CHAPTER XXIX
CAPTAIN ICHABOD
Kate Bonnet was indeed in a sad case. She had sailed from Kingston withhigh hopes and a gay heart, and before she left she had written toMaster Martin Newcombe to express her joy that her father had given uphis unlawful calling and to say how she was going to sail after him,fold him in her forgiving arms, and bring him back to Jamaica, where sheand her uncle would see to it that his past sins were forgiven onaccount of his irresponsible mind, and where, for the rest of his life,he would tread the paths of peace and probity. In this letter she hadnot yielded to the earnest entreaty which was really the object and soulof Master Newcombe's epistle. Many kind things she said to so kind afriend, but to his offer to make her the queen of his life she made noanswer. She knew she was his very queen, but she would not yet consentto be invested with the royal robes and with the crown.
And when she had reached Belize, how proudly happy she had been! Shehad seen her father, no longer an outlaw, honest though in meancondition, earning his bread by honourable labour. Then, with a stillgreater pride, she had seen him clad as a noble gentleman and bearinghimself with dignity and high complacence. What a figure he would havemade among the fine folks who were her uncle's friends in Kingston andin Spanish Town!
But all this was over now. With his own hand he had told her that onceagain she was a pirate's daughter. She went below to her cabin, where,with wet cheeks, Dame Charter attended her.
Mr. Delaplaine was angry, intensely angry. Such a shameful, wicked trickhad never before been played upon a loving daughter. There were no wordsin which to express his most justifiable wrath. Again he went to thetown to learn more, but there was nothing more to learn except that somepeople said they had reason to believe that Bonnet had gone to followBlackbeard. From things they had heard they supposed that the vesselwhich had sailed away in the night had gone to offer herself as consortto the Revenge; to rob and burn in the company of that notorious ship.
There was no satisfaction in this news for the heart of the goodmerchant, and when he returned to the brig and sought his niece's cabinhe had no words with which to cheer her. All he could do was to tell herthe little he had learned and to listen to her supplications.
"Oh, uncle," she exclaimed, "we must follow him, we must take him, wemust hold him! I care not where he is, even if it be in the company ofthe dreadful Blackbeard! We must take him, we must hold him, and thistime we must carry him away, no matter whether he will or not. I believethere must be some spark of feeling, even in the heart of a bloodypirate, which will make him understand a daughter's love for her father,and he will let me have mine. Oh, uncle! we were very wrong. When he washere with us we should have taken him then; we should have shut him up;we should have sailed with him to Kingston."
All this was very depressing to the soul of Kate's loving uncle, for howwas he to sail after her father and take him and hold him and carry himaway? He went away to talk to the captain of the Belinda, but that tallseaman shook his head. His vessel was not ready yet to sail, being muchdelayed by the flight of Bonnet. And, moreover, he vowed that, althoughhe was as bold a seaman as any, he would never consent to set out uponsuch an errand as the following of Blackbeard. It was terrifying enoughto be in the same bay with him, even though he were engaged in businesswith the pirate, for no one knew what strange freak might at any timesuggest itself to the soul of that most bloody roisterer; but as tofollowing him, it was like walking into an alligator's jaws. He wouldtake his passengers back to Kingston, but he could not sail upon anywild cruises, nor could he leave Belize immediately.
But Kate took no notice of all this when her uncle had told it to her.She did not wish to go back to Jamaica; she did not wish to wait atBelize. It was the clamorous longing of her heart to go after her fatherand to find him wherever he might be, and she did not care to consideranything else.
Dame Charter added also her supplications. Her boy was with Blackbeard,and she wished to follow the pirate's ship. Even if she should never seeMajor Bonnet--whom she loathed and despised, though never saying so--shewould find her Dickory. She, too, believed that there must be some sparkof feeling even in a bloody pirate's heart which would make himunderstand the love of a mother for her son, and he would let her haveher boy.
Mr. Delaplaine sat brooding on the deck. The righteous anger kindled bythe conduct of his brother-in-law, and his grief for the poor strickenwomen, sobbing in the cabin, combined together to throw him into themost dolorous state of mind, which was aggravated by the knowledge thathe could do nothing except to wait until the Belinda sailed back toJamaica and to go to Jamaica in her.
As the unhappy merchant sat thus, his face buried in his hands, a smallboat came alongside and a passenger mounted to the deck. This person,after asking a few questions, approached Mr. Delaplaine.
"I have come, sir, to see you," he said. "I am Captain Ichabod of thesloop Restless."
Mr. Delaplaine looked up in surprise. "That is a pirate ship," said he.
"Yes," said the other, "I'm a pirate."
The newcomer was a tall young man, with long dark hair and withwell-made features and a certain diffidence in his manner which did notbefit his calling.
Mr. Delaplaine rose. This was his first private interview with aprofessional sea-robber, and he did not know exactly how to demeanhimself; but as his visitor's manner was quiet, and as he came on boardalone, it was not to be supposed that his intentions were offensive.
"And you wish to see me, sir?" said he.
"Yes," said Captain Ichabod, "I thought I'd come over and talk to you. Idon't know you, bedad, but I know all about you, and I saw you and yourfamily when you came to town to visit that old fox, bedad, thatsugar-planter that Captain Blackbeard used to call Sir Nightcap. Not abad joke, either, bedad. I have heard of a good many dirty, mean thingsthat people in my line of business have done, but, bedad, I never didhear of any captain who was dirty and mean to his own family. Finepeople, too, who came out to do the right thing by him, after he hadbeen cleaned out, bedad, by one of his 'Brothers of the Coast.' A raresort of brother, bedad, don't you say so?"
"You are right, sir," said Mr. Delaplaine, "in what you say of the wildconduct of my brother-in-law Bonnet. It pleases me, sir, to know thatyou condemn it."
"Condemn! I should say so, bedad," answered Captain Ichabod; "and I cameover here to say to you--that is, just to mention, not knowing, ofcourse, what you'd think about it, bedad--that I'm goin' to start on acruise to-morrow. That is, as soon as I can get in my water and somestores, bedad--water anyway. And if you and your ladies might happen tofancy it, bedad, I'd be glad to take you along. I've heard that you'rein a bad case here, the captain of this brig being unable or quiteunwilling to take you where you want to go."
"But where are you going, sir?" in great surprise.
"Anywhere," said Captain Ichabod, "anywhere you'd like to go. I'mstarting out on a cruise, and a cruise with me means anywhere. And myopinion is, sir, that if you want to come up with that crack-brainedsugar-planter, you'd better follow Blackbeard; and the best place tofind him will be on the Carolina coast; that's his favouritehunting-ground, bedad, and I expect the sugar-planter is with him bythis time."
"But will not that be dangerous, sir?" asked Mr. Delaplaine.
"Oh, no," said the other. "I know Blackbeard, and we have played many agame together. You and your family need not have anything to do with it.I'll board the Revenge, and you may wager, bedad, that I'll bring SirNightcap back to you by the ear."
"But there's another," said Delaplaine; "there's a young man belongingto my party--"
"Oh, yes, I know," said the other, "the young fellow Blackbeard tookaway with him. Clapped a cocked hat on him, bedad! That was a good joke!I will bring him too. One old man, one young man--I'll fetch 'em both.Then I'll take you all where you want to go to. That is, as near as Ican get to it, bedad. Now, you tell your ladies about this, and I'llhave my sloop cleaned up a bit, and as soon as I can get my water onboard I'm ready to hoist anc
hor."
"But look you, sir," exclaimed Mr. Delaplaine, "this is a very importantmatter, and cannot be decided so quickly."
"Oh, don't mention it, don't mention it," said Captain Ichabod; "justyou tell your ladies all about it, and I'll be ready to sail almost anytime to-morrow."
"But, sir--" cried the merchant.
"Very good," said the pirate captain, "you talk it over. I'm going tothe town now and I'll row out to you this afternoon and get yourinstructions."
And with this he got over the side.
Mr. Delaplaine said nothing of this visit, but waited on deck until thecaptain came on board, and then many were the questions he asked aboutthe pirate Ichabod.
"Well, well!" the captain exclaimed, "that's just like him; he's a rareone. Ichabod is not his name, of course, and I'm told he belongs to agood English family--a younger son, and having taken his inheritance, heinvested it in a sloop and turned pirate. He has had some pretty goodfortune, I hear, in that line, but it hasn't profited him much, for heis a terrible gambler, and all that he makes by his prizes he loses atcards, so he is nearly always poor. Blackbeard sometimes helps him, so Ihave heard--which he ought to do, for the old pirate has won bags ofmoney from him--but he is known as a good fellow, and to be trusted. Ihave heard of his sailing a long way back to Belize to pay a gamblingdebt he owed, he having captured a merchantman in the meantime."
"Very honourable, indeed," remarked Mr. Delaplaine.
"As pirates go, a white crow," said the other. "Now, sir, if you andyour ladies want to go to Blackbeard, and a rare desire is that, Iswear, you cannot do better than let Captain Ichabod take you. You willbe safe, I am sure of that, and there is every reason to think he willfind his man."
When Mr. Delaplaine went below with his extraordinary news, Dame Charterturned pale and screamed.
"Sail in a pirate ship?" she cried. "I've seen the men belonging to oneof them, and as to going on board and sailing with them, I'd rather diejust where I am."
To the good Dame's astonishment and that of Mr. Delaplaine, Kate spokeup very promptly. "But you cannot die here, Dame Charter; and if youever want to see your son again you have got to go to him. Which is alsothe case with me and my father. And, as there is no other way for us togo, I say, let us accept this man's offer if he be what my uncle thinkshe is. After all, it might be as safe for us on board his ship as to beon a merchantman and be captured by pirates, which would be likelyenough in those regions where we are obliged to go; and so I say let ussee the man, and if he don't frighten us too much let us sail with himand get my father and Dickory."
"It would be a terrible danger, a terrible danger," said Mr. Delaplaine.
"But, uncle," urged Kate, "everything is a terrible danger in the searchwe're upon; let us then choose a danger that we know something about,and which may serve our needs, rather than one of which we're ignorantand which cannot possibly be of any good to us."
It was actually the fact that the little party in the cabin had notfinished talking over this most momentous subject before they wereinformed that Captain Ichabod was on deck. Up they went, Dame Charterready to faint. But she did not do so. When she saw the visitor shethought it could not be the pirate captain, but some one whom he hadsent in his place. He was more soberly dressed than when he first cameon board, and his manners were even milder. The mind of Kate Bonnet wasso worked up by the trouble that had come upon her that she felt verymuch as she did when she hung over the side of her father's vessel atBridgetown, ready to drop into the darkness and the water when thesignal should sound. She had an object now, as she had had then, andagain she must risk everything. On her second look at Captain Ichabod,which embarrassed him very much, she was ready to trust him.
"Dame Charter," she whispered, "we must do it or never see them again."
So, when they had talked about it for a quarter of an hour, it wasagreed that they would sail with Captain Ichabod.
When the sloop Restless made ready to sail the next day there was afine flurry in the harbour. Nothing of the kind had ever before happenedthere. Two ladies and a most respectable old gentleman sailing awayunder the skull and cross-bones! That was altogether new in theCaribbean Sea. To those who talked to him about his quixotic expedition,Captain Ichabod swore--and at times, as many men knew, he was a greathand at being in earnest--that if he carried not his passengers throughtheir troubles and to a place of safety, the Restless, and all on boardof her, should mount to the skies in a thousand bits. Although thisalternative would not have been very comforting to said passengers ifthey had known of it, it came from Captain Ichabod's heart, and showedwhat sort of a man he was.
Old Captain Sorby came to the Restless in a boat, and having previouslywashed one hand, came on board and bade them all good-bye with greatearnestness.
"You will catch him," said he to Kate, "and my advice to you is, whenyou get him, hang him. That's the only way to keep him out of mischief.But as you are his daughter, you may not like to string him up, so I sayput irons on him. If you don't he'll be playin' you some other wildtrick. He is not fit for a pirate, anyway, and he ought to be taken backto his calves and his chickens."
Kate did not resent this language; she even smiled, a little sadly. Shehad a great work before her, and she could not mind trifles.
None of the other pirates came on board, for they were afraid of Sorby,and when that great man had made the round of the decks and had givenCaptain Ichabod some bits of advice, he got down into his boat. Theanchor was weighed, the sails hoisted, and, amid shouts and cheers froma dozen small boats containing some of the most terrible and bloodysea-robbers who had ever infested the face of the waters, the Restlesssailed away: the only pirate ship which had, perhaps, ever left portfollowed by blessings and goodwill; goodwill, although the words whichexpressed it were curses and the men who waved their hats wereblasphemers and cut-throats.
Away sailed our gentle and most respectable party, with the Jolly Rogerfloating boldly high above them. Kate, looking skyward, noticed this andtook courage to bewail the fact to Captain Ichabod.
He smiled. "While we're in sight of my Brethren of the Coast," he said,"our skull and bones must wave, but when we're well out at sea we willrun up an English flag, if it please you."