The others had all laid down their cards and were looking at us by this
time, and I knew not what would have been the upshot of the matter had
not the door just then been flung open and a great rough fellow come
stumping into the place.
"Well," he bawled, in a loud, hoarse voice, "poor Ned is on his way to
h--l hot-foot to-night. I just came by his stew-hole over yonder.
Pah!"--here the fellow spat upon the floor--"he was screeching and
howling and yelling as though the d--l was basting him already."
"Who's with him now?" says one of the fellows at the table.
"Who's with him?" says the other, in a mightily contemptuous tone. "Why,
d'ye think that anybody would be such a ---- ---- fool as to stay with him
now, with nothing to be got for it but the black tongue and a cursing?"
"But what I say is this," said an ill-looking one-eyed fellow: "he's not
the man to serve his trade for all these here years and nothing to show
for it. It's all very well to say that Jack Mackra shot the hoops off
his luck; but you mark my words, he's got a cable out to windward
somewhere, and he ain't goin' to run on the lee shore with an empty
hold." I was so amazed to hear my own name spoken that I knew not at
first whether to believe that which mine ears had heard or whether they
had heard aright. Then it was as though a sudden light flashed upon me.
I needed not the next speech to tell me everything.
"Well," says one of the fellows, "even if so be as Ned England is going
to smell brimstone before this time to-morrow, I for one see no reason
to lose our game. Come along, Blake," he sang out to the fellow who had
been speaking to me, and who rejoined the others upon being bidden.
I was in a great ferment of spirits at all this, for I perceived very
clearly that England was mightily sick, and perhaps dying, with that
dangerous fever known as the "black tongue," from which it is a rare
thing for a man to recover with his life.
I observed that the fellow who had lately come into the ordinary did not
join in the game along with the rest, but sat looking on. By-and-by I
contrived to catch his eye as he glanced in my direction, whereupon I
beckoned to him, and he came over to the table where I sat. Only a few
words passed between us, and those in a very low tone.
"Is Ned England all alone?" said I.
"Yes," said he.
"Will you show me where he is?" said I.
He shot a quick look at me from under his brows. "How much will you
give?"
"A guinea" said I.
"I'll do it."
"When?"
"To-morrow morning."
That was all that passed, and then he moved away and joined the others
at the table.
The next morning I purchased a good large pistol from mine host, for I
saw that with such companions as I was like to fall in with I would need
some sort of weapon to protect myself. Having loaded it with a brace of
slugs, I thrust it in my belt, and then stepped out of the door, where
I found my acquaintance of the night before waiting for me.
"Are you ready?" said I.
"Yes," said he, "I am; but I must see the color of your money before I
go a single step."
"It is yellow," said I, and held the guinea out in the palm of my hand.
When he saw it his eyes shone like coals and his fingers began to
twitch. "Hand it over," says he, "and I'll take ye straight."
"No, no," said I; "avast there, shipmate. You get your money when I see
Captain Edward England, and not before."
"So be it," says he. "Lay your course straight ahead yonder, and I'll
follow after and tell you how to go."
I looked coolly into the fellow's face, and could not help grinning.
"Why," says I, "to tell the truth, shipmate" (here I drew my pistol out
of my belt and cocked it), "I have no appetite for a knife betwixt the
ribs; so you'll just march ahead, and if you try any of your tricks
I'll put a brace of bullets through your head as sure as you're alive."
The fellow looked at me for a while in a puzzled sort of way; then he
grinned, and swinging on his heel strode away, I following close behind
him with the pistol ready cocked in my hand. We went onward in this way
for about half a mile, until we came to a little hut that stood by
itself beyond the rest of the town. My guide stopped short about fifty
paces away from the hut. "There's where you'll find Ned England," said
he, "and I'll go no farther for ten guineas, for I've no notion of
catching the black tongue; and if you'll hearken to a bit of advice,
shipmate, you'll give it a wide berth yourself."
I felt assured the fellow was telling me the truth, so I paid him his
guinea, and then turned away and left him standing where he was, and as
I stopped in front of the hut and looked back I saw that the man was
yet standing in the very same spot, staring after me.
I may confess that I myself was somewhat overcome with fear of the
dreadful disease, wherefore I stood for a moment before I knocked upon
the door. But I presently rallied myself, calling to mind that this was
the only means of recovering the Rose of Paradise, even if it was at the
risk of my own life; therefore I knocked loudly on the door with the
butt of my pistol.
My guide, who stood still in the same place, called out to me that there
was no one to hear my knocking; so I pushed open the door and entered
the hut.
For a while I saw nothing, for it was very dark within. But I heard a
hoarse and chattering voice, scarce above a whisper, crying continually,
"Hard a-lee!--hard a-lee!--hard a-lee!"
Presently mine eyes became accustomed to the gloom, and I might see the
things around more clearly. There, in the corner of the room, lying
upon a mat of filthy rags, his body almost a skeleton, his bloodshot
eyes glaring out from under his matted hair, I beheld the famous pirate,
Captain Edward England.
[Illustration: THERE, IN THE CORNER, I BEHELD THE FAMOUS PIRATE, CAPTAIN
EDWARD ENGLAND.]