Chapter V. JACK BALLISTER'S FORTUNES
I
WE, of these times, protected as we are by the laws and by the numberof people about us, can hardly comprehend such a life as that of theAmerican colonies in the early part of the eighteenth century, whenit was possible for a pirate like Capt. Teach, known as Blackbeard, toexist, and for the governor and the secretary of the province in whichhe lived perhaps to share his plunder, and to shelter and to protect himagainst the law.
At that time the American colonists were in general a rough, ruggedpeople, knowing nothing of the finer things of life. They lived mostlyin little settlements, separated by long distances from one another,so that they could neither make nor enforce laws to protect themselves.Each man or little group of men had to depend upon his or their ownstrength to keep what belonged to them, and to prevent fierce men orgroups of men from seizing what did not belong to them.
It is the natural disposition of everyone to get all that he can. Littlechildren, for instance, always try to take away from others that whichthey want, and to keep it for their own. It is only by constant teachingthat they learn that they must not do so; that they must not takeby force what does not belong to them. So it is only by teaching andtraining that people learn to be honest and not to take what is nottheirs. When this teaching is not sufficient to make a man learn to behonest, or when there is something in the man's nature that makes himnot able to learn, then he only lacks the opportunity to seize upon thethings he wants, just as he would do if he were a little child.
In the colonies at that time, as was just said, men were too few andscattered to protect themselves against those who had made up theirminds to take by force that which they wanted, and so it was that menlived an unrestrained and lawless life, such as we of these times ofbetter government can hardly comprehend.
The usual means of commerce between province and province was by waterin coasting vessels. These coasting vessels were so defenseless, and thedifferent colonial governments were so ill able to protect them,that those who chose to rob them could do it almost without danger tothemselves.
So it was that all the western world was, in those days, infestedwith armed bands of cruising freebooters or pirates, who used to stopmerchant vessels and take from them what they chose.
Each province in those days was ruled over by a royal governor appointedby the king. Each governor, at one time, was free to do almost as hepleased in his own province. He was accountable only to the king and hisgovernment, and England was so distant that he was really responsiblealmost to nobody but himself.
The governors were naturally just as desirous to get rich quickly,just as desirous of getting all that they could for themselves, as wasanybody else only they had been taught and had been able to learn thatit was not right to be an actual pirate or robber. They wanted to berich easily and quickly, but the desire was not strong enough to leadthem to dishonor themselves in their own opinion and in the opinion ofothers by gratifying their selfishness. They would even have stoppedthe pirates from doing what they did if they could, but their provincialgovernments were too weak to prevent the freebooters from robbingmerchant vessels, or to punish them when they came ashore. The provinceshad no navies, and they really had no armies; neither were there enoughpeople living within the community to enforce the laws against thosestronger and fiercer men who were not honest.
After the things the pirates seized from merchant vessels were oncestolen they were altogether lost. Almost never did any owner apply forthem, for it would be useless to do so. The stolen goods and merchandiselay in the storehouses of the pirates, seemingly without any ownerexcepting the pirates themselves.
The governors and the secretaries of the colonies would not dishonorthemselves by pirating upon merchant vessels, but it did not seem sowicked after the goods were stolen--and so altogether lost--to take apart of that which seemed to have no owner.
A child is taught that it is a very wicked thing to take, for instance,by force, a lump of sugar from another child; but when a wicked childhas seized the sugar from another and taken it around the corner, andthat other child from whom he has seized it has gone home crying, itdoes not seem so wicked for the third child to take a bite of the sugarwhen it is offered to him, even if he thinks it has been taken from someone else.
It was just so, no doubt, that it did not seem so wicked to GovernorEden and Secretary Knight of North Carolina, or to Governor Fletcher ofNew York, or to other colonial governors, to take a part of the bootythat the pirates, such as Blackbeard, had stolen. It did not even seemvery wicked to compel such pirates to give up a part of what was nottheirs, and which seemed to have no owner.
In Governor Eden's time, however, the colonies had begun to be morethickly peopled, and the laws had gradually become stronger and strongerto protect men in the possession of what was theirs. Governor Eden wasthe last of the colonial governors who had dealings with the pirates,and Blackbeard was almost the last of the pirates who, with his bandedmen, was savage and powerful enough to come and go as he chose among thepeople whom he plundered.
Virginia, at that time, was the greatest and the richest of all theAmerican colonies, and upon the farther side of North Carolina wasthe province of South Carolina, also strong and rich. It was these twocolonies that suffered the most from Blackbeard, and it began to bethat the honest men that lived in them could endure no longer to beplundered.
The merchants and traders and others who suffered cried out loudly forprotection, so loudly that the governors of these provinces could nothelp hearing them.
Governor Eden was petitioned to act against the pirates, but he woulddo nothing, for he felt very friendly toward Blackbeard--just as a childwho has had a taste of the stolen sugar feels friendly toward the childwho gives it to him.
At last, when Blackbeard sailed up into the very heart of Virginia,and seized upon and carried away the daughter of that colony's foremostpeople, the governor of Virginia, finding that the governor of NorthCarolina would do nothing to punish the outrage, took the matter intohis own hands and issued a proclamation offering a reward of one hundredpounds for Blackbeard, alive or dead, and different sums for the otherpirates who were his followers.
Governor Spottiswood had the right to issue the proclamation, but he hadno right to commission Lieutenant Maynard, as he did, to take down anarmed force into the neighboring province and to attack the pirates inthe waters of the North Carolina sounds. It was all a part of the rudeand lawless condition of the colonies at the time that such a thingcould have been done.
The governor's proclamation against the pirates was issued upon theeleventh day of November. It was read in the churches the Sundayfollowing and was posted upon the doors of all the government customoffices in lower Virginia. Lieutenant Maynard, in the boats that ColonelParker had already fitted out to go against the pirates, set sail uponthe seventeenth of the month for Ocracoke. Five days later the battlewas fought.
Blackbeard's sloop was lying inside of Ocracoke Inlet among theshoals and sand bars when he first heard of Governor Spottiswood'sproclamation.
There had been a storm, and a good many vessels had run into theinlet for shelter. Blackbeard knew nearly all of the captains of thesevessels, and it was from them that he first heard of the proclamation.
He had gone aboard one of the vessels--a coaster from Boston. The windwas still blowing pretty hard from the southeast. There were maybe adozen vessels lying within the inlet at that time, and the captain ofone of them was paying the Boston skipper a visit when Blackbeard cameaboard. The two captains had been talking together. They instantlyceased when the pirate came down into the cabin, but he had heard enoughof their conversation to catch its drift. "Why d'ye stop?" he said."I heard what you said. Well, what then? D'ye think I mind it at all?Spottiswood is going to send his bullies down here after me. That'swhat you were saying. Well, what then? You don't think I'm afraid of hisbullies, do you?"
"Why, no, Captain, I didn't say you was afraid," said the visitin
gcaptain.
"And what right has he got to send down here against me in NorthCarolina, I should like to ask you?"
"He's got none at all," said the Boston captain, soothingly. "Won't youtake a taste of Hollands, Captain?"
"He's no more right to come blustering down here into Governor Eden'sprovince than I have to come aboard of your schooner here, Tom Burley,and to carry off two or three kegs of this prime Hollands for my owndrinking."
Captain Burley--the Boston man--laughed a loud, forced laugh. "Why,Captain," he said, "as for two or three kegs of Hollands, you won'tfind that aboard. But if you'd like to have a keg of it for your owndrinking, I'll send it to you and be glad enough to do so for oldacquaintance' sake."
"But I tell you what 'tis, Captain," said the visiting skipper toBlackbeard, "they're determined and set against you this time. I tellyou, Captain, Governor Spottiswood hath issued a hot proclamationagainst you, and 't hath been read out in all the churches. I myselfsaw it posted in Yorktown upon the customhouse door and read it theremyself. The governor offers one hundred pounds for you, and fifty poundsfor your officers, and twenty pounds each for your men."
"Well, then," said Blackbeard, holding up his glass, "here, I wish 'emgood luck, and when they get their hundred pounds for me they'll be in apoor way to spend it. As for the Hollands," said he, turning to CaptainBurley, "I know what you've got aboard here and what you haven't. D'yesuppose ye can blind me? Very well, you send over two kegs, and I'll letyou go without search." The two captains were very silent. "As for thatLieutenant Maynard you're all talking about," said Blackbeard, "why, Iknow him very well. He was the one who was so busy with the pirates downMadagascar way. I believe you'd all like to see him blow me out of thewater, but he can't do it. There's nobody in His Majesty's service I'drather meet than Lieutenant Maynard. I'd teach him pretty briskly thatNorth Carolina isn't Madagascar."
On the evening of the twenty-second the two vessels under command ofLieutenant Maynard came into the mouth of Ocracoke Inlet and theredropped anchor. Meantime the weather had cleared, and all the vesselsbut one had gone from the inlet. The one vessel that remained was a NewYorker. It had been there over a night and a day, and the captain andBlackbeard had become very good friends.
The same night that Maynard came into the inlet a wedding was held onthe shore. A number of men and women came up the beach in oxcarts andsledges; others had come in boats from more distant points and acrossthe water.
The captain of the New Yorker and Blackbeard went ashore together alittle after dark. The New Yorker had been aboard of the pirate's sloopfor all the latter part of the afternoon, and he and Blackbeard had beendrinking together in the cabin. The New York man was now a little tipsy,and he laughed and talked foolishly as he and Blackbeard were rowedashore. The pirate sat grim and silent.
It was nearly dark when they stepped ashore on the beach. The New Yorkcaptain stumbled and fell headlong, rolling over and over, and the crewof the boat burst out laughing.
The people had already begun to dance in an open shed fronting upon theshore. There were fires of pine knots in front of the building, lightingup the interior with a red glare. A negro was playing a fiddle somewhereinside, and the shed was filled with a crowd of grotesque dancingfigures--men and women. Now and then they called with loud voices asthey danced, and the squeaking of the fiddle sounded incessantly throughthe noise of outcries and the stamp and shuffling of feet.
Captain Teach and the New York captain stood looking on. The New Yorkman had tilted himself against a post and stood there holding one armaround it, supporting himself. He waved the other hand foolishly in timeto the music, now and then snapping his thumb and finger.
The young woman who had just been married approached the two. She hadbeen dancing, and she was warm and red, her hair blowzed about her head."Hi, Captain, won't you dance with me?" she said to Blackbeard.
Blackbeard stared at her. "Who be you?" he said.
She burst out laughing. "You look as if you'd eat a body," she cried.
Blackbeard's face gradually relaxed. "Why, to be sure, you're a brazenone, for all the world," he said. "Well, I'll dance with you, that Iwill. I'll dance the heart out of you."
He pushed forward, thrusting aside with his elbow the newly madehusband. The man, who saw that Blackbeard had been drinking, burst outlaughing, and the other men and women who had been standing around drewaway, so that in a little while the floor was pretty well cleared. Onecould see the negro now; he sat on a barrel at the end of the room.He grinned with his white teeth and, without stopping in his fiddling,scraped his bow harshly across the strings, and then instantly changedthe tune to a lively jig. Blackbeard jumped up into the air and clappedhis heels together, giving, as he did so, a sharp, short yell. Thenhe began instantly dancing grotesquely and violently. The woman dancedopposite to him, this way and that, with her knuckles on her hips.Everybody burst out laughing at Blackbeard's grotesque antics. Theylaughed again and again, clapping their hands, and the negro scrapedaway on his fiddle like fury. The woman's hair came tumbling down herback. She tucked it back, laughing and panting, and the sweat ran downher face. She danced and danced. At last she burst out laughing andstopped, panting. Blackbeard again jumped up in the air and clapped hisheels. Again he yelled, and as he did so, he struck his heels upon thefloor and spun around. Once more everybody burst out laughing, clappingtheir hands, and the negro stopped fiddling.
Near by was a shanty or cabin where they were selling spirits, and byand by Blackbeard went there with the New York captain, and presentlythey began drinking again. "Hi, Captain!" called one of the men,"Maynard's out yonder in the inlet. Jack Bishop's just come across fromt'other side. He says Mr. Maynard hailed him and asked for a pilot tofetch him in."
"Well, here's luck to him, and he can't come in quick enough for me!"cried out Blackbeard in his hoarse, husky voice.
"Well, Captain," called a voice, "will ye fight him to-morrow?"
"Aye," shouted the pirate, "if he can get in to me, I'll try to give'em what they seek, and all they want of it into the bargain. As fora pilot, I tell ye what 'tis--if any man hereabouts goes out there topilot that villain in 'twill be the worst day's work he ever did in allof his life. 'Twon't be fit for him to live in these parts of America ifI am living here at the same time." There was a burst of laughter.
"Give us a toast, Captain! Give us something to drink to! Aye, Captain,a toast! A toast!" a half dozen voices were calling out at the sametime.
"Well," cried out the pirate captain, "here's to a good, hot fightto-morrow, and the best dog on top! 'Twill be, Bang! bang!--this way!"
He began pulling a pistol out of his pocket, but it stuck in the lining,and he struggled and tugged at it. The men ducked and scrambled awayfrom before him, and then the next moment he had the pistol out ofhis pocket. He swung it around and around. There was perfect silence.Suddenly there was a flash and a stunning report, and instantly a crashand tinkle of broken glass. One of the men cried out, and began pickingand jerking at the back of his neck. "He's broken that bottle all downmy neck," he called out.
"That's the way 'twill be," said Blackbeard.
"Lookee," said the owner of the place, "I won't serve out another dropif 'tis going to be like that. If there's any more trouble I'll blow outthe lantern."
The sound of the squeaking and scraping of the fiddle and the shouts andthe scuffling feet still came from the shed where the dancing was goingon.
"Suppose you get your dose to-morrow, Captain," some one called out,"what then?"
"Why, if I do," said Blackbeard, "I get it, and that's all there is ofit."
"Your wife'll be a rich widdy then, won't she?" cried one of the men;and there was a burst of laughter.
"Why," said the New York captain,--"why, has a--a bloody p-pirate likeyou a wife then--a--like any honest man?"
"She'll be no richer than she is now," said Blackbeard.
"She knows where you've hid your money, anyways. Don't she, Captain?"called out a
voice.
"The civil knows where I've hid my money," said Blackbeard, "and I knowwhere I've hid it; and the longest liver of the twain will git it all.And that's all there is of it."
The gray of early day was beginning to show in the east when Blackbeardand the New York captain came down to the landing together. The New Yorkcaptain swayed and toppled this way and that as he walked, now fallingagainst Blackbeard, and now staggering away from him.
II
Early in the morning--perhaps eight o'clock--Lieutenant Maynard sent aboat from the schooner over to the settlement, which lay some fouror five miles distant. A number of men stood lounging on the landing,watching the approach of the boat. The men rowed close up to the wharf,and there lay upon their oars, while the boatswain of the schooner,who was in command of the boat, stood up and asked if there was any manthere who could pilot them over the shoals.
Nobody answered, but all stared stupidly at him. After a while one ofthe men at last took his pipe out of his mouth. "There ben't any pilothere, master," said he; "we ben't pilots."
"Why, what a story you do tell!" roared the boatswain. "D'ye supposeI've never been down here before, not to know that every man about hereknows the passes of the shoals?"
The fellow still held his pipe in his hand. He looked at another one ofthe men. "Do you know the passes in over the shoals, Jem?" said he.
The man to whom he spoke was a young fellow with long, shaggy, sunburnthair hanging over his eyes in an unkempt mass. He shook his head,grunting, "Na--I don't know naught about t' shoals."
"'Tis Lieutenant Maynard of His Majesty's navy in command of themvessels out there," said the boatswain. "He'll give any man five poundto pilot him in." The men on the wharf looked at one another, but stillno one spoke, and the boatswain stood looking at them. He saw that theydid not choose to answer him. "Why," he said, "I believe you've not gotright wits--that's what I believe is the matter with you. Pull me upto the landing, men, and I'll go ashore and see if I can find anybodythat's willing to make five pound for such a little bit of piloting asthat."
After the boatswain had gone ashore the loungers still stood on thewharf, looking down into the boat, and began talking to one another forthe men below to hear them. "They're coming in," said one, "to blow poorBlackbeard out of the water." "Aye," said another, "he's so peaceable,too, he is; he'll just lay still and let 'em blow and blow, he will.""There's a young fellow there," said another of the men; "he don't lookfit to die yet, he don't. Why, I wouldn't be in his place for a thousandpound." "I do suppose Blackbeard's so afraid he don't know how to see,"said the first speaker.
At last one of the men in the boat spoke up. "Maybe he don't know how tosee," said he, "but maybe we'll blow some daylight into him afore we getthrough with him."
Some more of the settlers had come out from the shore to the end of thewharf, and there was now quite a crowd gathering there, all looking atthe men in the boat. "What do them Virginny 'baccy-eaters do down herein Caroliny, anyway?" said one of the newcomers. "They've got no call tobe down here in North Caroliny waters."
"Maybe you can keep us away from coming, and maybe you can't," said avoice from the boat.
"Why," answered the man on the wharf, "we could keep you away easyenough, but you ben't worth the trouble, and that's the truth."
There was a heavy iron bolt lying near the edge of the landing. One ofthe men upon the wharf slyly thrust it out with the end of his foot. Ithung for a moment and then fell into the boat below with a crash. "Whatd'ye mean by that?" roared the man in charge of the boat. "What d'yemean, ye villains? D'ye mean to stave a hole in us?"
"Why," said the man who had pushed it, "you saw 'twasn't done a purpose,didn't you?"
"Well, you try it again, and somebody'll get hurt," said the man in theboat, showing the butt end of his pistol.
The men on the wharf began laughing. Just then the boatswain came downfrom the settlement again, and out along the landing. The threatenedturbulence quieted as he approached, and the crowd moved sullenly asideto let him pass. He did not bring any pilot with him, and he jumped downinto the stern of the boat, saying, briefly, "Push off." The crowd ofloungers stood looking after them as they rowed away, and when theboat was some distance from the landing they burst out into a volleyof derisive yells. "The villains!" said the boatswain, "they are all inleague together. They wouldn't even let me go up into the settlement tolook for a pilot."
The lieutenant and his sailing master stood watching the boat asit approached. "Couldn't you, then, get a pilot, Baldwin?" said Mr.Maynard, as the boatswain scrambled aboard.
"No, I couldn't, sir," said the man. "Either they're all bandedtogether, or else they're all afraid of the villains. They wouldn't evenlet me go up into the settlement to find one."
"Well, then," said Mr. Maynard, "we'll make shift to work in as best wemay by ourselves. 'Twill be high tide against one o'clock. We'll run inthen with sail as far as we can, and then we'll send you ahead with theboat to sound for a pass, and we'll follow with the sweeps. You know thewaters pretty well, you say."
"They were saying ashore that the villain hath forty men aboard," saidthe boatswain.(2)
(2) The pirate captain had really only twenty-five men aboard of his ship at the time of the battle.
Lieutenant Maynard's force consisted of thirty-five men in the schoonerand twenty-five men in the sloop. He carried neither cannons norcarronades, and neither of his vessels was very well fitted for thepurpose for which they were designed. The schooner, which he himselfcommanded, offered almost no protection to the crew. The rail was notmore than a foot high in the waist, and the men on the deck were almostentirely exposed. The rail of the sloop was perhaps a little higher, butit, too, was hardly better adapted for fighting. Indeed, the lieutenantdepended more upon the moral force of official authority to overawethe pirates than upon any real force of arms or men. He never believed,until the very last moment, that the pirates would show any real fight.It is very possible that they might not have done so had they notthought that the lieutenant had actually no legal right supporting himin his attack upon them in North Carolina waters.
It was about noon when anchor was hoisted, and, with the schoonerleading, both vessels ran slowly in before a light wind that had begunto blow toward midday. In each vessel a man stood in the bows, soundingcontinually with lead and line. As they slowly opened up the harborwithin the inlet, they could see the pirate sloop lying about threemiles away. There was a boat just putting off from it to the shore.
The lieutenant and his sailing master stood together on the roof ofthe cabin deckhouse. The sailing master held a glass to his eye. "Shecarries a long gun, sir," he said, "and four carronades. She'll be hardto beat, sir, I do suppose, armed as we are with only light arms forclose fighting."
The lieutenant laughed. "Why, Brookes," he said, "you seem to thinkforever of these men showing fight. You don't know them as I know them.They have a deal of bluster and make a deal of noise, but when you seizethem and hold them with a strong hand, there's naught of fight left inthem. 'Tis like enough there'll not be so much as a musket fired to-day.I've had to do with 'em often enough before to know my gentlemen wellby this time." Nor, as was said, was it until the very last that thelieutenant could be brought to believe that the pirates had any stomachfor a fight.
The two vessels had reached perhaps within a mile of the pirate sloopbefore they found the water too shoal to venture any farther withthe sail. It was then that the boat was lowered as the lieutenant hadplanned, and the boatswain went ahead to sound, the two vessels, withtheir sails still hoisted but empty of wind, pulling in after withsweeps.
The pirate had also hoisted sail, but lay as though waiting for theapproach of the schooner and the sloop.
The boat in which the boatswain was sounding had run in a considerabledistance ahead of the two vessels, which were gradually creeping up withthe sweeps until they had reached to within less than half a mile of thepirates--the boat with the boatswain maybe a quarter
of a mile closer.Suddenly there was a puff of smoke from the pirate sloop, and thenanother and another, and the next moment there came the three reports ofmuskets up the wind.
"By zounds!" said the lieutenant. "I do believe they're firing on theboat!" And then he saw the boat turn and begin pulling toward them.
The boat with the boatswain aboard came rowing rapidly. Again there werethree or four puffs of smoke and three or four subsequent reports fromthe distant vessel. Then, in a little while, the boat was alongside, andthe boatswain came scrambling aboard. "Never mind hoisting the boat,"said the lieutenant; "we'll just take her in tow. Come aboard as quickas you can." Then, turning to the sailing master, "Well, Brookes, you'llhave to do the best you can to get in over the shoals under half sail."
"But, sir," said the master, "we'll be sure to run aground."
"Very well, sir," said the lieutenant, "you heard my orders. If we runaground we run aground, and that's all there is of it."
"I sounded as far as maybe a little over a fathom," said the mate, "butthe villains would let me go no nearer. I think I was in the channel,though. 'Tis more open inside, as I mind me of it. There's a kind ofa hole there, and if we get in over the shoals just beyond where I waswe'll be all right."
"Very well, then, you take the wheel, Baldwin," said the lieutenant,"and do the best you can for us."
Lieutenant Maynard stood looking out forward at the pirate vessel, whichthey were now steadily nearing under half sail. He could see that therewere signs of bustle aboard and of men running around upon the deck.Then he walked aft and around the cabin. The sloop was some distanceastern. It appeared to have run aground, and they were trying to push itoff with the sweeps. The lieutenant looked down into the water overthe stern, and saw that the schooner was already raising the mud in herwane. Then he went forward along the deck. His men were crouching downalong by the low rail, and there was a tense quietness of expectationabout them. The lieutenant looked them over as he passed them."Johnson," he said, "do you take the lead and line and go forward andsound a bit." Then to the others: "Now, my men, the moment we run heraboard, you get aboard of her as quick as you can, do you understand?Don't wait for the sloop or think about her, but just see that thegrappling irons are fast, and then get aboard. If any man offers toresist you, shoot him down. Are you ready, Mr. Cringle?"
"Aye, aye, sir," said the gunner.
"Very well, then, be ready, men; we'll be aboard 'em in a minute ortwo."
"There's less than a fathom of water here, sir," sang out Johnson fromthe bows. As he spoke there was a sudden soft jar and jerk, then theschooner was still. They were aground. "Push her off to the lee there!Let go your sheets!" roared the boatswain from the wheel. "Push her offto the lee." He spun the wheel around as he spoke. A half a dozen mensprang up, seized the sweeps, and plunged them into the water. Othersran to help them, but the sweeps only sank into the mud without movingthe schooner. The sails had fallen off and they were flapping andthumping and clapping in the wind. Others of the crew had scrambledto their feet and ran to help those at the sweeps. The lieutenant hadwalked quickly aft again. They were very close now to the pirate sloop,and suddenly some one hailed him from aboard of her. When he turned hesaw that there was a man standing up on the rail of the pirate sloop,holding by the back stays. "Who are you?" he called, from the distance,"and whence come you? What do you seek here? What d'ye mean, coming downon us this way?"
The lieutenant heard somebody say, "That's Blackbeard hisself." And helooked with great interest at the distant figure.
The pirate stood out boldly against the cloudy sky. Somebody seemed tospeak to him from behind. He turned his head and then he turned roundagain. "We're only peaceful merchantmen!" he called out. "What authorityhave you got to come down upon us this way? If you'll come aboard I'llshow you my papers and that we're only peaceful merchantmen."
"The villains!" said the lieutenant to the master, who stood besidehim. "They're peaceful merchantmen, are they! They look like peacefulmerchantmen, with four carronades and a long gun aboard!" Then he calledout across the water, "I'll come aboard with my schooner as soon as Ican push her off here."
"If you undertake to come aboard of me," called the pirate, "I'll shootinto you. You've got no authority to board me, and I won't have you doit. If you undertake it 'twill be at your own risk, for I'll neither askquarter of you nor give none."
"Very well," said the lieutenant, "if you choose to try that, you may doas you please; for I'm coming aboard of you as sure as heaven."
"Push off the bow there!" called the boatswain at the wheel. "Lookalive! Why don't you push off the bow?"
"She's hard aground!" answered the gunner. "We can't budge her an inch."
"If they was to fire into us now," said the sailing master, "they'dsmash us to pieces."
"They won't fire into us," said the lieutenant. "They won't dare to."He jumped down from the cabin deckhouse as he spoke, and went forward tourge the men in pushing off the boat. It was already beginning to move.
At that moment the sailing master suddenly called out, "Mr. Maynard! Mr.Maynard! they're going to give us a broadside!"
Almost before the words were out of his mouth, before Lieutenant Maynardcould turn, there came a loud and deafening crash, and then instantlyanother, and a third, and almost as instantly a crackling and rending ofbroken wood. There were clean yellow splinters flying everywhere. A manfell violently against the lieutenant, nearly overturning him, but hecaught at the stays and so saved himself. For one tense moment he stoodholding his breath. Then all about him arose a sudden outcry of groansand shouts and oaths. The man who had fallen against him was lying facedown upon the deck. His thighs were quivering, and a pool of blood wasspreading and running out from under him. There were other men down, allabout the deck. Some were rising; some were trying to rise; some onlymoved.
There was a distant sound of yelling and cheering and shouting. It wasfrom the pirate sloop. The pirates were rushing about upon her decks.They had pulled the cannon back, and, through the grunting sound ofthe groans about him, the lieutenant could distinctly hear the thud andpunch of the rammers, and he knew they were going to shoot again.
The low rail afforded almost no shelter against such a broadside, andthere was nothing for it but to order all hands below for the timebeing.
"Get below!" roared out the lieutenant. "All hands get below and liesnug for further orders!" In obedience the men ran scrambling below intothe hold, and in a little while the decks were nearly clear exceptfor the three dead men and some three or four wounded. The boatswain,crouching down close to the wheel, and the lieutenant himself were theonly others upon deck. Everywhere there were smears and sprinkles ofblood. "Where's Brookes?" the lieutenant called out.
"He's hurt in the arm, sir, and he's gone below," said the boatswain.
Thereupon the lieutenant himself walked over to the forecastle hatch,and, hailing the gunner, ordered him to get up another ladder, so thatthe men could be run up on deck if the pirates should undertake to comeaboard. At that moment the boatswain at the wheel called out that thevillains were going to shoot again, and the lieutenant, turning, saw thegunner aboard of the pirate sloop in the act of touching the iron to thetouchhole. He stooped down. There was another loud and deafening crashof cannon, one, two, three--four--the last two almost together--andalmost instantly the boatswain called out, "'Tis the sloop, sir! look atthe sloop!"
The sloop had got afloat again, and had been coming up to the aid of theschooner, when the pirates fired their second broadside now at her. Whenthe lieutenant looked at her she was quivering with the impact of theshot, and the next moment she began falling off to the wind, and hecould see the wounded men rising and falling and struggling upon herdecks.
At the same moment the boatswain called out that the enemy was comingaboard, and even as he spoke the pirate sloop came drifting out from thecloud of smoke that enveloped her, looming up larger and larger as shecame down upon them. The lieutenant still crouched down und
er the rail,looking out at them. Suddenly, a little distance away, she came about,broadside on, and then drifted. She was close aboard now. Something cameflying through the air--another and another. They were bottles. One ofthem broke with a crash upon the deck. The others rolled over tothe farther rail. In each of them a quick-match was smoking. Almostinstantly there was a flash and a terrific report, and the air was fullof the whiz and singing of broken particles of glass and iron. There wasanother report, and then the whole air seemed full of gunpowder smoke."They're aboard of us!" shouted the boatswain, and even as he spoke thelieutenant roared out, "All hands to repel boarders!" A second laterthere came the heavy, thumping bump of the vessels coming together.
Lieutenant Maynard, as he called out the order, ran forward through thesmoke, snatching one of his pistols out of his pocket and the cutlassout of its sheath as he did so. Behind him the men were coming, swarmingup from below. There was a sudden stunning report of a pistol, and thenanother and another, almost together. There was a groan and the fall ofa heavy body, and then a figure came jumping over the rail, with two orthree more directly following. The lieutenant was in the midst of thegun powder smoke, when suddenly Blackbeard was before him. The piratecaptain had stripped himself naked to the waist. His shaggy black hairwas falling over his eyes, and he looked like a demon fresh from thepit, with his frantic face. Almost with the blindness of instinct thelieutenant thrust out his pistol, firing it as he did so. The piratestaggered back: he was down--no; he was up again. He had a pistol ineach hand; but there was a stream of blood running down his nakedribs. Suddenly, the mouth of a pistol was pointing straight at thelieutenant's head. He ducked instinctively, striking upward with hiscutlass as he did so. There was a stunning, deafening report almost inhis ear. He struck again blindly with his cutlass. He saw the flash of asword and flung up his guard almost instinctively, meeting the crashof the descending blade. Somebody shot from behind him, and at the samemoment he saw some one else strike the pirate. Blackbeard staggeredagain, and this time there was a great gash upon his neck. Then one ofMaynard's own men tumbled headlong upon him. He fell with the man, butalmost instantly he had scrambled to his feet again, and as he did so hesaw that the pirate sloop had drifted a little away from them, and thattheir grappling irons had evidently parted. His hand was smarting asthough struck with the lash of a whip. He looked around him; the piratecaptain was nowhere to be seen--yes, there he was, lying by the rail. Heraised himself upon his elbow, and the lieutenant saw that he was tryingto point a pistol at him, with an arm that wavered and swayed blindly,the pistol nearly falling from his fingers. Suddenly his other elbowgave way and he fell down upon his face. He tried to raise himself--hefell down again. There was a report and a cloud of smoke, and when itcleared away Blackbeard had staggered up again. He was a terrible figurehis head nodding down upon his breast. Somebody shot again, and then theswaying figure toppled and fell. It lay still for a moment--then rolledover--then lay still again.
There was a loud splash of men jumping overboard, and then, almostinstantly, the cry of "Quarter! quarter!" The lieutenant ran to theedge of the vessel. It was as he had thought: the grappling irons of thepirate sloop had parted, and it had drifted away. The few pirates whohad been left aboard of the schooner had jumped overboard and were nowholding up their hands. "Quarter!" they cried. "Don't shoot!--quarter!"And the fight was over.
The lieutenant looked down at his hand, and then he saw, for the firsttime, that there was a great cutlass gash across the back of it, andthat his arm and shirt sleeve were wet with blood. He went aft, holdingthe wrist of his wounded hand. The boatswain was still at the wheel. "Byzounds!" said the lieutenant, with a nervous, quavering laugh, "I didn'tknow there was such fight in the villains."
His wounded and shattered sloop was again coming up toward him undersail, but the pirates had surrendered, and the fight was over.