take ten men of the starboard watch, and go ash.o.r.e to forage. There be farms near here and any pigs or fowls you may come across will be welcome.
You, Bill Livers," addressing the ship"s painter, "take a lantern and your paint-pot and come aft with me. All the rest stay on deck and keep a double lookout, alow an" aloft!" The forage party slipped quietly off toward the beach in one of the boats. The remainder of the crew looked blankly after the retreating Bill Livers.
"Hm," murmured Job, "has Stede Bonnet gone _clean_ crazy?"--and as Herriot let the painter down over the bulwark at the stern--"Ay, he"s goin" to change her name, by the great Bull Whale!"
An hour before dawn the crew of the long-boat returned, grumbling and empty-handed. Herriot appeared preoccupied with some weightier matter and scarcely deigned to notice their failure by swearing. There was no singing as the anchor was raised. A sort of gloom hung over the whole ship. As she stole out to sea again, the men, one by one, went aft and leaned outboard, peering down at the broad, squat stern. Jeremy did likewise and beheld in new white letters on the black of the hull, the words _Royal James._ Next day in the fo"c"s"le council he learned why the renaming of the _Revenge_ had cast a pall of apprehension over the crew. There were low-muttered tales of disaster--of storm, shipwreck, and fire, and that dread of all sailors--the unknown fate of ships that never come back to port. Apparently the rule was unfailing. Sooner or later the ship that had been given a new name would come to grief and her crew with her. Pharaoh Daggs cast an eye of hatred at Jeremy and growled that "one Jonah was enough to have abroad, without clean drownin" all the luck this way," while the crew looked black and shifted uneasily in their places.
The bay where they had anch.o.r.ed overnight must have been somewhere on the eastern end of Long Island, a favorite landing place for pirates at that time. All day they cruised along the hilly southern sh.o.r.e. The men seemed unable to cast off the gloom that had settled upon them. Stede Bonnet sat in his cabin, never once coming on deck, and drinking hard, a thing unusual for him. Jeremy, who saw more of him than any of the foremast hands, realized from his gray, set face that the man was under a terrible strain of some sort. He told Job what he had seen and the tall New Englander looked very thoughtful. He took the boy aside.
"There"ll be mutiny in this crew before another night," he whispered.
"They"ll never stand for what he"s done. If it comes to handspikes, you and I"d best watch our chance to clear out. Pharaoh Daggs don"t love us a mite."
But the mutiny was destined not to occur. An hour before noon next day the lookout, constantly stationed in the bows, gave a loud "Sail ho!"
and as Dave Herriot re-echoed the shout, all hands tumbled on deck with a rush.
CHAPTER VIII
As the pirate sloop raced southward under full sail, the form of the other ship became steadily plainer. She was a brig, high-p.o.o.ped, and tall-masted, and apparently deeply laden. Major Bonnet, who had come up at the first warning, seemed his old cool self as he conned the enemy through a spygla.s.s. Jeremy had been detailed as a sort of errand boy, and as he stood at the Captain"s side he heard him speaking to Herriot.
"She"s British, right enough," he was saying. "I can make out her flag; but how many guns, "tis harder to tell. She sees us now, I think, for they seem to be shaking out a topsail.... Ah, now I can see the sun shine on her broadside--two ... three ... five in the lower port tier, and three more above--sixteen in all. "Twill be a fight, it seems!"
Aboard the _Royal James_ the men were slaving like ants, preparing for the battle. Every man knew his duties. The gunners and swabbers were putting their cannon in fettle below decks. Others were rolling out round-shot from the hold and storing powder in iron-cased lockers behind the guns. Great tubs of sea water were placed conveniently in the "tween-decks and blankets were put to soak for use in case of fire.
Buckets of vinegar water for swabbing the guns were laid handy. In the galley the cook made hot grog. Cutla.s.ses were looked after, pistols cleaned and loaded and muskets set out for close firing. Jeremy was sent hither and thither on every imaginable mission, a tremendous excitement running in his veins.
The sloop gained rapidly on her prey, hauling over to windward as she sailed, and when the two ships were almost within cannon range, Stede Bonnet with his own hand bent the "Jolly Roger" to the lanyard and sent the great black flag with its skull and crossbones to fly from the masthead. The grog was served out. No man would have believed that the roaring, rollicking gang of cutthroats who tossed off their liquor in cheers and ribald laughter was identical with the grumbling, sour-faced crew of twenty hours before. As they finished, something came skipping over the water astern and the first echoing report followed close. The cannonade was on.
A loud yell of defiance swept the length of the _Royal James_ as the men went to their posts. The gun decks ran along both sides of the sloop a few feet above the water line. They were like alleyways beneath the main deck, barely wide enough to admit the pa.s.sage of a man or a keg of powder behind the gun-carriages. These latter were not fixed to the planking as afterward became the fashion, but ran on trucks and were kept in their places by rope tackles. In action, the recoil had to be taken up by men who held the ends of these ropes, rove through pulleys in the vessel"s side. Despite their efforts the gun would sometimes leap back against the bulkhead hard enough to shatter it. As the charge for each reloading had to be carried sometimes half the length of the ship by hand, it is easy to see that the men who served the guns needed some strength and agility in getting past the jumping carriages.
Jeremy was sent below to help the gunners, as the shot from the merchantman continued to scream by. Job Howland was a gunner on the port side and the boy naturally lent his services to the one man aboard that he could call his friend. There was much bustle in the alley behind the closed ports but surprisingly little confusion was apparent. The discipline seemed better than at any time since the boy had been brought aboard the black sloop.
Job was ramming the wad home on the charge of powder in his bow gun. The other four guns in the port deck were being loaded at the same time, three men tending each one.
"Here, lad," sang out Job, as he put the single iron shot in at the muzzle, "take one o" the wet blankets out o" yon tub an" stand by to fight sparks." Jeremy did as he was bid, then got out of the way as the ports were flung open and the guns run forward, with their evil bronze noses thrust out into the sunlight.
The sloop, running swiftly with the wind abeam, had now drawn abreast of her unwieldy adversary. The merchant captain, apparently, finding himself out-speeded and being unable to spare his gun crews to trim sails, had put the head of his ship into the wind, where she stood, with canvas flapping, her bows offering a steady mark to the pirate.
"Ready a port broadside!" came Bonnet"s ringing order, and then--"Fire!"
Job Howland"s blazing match went to the touch-hole at the word and his six-pounder, roaring merrily, jumped back two good feet against the straining ropes of the tackle. Instantly the next gun spoke and the next and so on, all five in a s.p.a.ce of a bare ten seconds. Had they been fired simultaneously they might have shaken the ship to pieces. Jeremy was half-deafened, and his whole body was jarred. Thick black smoke hung in the alleyway, for the ports had been closed in order to reload in greater safety. The boy felt the deck heel to starboard under him and thought at first that a shot had caught them under the waterline, but when he was sent above to find out whether the broadside had taken effect, he found that the sloop had come about and was already driving north still to windward of the enemy. Bonnet was giving his gunners more time to load by running back and forth and using his batteries alternately. Herriot had the tiller and in response to Jeremy"s question he pointed to the fluttering rags of the brig"s foresail and the smoke that issued from a splintered hole under her bow chains.