Jeremy realized that his life would be in danger if Daggs saw him coming
on deck after what had just happened. He lay still, therefore, in spite
of his desire to tell Bob what he had seen. The rest of the afternoon
his imagination painted pictures of ironbound chests half-buried in the
yellow beach sand of some lonely island far down in the tropics; gloomy
caves beneath mysteriously waving palm trees--caves whose black depths
shot forth a ruddy gleam of gold coin, when a chance ray of light came
through the shade; of shattered hulks that lay ten fathoms down in the
clear green water of some still lagoon, where pure white coral beds gave
back the sleeping sunshine, and fishes of all bright colors he had ever
seen or dreamed about swam through the ancient ports to stare
goggle-eyed at heaps of glistening gems.
At last he must have slept, for Bob's voice in his ear brought him back
to the dingy fo'c's'le of the _Royal James_ with a start. The lantern
was lit and most of the port watch were snoring heavily in their bunks
after a hard day's work. Bob took off his shoes and trousers and climbed
into the narrow berth beside his friend, who was now wide awake.
"Listen, Bob," whispered the New England boy as soon as they were
settled, "do you remember the things Daggs has said, off and on, about
old Sol Brig--how there was always a lot of gold that the men before the
mast never saw and how he must have saved it till he was the richest of
all the pirates? Well, who would know what became of that money, if
anybody did? Daggs, of course, the only man that's left of Brig's crew!
I think Daggs knows, and what's more, I believe I saw the very chart
that shows where it is." He went on to tell all he had seen that
afternoon. Bob was as excited as he when he had finished. "We must try
to get hold of that map or else get a sight of it!" he exclaimed. Jeremy
was doubtful of the possibility of this. "You see," he said, "the key is
on a string 'round his neck. The only way would be to break the chest
open. It's big and heavy and we should raise the whole ship with the
racket. Then, besides, I don't like to steal the thing, even though he
is a pirate." Bob also felt that it would hardly be honest to break into
a man's box, no matter what his character might be. "If we should just
happen to see the chart, though," he finally explained, "why, we have
just as much right to hunt for the treasure as he has, or any one else."
Jeremy agreed to this solution of a knotty problem of honor and both
boys decided that for the present they had no course in the matter but
to wait for some accident to put the paper in their way. However, not to
let any opportunities slip, they resolved to watch Pharaoh Daggs
constantly while he was awake, in the hope of getting a second glimpse
of the treasured document.
Jeremy had regained both strength and spirits when he tumbled out next
morning. The pall of uneasiness which had hung over the ship all the day
before had lifted and the men, sobered once more, went about their
business as usual. The boys set themselves to the task of watching with
much zeal. It was not so difficult as might be expected. They had always
been aware of the presence of the man with the broken nose whenever he
was on deck. His sinister eye was too unpleasant to meet without a
shiver. Likewise they felt an instinctive relief when he went out of
sight. For this reason it was no great matter for either lad that
happened to be present to note the fact of the pirate's going below.
Whenever he left the deck for anything he was shadowed by Bob or Jeremy
as the case might be. For nearly three days the mysterious chest
remained untouched. Of that the boys were sure.
The threatened storm that had roughened the sea on the day when Captain
Manewaring met his sudden end seemed to have spent itself in racing
clouds and gusts of wind. Fair weather followed and for forty-eight
hours the _James_ and her prize stood off the coast, heading up to the
northeastward with the wind on the port quarter.
Bonnet had remained below, haggard and brooding, suffering from one of
the spells of reaction that commonly followed his misdeeds. By night of
the second day he cast off his gloom and came on deck, the old reckless
light in his eye.
"Here, Herriot," he called, as he appeared, "we've got a rich prize in
our fist and a richer one coming. Let's be gay dogs all tonight. Give
the hands extra grog and I'll see you in the cabin over a square bottle
when the watch is changed."
Before the mast the news was hailed with delighted cheering. A keg of
rum was rolled out of the hold and set on the fo'c's'le table. Hardly
had darkness settled before half the men aboard were drunk and the
cannikins came back to the spigot in an unending procession. There was
too much liquor available for the usual choruses to be sung. Most of the
pirates swilled it like pigs and stopped for nothing till they could
move no longer, but lay helpless where they happened to fall. Only a
bare three men stayed sober enough to sail the ship. Jeremy thanked his
stars for fair weather when he thought of the case they might have been
in had the orgy occurred in a night of storm.
Next day a few of the crew woke at breakfast time. The rest snored out
their drunken sleep below. Daggs came on deck as usual, to the outward
eye quite his careless, ugly self. His two young enemies watched him
closely, for they suspected that the drink he had taken had helped to
Jeremy's previous discovery. As the hours went by, one after another of
the buccaneers woke and dragged himself on deck to growl the discomfort
out of him. By mid-afternoon Jeremy, going below, found all the bunks
empty. He slipped behind a chest far up in the dark bow angle and waited
for a signal from Bob. The boys had seen the man with the broken nose
watching the decks uneasily for hours and suspected that he meant to go
below as soon as the fo'c's'le was empty.
Jeremy must have been in his hiding place close to half an hour before
he heard Bob's sharply whistled tune close outside in the gun deck. He
ducked lower behind his box and presently heard steps descending the
ladder. A guarded observation taken from a dark corner close to the
floor disclosed the slouching form of Daggs standing by the table.
The buccaneer took a long time for his cautious survey of the fo'c's'le.
Standing perfectly still he turned his body from the hips and gave the
place a silent scrutiny before he set to work. He proceeded just as he
had done before and quickly had the chest open and its contents spread
upon the planking. He had just unrolled the chart when a shout from the
hatch made him leap to his feet. "Sail ho!" was being passed from mouth
to mouth above, and already there were men on the ladder. In a fever of
haste, Daggs half-pushed, half-threw the chest under his bunk and shoved
the loose clothes and small arms after it. The paper he still held in
his hand. After a second of indecision, while he looked over his
shoulder at the descending crowd of seamen, he thrust it in on top of
the box and stood erect, flushed and swaying. The hands were preoccupied
and none seemed to notice his act. There was a general scurrying of
sailors to get out their cutlasses and pistols, and in the confusion
Jeremy found an easy opportunity to crawl out of the hiding place and
busy himself like the rest.
Going on deck a minute later, he found Bob and whispered a brief account
of what he had seen. For the present there was much to be done on deck.
They ran hither and thither at Herriot's commands, giving a hand at a
rope or fetching something mislaid in the cabin. The _James_ was under
all her canvas and in hot pursuit of a large sloop, visible some three
miles to leeward. The fleeing ship was driving straight to sea before
the strong west breeze, her sails spread on both sides like the broad,
stubby wings of a white owl. Bonnet had his jury spar swung to
starboard from the foremast foot and bent the big jib to balance his
main and foresail. Bowing her head deep into every trough as the waves
swept by, the black sloop ran after her prey at dizzy speed. The crew
gathered along the wet bows, silent, intent on the game in hand. They
were drawing up perceptibly from moment to moment. At last they were
within half a mile--five hundred yards--close astern. Aboard the enemy
they could see a small knot of men huddled aft, working desperately at
the breach of a swivel-cannon. Bonnet ordered Herriot to stand off to
starboard for a broadside. But as the _James_ swerved outward, a flare
of fire and a loud report went up from her opponent's after part. For a
moment it seemed that her cannon had been discharged at the pirate, but
as they waited for the splash of the shot, a thick smoke grew in a cloud
over the enemy's deck. The gun or a keg of powder had exploded. As soon
as the buccaneers perceived it, they bellowed hoarse hurrahs and
prepared to board. The gunners swarmed up from the port gun deck at the
order and all lined up along the rail howling defiance at the
merchantman. Jeremy saw that all were on deck and touched Bob's arm.
They made their way quietly below, and the New Englander went to Daggs'
berth. From beneath it protruded the corner of the piece of paper. Both
boys knelt eagerly over it as Jeremy pulled it into the light.
It was, as they had expected, a chart. The drawing was crudely done in
ink, applied it seemed with a stick, or possibly with a very badly
fashioned quill-pen. There was very little writing upon it, and this of
the raggedest sort. To their intense disappointment it bore no name to
tell where in the seven seas it might be. That the chart was of some
coast was certain. A deep, irregular bay occupied the central part of
the sheet. Two long promontories jutting from east and west nearly
closed the seaward or southern end. The single word "Watter" was written
beside a dot high up on the paper and a little northeast of the bay. An
anchor, roughly drawn near the northern shore and a small cross between
two parallel lines a short distance inland, completed the information
given, except for a crossed arrow and letters indicating the cardinal
points of the compass.
[Illustration]
It required no great time for the two lads to examine every line and
mark. They looked up and faced each other disappointed. Jeremy voiced
the thought which both had. "How are we to know where the thing is?" he
asked. Bob shook his head and looked glum. Then he seized the paper
feverishly and turned it over. Its soiled yellow back gave no clue. Not
even the latitude and longitude were printed. "Well," said Jeremy,
finally, "one thing we can do, and that's remember exactly how it
looks." He measured the length of the bay with the middle joint of his
forefinger. "Three--four--and a bit over," he counted. "Anchorage in
that round cove to the northwest." Then, measuring again, "And the cross
is two finger-joints northwest of the anchorage. What those lines each
side of it are I don't know, but I'll remember them. And that dot marked
"Watter" is one and a half northeast of the mitten-shaped cove. There--I
guess we've got it all by heart now." He had just finished speaking and
both of them were still looking intently at the map when a fresh
outburst of cheers and the beginning of a sharp musketry fire were heard
above. Jeremy replaced the paper where he had found it and they hurried
up to look out of the hatchway.
The two ships were now only half a cable's length apart, running side by
side. Few shots were being returned by the merchantman and all her crew
were keeping out of sight behind the solid rail.
"All hands to board her," Bonnet sang out and answering her tiller the
_Royal James_ swung over till the two sloops' sides met with a jar. They
were fast in an instant and a score of whooping buccaneers swept over
the rail. From a place of vantage the boys watched the short, bloody
conflict that followed. It seemed that several of the enemy's crew, few
as they were at the beginning, had been killed by the explosion of the
gun. Only a half-dozen rose to meet the pirate onslaught. Not one asked
for mercy, even after Herriot had shot down the captain, and the tide of
sea-rovers rushed at and over the little handful of defenders in an
overwhelming flood. There was no need of the plank this time. Every man
fell fighting and died sword in hand. To the two young prisoners,
already sickened with the sight of blood, this wholesale murder of a
band of gallant seamen came as a revolting climax. They stared at each
other, white-faced as they thought of the fate that threatened them and
all honest men who fell into such ruthless hands. It was Bob's first
sight of a hand-to-hand sea-battle, and as the last merchant sailor went
down under the howling pack he fainted and tumbled into Jeremy's arms.
When he came to his senses again the Yankee boy had propped him up
behind the companion and was rubbing him vigorously. "I know how you
feel," he said in answer to Bob's stammered apology. "It's all right and
you've no call to be ashamed. I came near it myself." The Delaware lad,
who had been almost as distressed at being guilty of swooning as at the
pillage of the merchant sloop, felt a vast relief when he heard Jeremy's
words, and quickly got upon his feet once more.
The pirates had cleared the enemy's deck of bodies and blood and now
were taking an inventory of the sloop's cargo, if the shouts that came
from her hold meant anything. She was a little larger than the _James_
in length and beam, but had carried no armament other than the now
damaged stern-chaser. The white letters at her stern declared her the
_Fortune_ of New Castle. From what Captain Bonnet said to his
sailing-master as they returned over the rail, Jeremy gathered that she
had been in light cargo and was not as rich a prize as the _Francis_.
The latter ship had now come up and was standing off and on waiting for
orders. Bonnet had lost two men killed and several hurt in the fight, so
that the crew of the _Royal James_, without the prize crew on board the
_Francis_, now numbered scarce a dozen able-bodied men. The question of
manning the newly captured sloop was finally settled by transferring to
her George Dunkin and his seven seamen. Bonnet freed the men of the
_Francis_ who had been in chains, and set them to work their own ship
under command of Herriot and another pirate. He undertook to sail the
_James_ himself, for by this time he was really an able skipper, despite
the fact that he had taken to the sea so late in life. As the crew of
the _Francis_ lined up before going aboard, the notorious buccaneer
faced them with a cold glitter in his eyes. For a while he kept them
wriggling under his piercing scrutiny. Then he spoke, his voice even and
dangerous.
"You will be under Mr. Herriot's orders. I think you are wise enough not
to try to mutiny with him. But if you should undertake it, remember that
no sooner does your sloop draw away to over one mile's distance than I
will come after you and blow you out of water without parley. There are
just enough sails left aboard your ship to keep headway in a light
breeze. Over with you now!"
As darkness deepened the three sloops set out westward under shortened
canvas, keeping so close that the steersmen hailed each other
frequently through the night. Bob and Jeremy went to their bunks gloomy
and subdued. But Jeremy's sorrows were lightened by the feeling that
sometime, somewhere, he would find a use for the chart, the outline of
which he had firmly fixed in his memory that afternoon. And wondering
how, he fell asleep.