DICKORY STRETCHES HIS LEGS
There were jolly times on board the swift ship Revenge as she sped
through the straits of Florida on her way up the Atlantic coast. The
skies were bright, the wind was fair, and the warm waters of the Gulf
Stream helped to carry her bravely on her way. But young Dickory
Charter, with the blood-stained letter of Captain Vince tucked away in
the lining of his coat, ate so little, tossed about so much in his
berth, turned so pale and spoke so seldom, that the bold Captain
Blackbeard declared that he should have some medicine.
"I shall not let my fine lieutenant suffer for want of drugs," he cried,
"and when I reach Charles Town I shall send ashore a boat and procure
some; and if the citizens disturb or interfere with my brave fellows,
I'll bombard the town. There will be medicine to take on one side or the
other, I swear." And loud and ready were the oaths he swore.
A pirate who carries with him an intended son-in-law is not likely, if
he be of Blackbeard's turn of mind, to suffer all his family plans to be
ruined for the want of a few drugs.
When Dickory heard what the captain had to say on this subject his heart
shrank within him. He had never taken medicine and he had never seen
Blackbeard's daughter, but the one seemed to him almost as bad as the
other, and the thought of the cool waves beneath him became more
attractive than ever before. But that thought was quickly banished, for
he had a duty before him, and not until that was performed could he take
leave of this world, once so bright to him.
An island with palm-trees slowly rose on the horizon, and off this
island it was that, after a good deal of tacking and close-hauling, the
Revenge lay to to take in water. Far better water than that which had
been brought from Belize.
"Do you want to go ashore in the boat, boy?" said Blackbeard, really
mindful of the health of this projected member of his family. "It may
help your appetite to use your legs."
Dickory did not care to go anywhere, but he had hardly said so when a
revulsion of feeling came upon him, and turning away so that his face
might not be noticed, he said he thought the land air might do him good.
While the men were at work carrying their pails from the well-known
spring to the water-barrels in the boat, Dickory strolled about to view
the scenery, for it could never have been expected that a first
lieutenant in uniform should help to carry water. At first the scenery
did not appear to be very interesting, and Dickory wandered slowly from
here to there, then sat down under a tree. Presently he rose and went to
another tree, a little farther away from the boat and the men at the
spring. Here he quietly took off his shoes and his stockings, and,
having nothing else to do, made a little bundle of them, listlessly
tying them to his belt; then he rose and walked away somewhat brisker,
but not in the direction of the boat. He did not hurry, but even stopped
sometimes to look at things, but he still walked a little briskly, and
always away from the boat. He had been so used, this child of outdoor
life, to going about the world barefooted, that it was no wonder that he
walked briskly, being relieved of his encumbering shoes and stockings.
After a time he heard a shout behind him, and turning saw three men of
the boat's crew upon a little eminence, calling to him. Then he moved
more quickly, always away from the boat, and with his head turned he saw
the men running towards him, and their shouts became louder and wilder.
Then he set off on a good run, and presently heard a pistol shot. This
he knew was to frighten him and make him stop, but he ran the faster and
soon turned the corner of a bit of woods. Then he was away at the top of
his speed, making for a jungle of foliage not a quarter of a mile
before him. Shouts he heard, and more shots, but he caught sight of no
pursuers. Urged on even as they were by the fear of returning to the
ship without Dickory, they could not expect to match, in their heavy
boots, the stag-like speed of this barefooted bounder.
After a time Dickory stopped running, for his path, always straight
away, so far as he could judge, from the landing-place, became very
difficult. In the forest there were streams, sometimes narrow and
sometimes wide, and how deep he knew not, so that now he jumped, now he
walked on fallen trees. Sometimes he crossed water and marsh by swinging
himself from the limbs of one tree to those of another. This was hard
work for a young gentleman in a naval uniform and cocked hat, but it had
to be done; and when the hat was knocked off it was picked up again,
with its feathers dripping.
Dickory was going somewhere, although he knew not whither, and he had
solemn business to perform which he had sworn to do, and therefore he
must have fit clothes to wear, not only in which to travel but in which
to present himself suitably when he should accomplish his mission. All
these things Dickory thought of, and he picked up his cocked hat
whenever it dropped. He would have been very hungry had he not bethought
himself to fill his pockets with biscuits before he left the vessel. And
as to fresh water, there was no lack of that.