CHAPTER XXV
WISE MR. DELAPLAINE
Early in the next forenoon Kate and her companions prepared to makeanother visit to the town. Naturally she wanted to be with her father asmuch as possible and to exert upon him such influences as might make himforget, in a degree, the so-called glories of his pirate life and returnwith her and her uncle to Spanish Town, where, she believed, thismisguided man might yet surrender himself to the rural joys of otherdays. Nay, more, he and she might hope for still further happiness in aJamaica home, for Madam Bonnet would not be there.
As she came up from below, impatient to depart, Kate noticed, gettingover the side, a gentleman who had just arrived in a small boat. He wastall and good-looking, and very handsomely attired in a rich suit suchas was worn at that day by French and Spanish noblemen. A sword with anelaborate hilt was by his side, and on his head a high cocked hat. Therewas fine lace at his wrists and bosom, and he wore silk stockings, andsilver buckles on his shoes.
Kate started at meeting here a stranger, and in such an elaborateattire. She had read of the rich dress of men of rank in Europe, but hereyes had never fallen upon such a costume. The gentleman advancedquickly towards her, holding out his hand. She shrank back. "What did itmean?"
Then in a second she saw her father's face. This fine gentleman, thisdignified and graceful man, was indeed Stede Bonnet.
He had been so thoroughly ashamed of his mean attire on the precedingday that he had determined not again to meet his daughter and Mr.Delaplaine in such vulgar guise. So, from the resources of thestorehouses he had drawn forth a superb suit of clothes sent westwardfor the governor of one of the French colonies. He excused himself fortaking it from Blackbeard's treasure-house, not only on account of thedemands of the emergency, but because he himself had taken it beforefrom a merchantman.
"Father!" cried Kate, "what has happened to you? I never saw such a finegentleman."
Bonnet smiled with complacency, and removed his cocked hat.
"I always endeavour, my dear," said he, "to dress myself according to mystation. Yesterday, not expecting to see you, I was in a sad plight. Iwould have preferred you to meet me in my naval uniform, but as that isnow, to say the least, inconvenient, and as I reside on shore in thecapacity of a merchant or business man, I attire myself to suit mypresent condition. Ah! my good brother-in-law, I am glad to see you. Imay remark," he added, graciously shaking hands with Dame Charter, "thatI left my faithful Scotchman in our storehouse in the town, it beingnecessary for some one to attend to our possessions there. Otherwise Ishould have brought him with me, my good Dame Charter, for I am sure youwould have found his company acceptable. He is a faithful man and anhonest one, although I am bound to say that if he were less of aPresbyterian and more of a man of the world his conversation mightsometimes be more agreeable."
Mr. Delaplaine regarded with much earnestness and no little pleasure histransformed brother-in-law. Hope for the future now filled his heart. Ifthis crack-brained sugar-planter had really recovered from his mania forpiracy and had a fancy for legitimate business, his new station might bebetter for him than any he had yet known. Sugar-planting was all wellenough and suitable to any gentleman, provided Madam Bonnet were nottaken with it. She would drive any man from the paths of reason unlesshe possessed an uncommonly strong brain, and he did not believe thatsuch a brain was possessed by his brother-in-law Bonnet. The good Mr.Delaplaine rubbed his hands together in his satisfaction. Such agentleman as this would be welcome in his counting-house, even if he didbut little; his very appearance would reflect credit upon theestablishment. Dame Charter kept in the background; she had never beenaccustomed to associate with the aristocracy, but she did not forgetthat a cat may look at a king, and her eyes were very good.
"There were always little cracks in his skull," she said to herself. "Myhusband used to tell me that. Major Bonnet is quick at changing from onething to another, and it needs sharp wits to follow him."
After a time Major Bonnet proposed a row upon the harbour--he hadbrought a large boat, with four oarsmen, for this purpose. Mr.Delaplaine objected a little to this, fearing the presence of so manypirate vessels, but Bonnet loftily set aside such puerile objections.
"I am the business representative of the great Blackbeard," he said,"the most powerful pirate in the world. You are safer here than in anyother port on the American coast."
When they were out upon the water, moving against the gentle breeze,Bonnet disclosed the object of his excursion. "I am going to take you,"said he, "to visit some of the noted pirate ships which are anchored inthis harbour. There are vessels here which are quite famous, andcommanded by renowned Brethren of the Coast. I think you will all begreatly interested in these, and under my convoy you need fear nodanger."
Dame Charter and Kate screamed in their fright, and Mr. Delaplaineturned pale. "Visit pirate ships!" he cried. "Rather I would havesupposed that you would keep away from them as far as you could. Formyself, I would have them a hundred miles distant if it were possible."
Bonnet laughed loftily. "It will be visits of ceremony that we shallpay, and with all due ceremony shall we be received. Pull out to thatvessel!" he said to the oarsmen. Then, turning to the others, heremarked: "That sloop is the Dripping Blade, commanded by Captain Sorby,whose name strikes terror throughout the Spanish Main. Ay! and in otherparts of the ocean, I can assure you, for he has sailed northward nearlyas far as I have, but he has not yet rivalled me. I know him, havingdone business with him on shore. He is a most portentous person, as youwill soon see."
"Oh, father!" cried Kate, "don't take us there; it will kill us just tolook upon such dreadful pirates. I pray you turn the boat!"
"Oh! if Dickory were here," gasped Dame Charter, "he would turn the boathimself; he would never allow me to be taken among those awfulwretches."
Mr. Delaplaine said nothing. It was too late to expostulate, but hetrembled as he sat.
"I cannot turn back, my dear," said Bonnet, "even if I would, for thegreat Sorby is now on deck, and looking at us as we approach."
As the boat drew up by the side of the Dripping Blade the renowned Sorbylooked down over the side. He was a red-headed man; his long hair andbeard dyed yellow in some places by the sun. He was grievous to lookupon, and like to create in the mind of an imaginative person the imageof a sun-burned devil on a holiday.
"Good-day to you! Good-day, Sir Bonnet," cried the pirate captain; "comeon board, come on board, all of you, wife, daughter, father, if suchthey be! We'll let down ladders and I shall feast you finely."
"Nay, nay, good Captain Sorby," replied Bonnet, with courteous dignity,"my family and I have just stopped to pay you our respects. They haveall heard of your great prowess, for I have told them. They may neverhave a chance again to look upon another of your fame."
"Heaven grant it!" said Dame Charter in her heart. "If I get out ofthis, I stay upon dry land forever."
"I grieve that my poor ship be not honoured by your ladies," said Sorby,"but I admit that her decks are scarcely fit for the reception of suchcompany. It is but to-day that we have found time to cleanse her deckfrom the stain and disorder of our last fight, having lately come intoharbour. That was a great fight, Sir Bonnet; we lay low and let thefellows board us, but not one of them went back again. Ha! ha! Not oneof them went back again, good ladies."
Every pirate face on board that ill-conditioned sloop now glared overher rail, their eyes fixed upon the goodly company in the little boat,their horrid hair and beards stained and matted--it would have been hardto tell by what.
"Oh, father, father!" panted Kate, "please row away. What if they shouldnow jump down upon us?"
"Good-day, good-day, my brave Captain Sorby," said Bonnet, "we must e'enrow away; we have other craft to visit, but would first do honour to youand your bold crew."
Captain Sorby lifted high his great bespattered hat, and every grinningdemon of the crew waved hat or rag or pail or cutlass and set up adiscordant yell in honour of their departing vis
itors.
"Oh! go not to another, father," pleaded Kate, her pale face in tears;"visit no more of them, I pray you!"
"Ay, truly, keep away from them," said Mr. Delaplaine. "I am no coward,but I vow to you that I shall die of fright if I come close to anotherof those floating hells."
"And these," said Kate to herself, her eyes fixed out over the sea,"these are his friends, his companions, the wretches of whom he is soproud."
"There are no more vessels like that in port," said Bonnet; "that's themost celebrated sloop. Those we shall now call upon are commanded by menof milder mien; some of them you could not tell from plain merchantmenwere you not informed of their illustrious careers."
"If you go near another pirate ship," cried Dame Charter, "I shall jumpoverboard; I cannot help it."
"Row back to the Belinda, brother-in-law," said Mr. Delaplaine in astrong, hard voice; "your tour of pleasure is not fit for tender-heartedwomen, nor, I grant it, for gentlemen of my station."
"There are other ships whose captains I know," said Bonnet, "and whereyou would have been well received; but if your nerves are not strongenough for the courtesies I have to offer, we will return to theBelinda."
When safe again on board their vessel, after the sudden termination oftheir projected tour of calls on pirates, Kate took her father aside andentered into earnest conversation with him, while Mr. Delaplaine, muchruffled in his temper, although in general of a most mild disposition,said aside to Dame Charter: "He is as mad as a March hare. What otherparent on this earth would convey his fair young daughter into thesociety of these vile wild beasts, which in his eyes are valiantheroes? We must get him back with us, Dame Charter, we must get himback. And if he cannot be constrained by love and goodwill to a decentand a Christian life, we must shut him up. And if his daughter weeps andraves, we must e'en stiffen our determination and shut him up. It shallbe my purpose now to hasten the return of the brig. There's room enoughfor all, and he and the Scotchman must go back with us. The Governorshall deal with him; and, whether it be on my estate or behind strongbars, he shall spend the rest of his days upon the island of Jamaica,and so know the sea no more."
He was very much roused, this good merchant, and when he was roused hewas not slow to act.
The captain of the Belinda was very willing to make a profitable voyageback to Jamaica, but his vessel must be well laden before he could dothis. Goods enough there were at Belize for that purpose, forBlackbeard's supplies were all for sale, and his chief clerk, Bonnet,had the selling of them. So, all parties being like-minded, the Belindasoon began to take on goods for Kingston.
Stede Bonnet superintended everything. He was a good man of business,and knew how to direct people who might be under him. There was a greatstir at the storehouse, and, almost blithely, Ben Greenway worked dayand night to make out invoices and to prepare goods for shipment.
Bonnet wore no more the clothes in which his daughter had first seen himafter so long and drear a parting. On deck or on shore, in storehouse oron the streets of Belize, he was the fine gentleman with the silkstockings and the tall cocked hat.
One day, a fellow, fresh from his bottle, forgetting the respect whichwas due to fine clothes and to Blackbeard's factor, called out toBonnet: "What now, Sir Nightcap, how call you that thing you have onyour head?"
In an instant a sword was whipped from its scabbard and a practised handsent its blade through the arm of the jester, who presently fellbackward. Bonnet wiped his sword upon the fellow's sleeve and, advisinghim to get up and try to learn some manners, coolly walked away.
After that fine clothes were not much laughed at in Belize, for even themost disrespectful ruffians desired not the thrust of a quick blade northe ill-will of that most irascible pirate, Blackbeard.
A few days before it was expected that the Belinda would be ready tosail Bonnet came on board, his mind full of an important matter. CallingMr. Delaplaine and Kate aside, he said: "I have been thinking a greatdeal lately about my Scotchman, Ben Greenway. In the first place, he isgreatly needed here, for many of Blackbeard's goods will remain in thestorehouse, and there should be some competent person to take care ofthem and to sell them should opportunity offer. Besides that, he is agreat annoyance to me, and I have long been trying to get rid of him.When I left Bridgetown I had not intended to take him with me, and hispresence on board my ship was a mere accident. Since then he has madehimself very disagreeable."
"What!" cried Kate, "would you be willing that we should all sail awayand leave poor Ben Greenway in this place by himself among these cruelpirates?"
"He'll represent Blackbeard," said Bonnet, "and no one will harm him.And, moreover, this enforced stay may be of the greatest benefit to him.He has a good head for business, and he may establish himself here in avery profitable fashion and go back to Barbadoes, if he so desires, incomfortable circumstances. All we have to do is to slip our anchor andsail away at some moment when he is busy in the town. I will leave ampleinstructions for him and he shall have money."
"Father, it would be shameful!" said Kate.
Mr. Delaplaine said nothing; he was too angry to speak, but he made uphis mind that Ben Greenway should be apprised of Bonnet's intentions ofrunning away from him and that such a wicked design should be thwarted.This brother-in-law of his was a worse man than he had thought him; hewas capable of being false even to his best friend. He might be mad as aMarch hare, but, truly, he was also as sly and crafty as a fox in anymonth in the year.
Wise Mr. Delaplaine!
The very next morning there came a letter from Stede Bonnet to hisdaughter Kate, in which he told her that it was absolutely impossiblefor him to return to the humdrum and stupid life of sugar-planting andcattle-raising. Having tasted the glories of a pirate's career, he couldnever again be contented with plain country pursuits. So he was off andaway, the bounding sea beneath him and the brave Jolly Roger floatingover his head. He would not tell his dear daughter where he was gone orwhat he intended to do, for she would be happier if she did not know. Hesent her his warmest love, and desired to be most kindly remembered toher uncle and to Dame Charter. He would make it his business that acorrespondence should be maintained between him and his dear Kate, andhe hoped from time to time to send her presents which would help her toknow how constantly he loved her. He concluded by admitting that what hehad said about Ben Greenway was merely a blind to turn their suspicionsfrom his intended departure. If his good brother-in-law, out of kindnessto the Scotchman, had brought him to the Belinda and had insisted onkeeping him there, it would have made his, Bonnet's, secret departure agreat deal easier.
Kate had never fainted in her life, but when she had finished thisletter she went down flat on her back.
Leaving his niece to the good offices of Dame Charter, Mr. Delaplaine,breathing hotly, went ashore, accompanied by the captain. When theyreached the storehouse they found it locked, with the key in the custodyof a shop-keeper near-by. They soon heard what had happened toBlackbeard's business agent. He had gone off in a piratical vessel,which had sailed for somewhere, in the middle of the night; and,moreover, it was believed that the Scotchman who worked for him had gonewith him, for he had been seen running towards the water, and afterwardtaking his place among the oarsmen in a boat which went out to thedeparting vessel.
"May that unholy vessel be sunk as soon as it reaches the open sea!" wasthe deadly desire which came from the heart of Mr. Delaplaine. But thewish had not formed itself into words before the good merchant recanted."I totally forgot that faithful Scotchman," he sighed.