A SCENE
THE news that the pirates had brought in a rich prize of rum and
sugar flew very quickly up into the town, for the very next morning
Mr. Knight came down to see the pirate captain, bringing with him a
man who was a stranger to Jack. He afterward found that the stranger
was a Captain Hotchkiss, master of a schooner bound for the port of
Philadelphia. Captain Hotchkiss was an honest merchantman as the times
went, but he was quite willing to undertake to dispose of the captured
rum in the port for which he was bound.
The rain had cleared away, and soon after breakfast Jack had gone down
to the wharf. One of the pirates named Bolles—a young fellow not much
older than himself—had come up from Ocracock aboard the sloop. He had
been wounded in the fight, and he carried his arm in a sling. He had
not come up from the landing for his breakfast, and Betty Teach had
sent something down to him by Jack—a big, cold roast yam, some corn
bread, and a thick slice of bacon. The young pirate had spread his meal
out on top of one of the piles, and was making shift to eat it with
his left hand. Jack stood leaning against the other side of the pile,
watching his thick-featured, heavy face as he ate.
“Ye ought to ha’ been along,” said the young pirate, munching away with
his mouth full.
“Why, so I should have liked to have been,” said Jack.
“‘Twere a mighty hot fight, though, while it lasted,” said the young
pirate with pride. “Like enough you mightn’t ha’ liked that so much if
you’d been there. ‘Twas a main villainous chance that I should ha’ been
hit the very first time I ever was really in a fight.”
“Did it hurt you when you were shot?” Jack asked, curiously.
“Hurt!” said the pirate, “I don’t know—no, not much at first. ‘Twas as
if somebody had struck me in the shoulder with a club. It just knocked
me around as if I’d been hit with a club. I didn’t know what ’twas at
first, nor till I felt the blood a-running down my hand, all hot like.
Arter that it hurt bad enough. ‘Twere a grape-shot,” he said, with some
pride, “and it looked as though you’d ‘a’ scooped a bit of the meat out
with a spoon, only deeper like. ‘Twas a nigh chance, and if it had ‘a’
been a little higher, ’twould ‘a’ been all up with Ned Bolles.”
“I’d have liked well to have been along,” said Jack again.
“Well,” said the young pirate, “’twas summat to stir the blood, I can
tell ye. Then we lay for maybe twenty minutes or more afore t’other
sloop could come up with us, and all the time that bloody French bark
a-banging away at us, the bullets a-going ping! ping! and chug! chug!
and every now and then boom! goes a gun—boom! boom!—and maybe a
bucketful of splinters goes flying. And then, by and by, I see ‘em
carrying poor Tom Swiggett down below, and a nasty sight he were, with
his eyes rolled up and his face like dough. And just then, bump! and
around I goes, shot in the shoulder. ’Tweren’t no skylarking now, I
tell ye.”
It was just then that Mr. Knight’s boat pulled up to the wharf beyond,
and Jack went out to the end of the landing to meet it. The men who
were rowing were strangers to Jack. They lay waiting on their oars,
looking up at him. “Tell me, young man!” called Mr. Knight. “Is Captain
Teach at home?”
“Yes, he is,” said Jack, “but he’s not about yet.”
Then Mr. Knight, followed by Captain Hotchkiss, came climbing up the
ladder, slippery with green slime, to the wharf above. The colonial
secretary led the way directly up to the house, and Jack followed the
two visitors, leaving the young pirate munching away stolidly at his
food.
They all went into the kitchen together. The pirate captain had gone to
bed, but Dred and Morton still lingered in front of the fire, and Betty
Teach was busy putting away the remains of the breakfast that had been
standing on the table since midnight.
“If you’ll come in t’other room,” said Jack, “you’ll likely find it in
better trim than this one, Mr. Knight.”
“Never mind,” said the secretary, “we’d just as lief stay here. What
time did the sloop get in?” he asked of Morton.
“I don’t know exactly,” said Morton, without taking his pipe out of his
mouth. “‘Twas some time arter midnight.”
“Is the captain asleep yet?”
“I reckon he be,” said Dred. “I hain’t seen him since he went to bed
early this morning.”
“Well, he’ll have to be awakened then,” said Mr. Knight, “for I’ve just
fetched Captain Hotchkiss, here, down from the town to see him, and he
has to be going again as soon as may be.”
“You’d better go and wake him then, mistress,” said Dred; and Betty
went, though with great reluctance, to arouse her husband. Presently
they could hear her overhead talking to the pirate, who answered
her evidently from his bed; then they could hear him telling her
that he would be down in a little while, and presently she returned
down-stairs again, leaving Blackbeard stamping his feet into his shoes
and swearing to himself.
Then, after a while, they heard the door of the room open and the
pirate captain go stumping along the passage. He did not come directly
down-stairs, however, but went on into the room where Hands lay.
“Where’s he gone now?” said Mr. Knight. “Why don’t he come?”
“He’s stopped in to see Hands first,” said Betty Teach.
“Well, then, why should he do that?” said Mr. Knight, crossly. “Hands
can wait and we can’t.”
Betty made no reply, but went on with her interrupted work. In the
pause of silence that followed, those in the kitchen could hear
the grumbling sound of the men’s voices talking up-stairs. Captain
Hotchkiss fidgeted restlessly. “When did the fever take you?” he asked
Dred.
“Why, I don’t know,” said Dred. “It appeared like I fetched it down
from Virginny with me.”
Hands was talking now, and they could hear the growling of his
voice—it continued for some time in a monotone, and then suddenly
the captain’s voice burst out with a loud, angry excitement. There
was instant silence in the kitchen: every one sat listening intently
to hear what was said in the room above. “Run away!” they heard
Blackbeard’s voice exclaim. “Run away!” and then came the noise of his
chair grating against the bare floor. Jack and Betty Teach and Dred
exchanged looks. They knew that Hands had told of the young lady’s
attempted escape.
“He’s gone and told, arter all,” said Dred.
“Told what?” asked Mr. Knight, but the others were listening again,
and did not reply. Again Hands was talking, but it was impossible to
distinguish what he was saying. Suddenly the chair grated again, and
the next moment came the sound of Blackbeard’s feet striding across
the room, and then along the passage. Then he came clattering down the
stairs; then the kitchen door was flung open and he burst into the
room. “What’s this here Hands tells me about the young lady trying to
run away yesterday?” he cried out, in a fierce, loud voice.
Captain Hotchkiss was listening with silent intentness. Mr. Knight
instantly understood everything, and he shot a side look at Captain
Hotchkiss’s attentive face. “Take care, captain,” he said to
Blackbeard, “take care what you say. You forget there’s a stranger
here.”
Blackbeard glared at him, but vouchsafed no reply. “Didn’t I tell you,”
he said, turning upon his wife, “that you was to keep a sharp lookout
upon the hussy while I was away? I was afeared of something of this
sort, and I told you to keep a sharp lookout on her. Suppose she’d ‘a’
got up into the town! maybe she’d have had the whole province talking.
’Tis bad enough as ’tis with everybody hereabouts blabbing about her,
but if she’d got up into the town maybe she’d found somebody to look
after her and take up her case, and then we’d have never got her back
again. There’s Parson Odell, if she’d gone to him, he’d have had to
take up her case, and then we’d ‘a’ had the whole Parker crew down upon
us from Virginny, like enough.”
“Well,” said Betty Teach, “’twas nobody’s fault she got away. To be
sure, I did all I could to look after her, morning and night. I allus
went to her door early, and I allus kept the doors of the house tight
locked of a night. I don’t know how she contrived to get out, but she
did get out, and that’s all there be about it. But now ’tis over and
done, and she’s safe back home again and no harm done, so what’s the
use of blustering about it for everybody to hear?”
Mr. Knight came up to Blackbeard and plucked him by the sleeve.
“You forget,” he whispered, “that Hotchkiss is here. You don’t want
everybody to know about this business, do you?”
Blackbeard shook off his touch. He would listen to nothing. “And as
for you, Chris Dred,” he said, turning to the sick man, “what be ye
fit for, anyhow?” Dred shrugged his shoulders without replying. “What!
won’t you answer me, then? By blood! you shall answer me!”
“’Tis no use to answer you,” said Dred, “you’ve got in one of your
humors, and there’s naught that I can say that you’ll listen to.”
Blackbeard glared balefully at him for a while, perhaps not knowing
just what to say. Then suddenly he turned on his heel and flung open
the door, and went noisily up-stairs again.
“Where are you going, Ned?” his wife called after him, but he did not
reply.
“I do believe he’s going up to the young lady’s room,” said Dred,
rising from his bench. “You’d better go up and stop him, mistress, or
he’ll frighten her to death.”
They listened, and, sure enough, the pirate went straight to the girl’s
room and flung open the door violently. “You’d better go up arter him,”
said Dred; “he’s in one of his fits, and there’s no knowing what he’ll
say or do to her.”
“Why,” said Betty Teach, “to be sure I don’t like to cross him now.”
Dred shrugged his shoulders and sat down again. They could hear the
loud, violent voice of the pirate storming from the room above. “Ye’d
run away, would ye? Ye’d run away, would ye? By the eternal! I’ll cure
ye of that, my mistress! Ye don’t know me, to try your tricks with me.
What d’ ye suppose I keep ye here for—because I love ye? Not I! ’Tis
for what I can make out of ye!”—and so on, and so on. Betty Teach
stood listening at the half-open door. “Well,” she said at last, “I do
suppose I’ll have to go up to him. ’Tis as you say; he’ll frighten her
to death, the way he’s talking to her.” Then again she listened for a
moment or two, and they could all hear the sound of some one crying.
“Well, I’ll go,” she said; and she went, closing the door after her.
“Who is it he’s got up there, anyhow?” asked Captain Hotchkiss. He
looked around at the others, but no one replied to him. He was devoured
by curiosity.
“He shouldn’t have gone up-stairs in the humor he’s in,” said the
secretary. “He wasn’t fit to talk with her now.”
“But who is it?” said Captain Hotchkiss, again.
“Never you mind that, captain,” said Mr. Knight, sharply. “’Tis a
matter that don’t concern you at all, and you’d better mind your own
affairs.”
Betty Teach was talking, and they could hear the sound of her voice,
trying to quiet her husband—then the sound of Blackbeard’s, more
violent than ever. The doors were closed, so that it was impossible
to distinguish what was said. Suddenly there came a cry,—then a
fall,—then silence. “By heavens!” said Mr. Knight, “he hasn’t done
anything to her, has he?”
“No,” said Dred, “he wouldn’t do nothing to her o’ that kind. He
wouldn’t touch hand to her, if you mean that.”
The silence continued for a while; then the door opened, and Betty
Teach’s voice called down the stairs: “Jack! Jack! Come here a minute!”
Jack hurried out of the room, and up-stairs. The door of the young
lady’s room was standing open, and before he entered he could see Miss
Eleanor Parker lying upon the floor and the pirate’s wife bending over
her, rubbing and slapping her hands. Blackbeard himself sat upon the
edge of the table, swinging one leg, his arms folded, lowering down at
the unconscious figure. “Here, Jack,” said the pirate’s wife, looking
up, “help me lift her to the bed.”
Then Jack, who stood looking, aroused himself, and came into the room.
He stooped, and slipped his hands and arms under the girl’s shoulders.
Her head fell back upon his arm as he raised her, and her hair flowed
over it in a dark, glossy cloud. He looked down at the white face, the
blue veins marking faint lines upon her forehead. Then he and the woman
laid her upon the bed. “Go and fetch some water,” said Betty Teach,
“and be quick about it.”
The pail was empty, and Jack ran down-stairs to fill it. “What’s the
matter?” asked Mr. Knight, as he hurried through the kitchen.
“Nothing,” said Jack, “only she’s fainted away.”
When he returned to the room again he saw that the pirate’s wife had
loosened the young lady’s stays, and that she had now returned, or was
returning, to consciousness. “Well, then,” Betty Teach was saying, “I
do suppose you’re satisfied, now that you’ve nigh frightened her to
death. Are ye satisfied, now?”
As Jack set the pail of water upon the floor, he saw a shuddering
tremor shake the half-conscious girl, and then, by and by, another.
Blackbeard still sat upon the edge of the table, swinging one leg, his
arms folded, and his face lowering. “Well, I’ll frighten her worse than
that,” he said, at last. “I’ll frighten her worse than she was ever
frightened before in all of her life if she goes trying any of her
tricks of running away again!” He stopped, and glared toward the two
women. Then he ground his white teeth together in a sudden spasm of
rage. “I’ll frighten her so she’ll wish she was dead!”
Whether the girl heard or not, she shuddered, as though at the words.
“Well, you’d better go down-stairs now,” said Betty Teach. “You’ve
frightened her enough for once, and you’ve said things before Jack
Hotchkiss that maybe you’ll be sorry you said, by and by.”
“I’ll go down-stairs,” growled the pirate, “when it suits me to, and
not before.” He sat for a little while longer, as though to assert
himself, and then presently got up and slouched out of the room,
without closing the door behind him.
Jack lingered for a while, and at first the captain’s wife, busied
about her patient, did not see him. Presently the young lady began to
cry weakly, and then Betty Teach looked up. “You go down-stairs, too,”
she said.
“Can’t I do something to help you?” said Jack, gulping at the
sympathetic lump that rose in his throat.
“No, you can’t,” she said, sharply, “except to do as I bid you.” And
then Jack followed the captain down into the kitchen.
“They do say,” Mr. Knight was saying, “that there was twenty casks
of rum aboard. Well, if that be true, methinks I can help you to rid
yourself of some of them at a fair price. Hotchkiss, here, is on his
way to Philadelphia, and will take six of them to Mr. West, who’ll
handle them as my agent, if you choose to have it so. I dare say he’ll
get the best there is out of them for you.”
“The purchase isn’t condemned yet,” said Blackbeard, sullenly.
“Oh, well, ’twill make no difference just to take a little rum,” said
Mr. Knight. “I’ll make that all right with his Excellency.”
Blackbeard sat gloomily without speaking. “Where is the rum?” said
Captain Hotchkiss.
“It’s aboard the bark,” said Blackbeard, shortly. “I’ve got a keg of it
aboard the sloop, if you choose to come and sample it.” His lowering
mood still brooded heavily upon him, but he arose, took down his hat
gloomily, and without saying anything further, stalked out of the
house, leaving his two visitors to follow him as they chose.
“I’ve a great mind,” said Jack to himself, “to ask Captain Hotchkiss if
he won’t take me away to Philadelphia with him.” But he did not do so.