AT BATH TOWN
“YOU and Chris Dred will have to sleep together,” the pirate’s wife had
said to Jack, the first evening of his arrival. “He’s lived here ever
since he came back. He sleeps in the corner room; there ain’t no bed in
t’other; so, now the young lady’s come, you’ll have to sleep together,
or one of you’ll have to sleep on the floor.” And so Jack was settled
at the pirate’s house.
The next morning the pirate captain sent Jack in a boat up to the town
with a letter to Mr. Knight, the colonial secretary.
The town appeared singularly interesting to Jack as, leaving the skiff
at a little landing, under the care of the negro who had rowed him
up to the place, he walked up a straggling lane between some fishing
huts, and so to the main street, which, with its dirt sidewalk, was
shaded with trees, through which filtered uncertain, wavering spots
of sunlight. The day was hot, a dry wind rustled the leaves overhead,
and a belated cicada trilled its shrill note that, rising for a while,
pulsed whirring away into silence. The houses, mostly built of wood,
were small and not very clean. They nearly all stood close to the
street. A sort of indolent life stirred in the place, and further down
the street a lot of men were lounging in front of a building that
looked as if it might be a store of some sort. They stared at Jack as
he drew near, and when he asked where he should find Mr. Knight, they
did not immediately reply.
“Mr. Knight?” said one of the group. “Why, I reckon Mr. Knight be n’t
in town; he went off across the country the day afore yesterday, and I
reckon he be n’t back yet.”
“Yes, he be back,” said another; “anyways, his horse be back again, for
I saw Jem a-rubbing it down as I came by the stable a while ago.”
Then one of the men got slowly up from where he sat, and led Jack out
into the middle of the street. “D’ ye see that open place yonder?
Well, that’s where the church stands. Just beyond that—you can see it
from here—is the house. ’Tis the very next house to the church. Well,
that’s Mr. Knight’s house.”
Mr. Knight’s residence was built of brick and was very much better
looking than the houses that surrounded it. Jack found that the
secretary was at home, and was shown into his office. He was smoking
a pipe of tobacco and looking over some papers which littered the
writing-desk at which he sat. He was a rather thin, dark man, not
ill-looking, but nervous and jerky in his movements. He wore a black
cloth skull-cap upon his head, and Jack saw a fine wig of black hair
hanging behind the door.
He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at Jack as he came into
the room. “Well,” he said in a sharp, quick voice, “what d’ ye want?”
“Why, master,” said Jack, “Captain Teach hath sent me up with this note
for you, sir.”
“O! he did, did he? Well, let me have it.” He leaned back in his chair
and reached out for the note, which Jack handed to him and which he
tore open quickly and sharply. Jack noticed how the letter trembled in
his nervous hand as he held it. He watched his eyes as they traveled
down the page until they reached the bottom, and then as he turned over
the paper to make sure that there was nothing upon the other side.
“Very well,” he said when he had ended; “tell the captain I’ll be there
to-morrow.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jack, lingering for a moment. “Is that all?”
“That’s all. I’ll be down to-morrow night.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jack again.
* * * * *
Mr. Knight came down to the pirate’s house at the appointed time, and
Captain Teach stood at the door watching him as he came up the crooked
path. The pirate had been playing upon his guitar, and he now stood
holding it under his arm as Mr. Knight approached, limping slightly and
walking with a cane. The evening was warm, and he carried his hat under
his arm. Jack stood around the end of the house, also looking at the
colonial secretary as he approached. “How d’ ye do, captain?” said Mr.
Knight, as soon as he had come near enough.
“Why, I’m well enough,” said Blackbeard, surlily, taking his pipe out
of his mouth to reply. “Hands and Dred are both here, and we’ve been
waiting for you for some time now. Come in.”
He led the way into the room, where the two of whom he had spoken were
sitting smoking and drinking rum and water in the dusk. Mr. Knight
nodded to the others. “Well, captain,” he said as he took his seat and
laid his hat and cane upon the table, “what’s this business you want to
see me about? What’s this I hear about a young lady you’ve brought down
from Virginia?”
“Why,” said Captain Teach, “I reckon ’tis just about as you’ve heard
it.” He had laid aside his guitar, and had gone to the mantel-shelf and
was striking a flint and steel to light the candle. “I brought a young
lady down with me from Virginia—she’s staying here with my wife.”
“Well, what’s the business you have with me?”
“I’ll tell you that in a minute as soon as I get this bloody candle
lighted. I’ll murder that woman some day. This is the third time she’s
left the punk out to get wet. There it comes!” He blew the spark into
blaze and lit the candle. “Now, Mr. Secretary Knight,” he said, “I’ll
tell you just exactly what the business is we want of you and just what
we’ve been doing. Do you know of Colonel Birchall Parker?”
“Why, to be sure I do,” said Mr. Knight. “Why do you ask such a thing
as that?”
“Well, I’ve carried his daughter off from Virginia; we’ve got her here
in this house.”
Mr. Knight sat quite still for a long time. “Then ’tis just as I heard
this morning,” he said at last, “but indeed I couldn’t believe it, nor
how you would dare do such a thing as to carry off Colonel Birchall
Parker’s daughter. ’Tis the maddest thing I ever heard tell of in all
my life, and if I was you I’d send the young lady back just as soon as
ever I could.”
“Why, then, Mr. Secretary,” said Captain Teach, “I’m much beholden to
you for advice, but just you listen to me for a little, will you? and
give me time to say my say before you advise me. I’m not going to send
her back just now, in spite of your advice, nor until her father pays
a good round sum to get her back.” And then, after a little pause,
during which he filled his pipe,—“I tell you what ’tis, Mr. Secretary
Knight, there be a greater one than you or me mixed up in this here
business—no less a one, if you will believe me, than Mr. Dick Parker.”
“What?” exclaimed Mr. Knight, “Mr. Richard Parker? What d’ ye mean by
that?”
“Why, I just mean what I say,” said Captain Teach. “Mr. Parker is the
one man in this, and we manage it as his agents. So you may see for
yourself we’re not so likely to come to any harm as ye might think, for
if we come to any harm it drags him along with us. ‘Twas his plan and
by his information that the young lady was taken—and, more than that,
his plan is that you shall write to him as though to give him the first
information of her being here in the keep of the Pamlico Pirates. Then
he’s to go to Colonel Parker and make the best bargain he can to have
her redeemed.”
“Stop a bit, captain!” interrupted Mr. Knight. “You’re going all too
fast in this matter. You seem to be pleased to count on me in this
business without asking me anything about it. I tell you plain that
this is too serious a thing for me to tamper with. Why, d’ye think I’m
such a villain as to trade in such business as this at the risk of my
neck?”
“Well,” said the pirate captain, “that is just as you choose, Mr.
Secretary. But I don’t see that you need bring yourself into any danger
at all. You won’t appear in it as a principal in any way. ’Tis I and
those with me,” sweeping his hands toward Hands and Dred, “who really
take all the risk; and I take it even though I know that if anything
should happen you’d throw us overboard without waiting a second moment
to think about it.”
Mr. Knight sat in thoughtful silence for a while. “What money is there
in this for you?” said he, looking up sharply.
“That I don’t know, neither,” said the other. “Mr. Parker will manage
that at t’other end, and methinks we can trust him to squeeze out all
there is in it.”
“What does he expect for his share in this precious conspiracy?” the
secretary asked after a while of silent thought.
“Why,” said the other, “there he drives a mightily hard bargain—he
demands a half of all for his share, and he will not take a farthing
less.”
Mr. Knight whistled to himself. “Well,” he said, “he does indeed drive
hard at you, captain. But, after all, I do not know that I can be
easier upon you; for if I go into this business it’ll be upon the same
stand that Mr. Parker takes: I will have the half that is left after he
has taken his half.”
Captain Teach burst out laughing. “Why, ye bloody leech!” he roared,
“what d’ ye mean by saying such a thing as that to me? ’Tis one thing
for Mr. Parker to make his terms, and ’tis another thing for you to do
it: ye pistareen. I tell you what shall be your share of it: I shall
have my third first of all, and you shall stand in for your share with
Hands and Morton and Dred.”
Mr. Knight shook his head. “Very well, then,” said the pirate captain,
harshly, pushing back his chair and rising as he spoke. “If you choose
to throw away what may drop into your hands without any risk to
yourself, you may do so and welcome. I’ll manage the business as best I
can without you.”
“Stop a bit, captain,” said Mr. Knight. “You are too hasty by half.
Tell me now, just what is it you want me to do in this affair?”
“Why,” said Captain Teach, “I have told you in part what I want you to
do. ’Tis first of all to write a letter to Mr. Richard Parker, saying
that you have certain information that the young lady, Colonel Parker’s
daughter, is in the hands of certain pirates, and that they won’t give
her up unless a ransom is paid for her. Ye may add also—as is the
truth—that she appears to be in the way of falling sick if she isn’t
taken away home pretty quick. Then, after you have writ your letter,
you must hunt up a decent, respectable merchant-captain or master to
take it up to Virginia and see that it is delivered into Mr. Richard
Parker’s hands.”
Mr. Knight looked very serious. “But is the young lady really sick?” he
asked.
“Well, I can’t truly say she is sick, but she’s not so well, neither.”
“And have you thought of what danger you’d be in if she was to die on
your hands?”
“Yes, I have,” said the other, “and so you needn’t waste any more words
about it. Tell me, will you take in with this business, or will you
not?”
“Humph!” said Mr. Knight, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He sat for a
long time looking broodingly at the flickering candle-light. “There’s
Nat Jackson hath gone up the river for a cargo of wood shingles. He’s
looked for back here on Friday: ’tis like enough he would be your man
to take the letter if I go into this business.”
“I dare say he’ll do well enough,” said Captain Teach, impatiently.
“But tell me, what is your answer, Mr. Secretary? Will you go into the
business or not?”
“I’ll tell you to-morrow,” said Mr. Knight. “If I go into it I’ll send
you a draft of the letter to Mr. Parker. Will that suit you?”
“Why,” said the other, sullenly, “’twill have to suit; but methinks you
might give a plain yes or no without so much beating around the bush,
or taking so much time to think it over.”
* * * * *
Jack and the pirate’s wife sat in the kitchen. They could hear the
grumble of talk from the room beyond. “I tell you what ’tis,” said
Jack, breaking the silence, “to my mind the young lady don’t look
anything like so well as when I saw her in Virginia.”
“I don’t know why she’d be sick,” said the woman. “We give her good
enough victuals to eat and she don’t lack for company. I’m sure I sat
with her nigh all afternoon, and she answered me pretty enough when I
talked to her.”
By and by they heard the party in the other room break up and Mr.
Knight’s parting words as he left the house. Presently Dred came into
the kitchen; he looked dull and heavy-eyed. “I reckon I must ‘a’ caught
the fever,” he said; “my head beats fit to split, and I’m that hot I’m
all afire. D’ye have any spirits of bark here, mistress?”
The pirate’s wife got up and went to the closet and brought out a
bottle of decoction of bitter bark from which she poured a large dose
into a teacup. Dred drank it off at a gulp, making a hideous, wry face.
Then he spat and wiped his hand across his mouth.