CHAPTER XXII
The boys, intent upon this awful scene, turned as a shout from JobHowland swelled above the uproar. The big gunner was at the breach ofhis swivel-gun, ramrod in hand. The little group scattered to one sideor the other, leaving an open space at the bow rail. At the same momentJob put in his powder, a heavy charge, ramming it home quickly, but withall care. On top of the wadding went the round-shot, which was in itsturn hammered down under the powerful strokes of the ramrod. Maneuveringthe well-balanced breech with both hands, the tall Yankee trained hiscannon upon the pirate sloop; allowed for distance, raising the muzzlean inch or more; nosed the wind and glanced at the foremast pennons;then swung his piece a fraction of an inch to windward.
At last with a shout of "'Ware fire!" he sprang back and laid his matchto the touch-hole. There was a spurt of flame as the long nine roaredabove the staccato bark of the musketry. Then they saw a section of thepirate's upper rail leap clear of her deck and fall overside. "Toohigh," said Job shortly, though Ghent and Curtis had cheered at theshot, for the distance was a good half-mile. Job worked feverishly athis reloading, helped by others of the _Queen's_ gun crews. Again thecharge was a stout one, but this time the gunner laid his muzzlepointblank at the top of the rail, allowing only for wind. Once more hefired. Just short of the _Royal James_ went up a little tower of spray.Job said not a word, but set his great angular jaws and went about hiswork with all the speed he had.
"Look," said Jeremy to Bob, in a sudden burst of understanding, "thetide's rising. See how it runs in past our bows. In another five minutesone of those boats will be afloat. Watch how the _James_ rocks up anddown already! If she gets off first, it'll go hard with Rhett, forBonnet'll let off a broadside as soon as his guns are level. That's whyJob's trying so hard to put a hole in her."
Almost as he spoke the report of the third shot rolled out. Thebuccaneer sloop jumped sharply, like a spurred horse. In her side, justat the water line, a black streak had suddenly appeared. The waves ofthe incoming tide no longer swayed her buoyantly, for she wallowed onthe bar like a log. The effect of the shot, though it could be seen fromthe _Sea Nymph_, where it was greeted with cheers, was still unknownaboard the _Henry_. In the wash of water as the tide rolled in, Rhett'ssloop stood almost on an even keel. The remnant of his crew appeared tohave taken heart, for a brisk fire now answered that of the buccaneers.Suddenly a triumphant shouting began aboard the stranded flagship, soonanswered in increasing volume from her two consorts. The _Henry_ wasmoving slowly off the bar.
On the black sloop there was a silence as of death. Stede Bonnet, lategentleman of the island of Barbadoes, honorably discharged as major fromthe army of his Majesty, since turned sea-rover for no apparent cause,and now one of the most notorious plunderers of the coast, faced hislast fight. Outnumbered nearly ten to one, his ship a stranded hulk, hiscannon useless, surely he read his doom. His men read it and turnedsullenly to haul down the tattered rag of black that still hung from themasthead. But a last blaze of the old mad courage flared up in theCaptain, as he faced them, dishevelled and bloody, from behind cockedpistols. Above the tumult of the fusillade his voice, usually so clear,rose hoarse with anger. "I'll scatter the deck with the brains of anyman who will not fight to the end!" he cried.
For a second the issue was in doubt. In another instant the iron spellhe held over his men must have won them back. Herriot was alreadyrunning to his side. But before he reached his chief a louder cheer fromthe attacking sloops made him turn. The black "Roger" fluttereddownward to the deck.
One of the captive sailors from the _Francis_, fearing to be taken for apirate if it came to deck-fighting, had crept up behind the mast and cutthe flag halyards. The men's hearts fell with the falling ensign andthey stood irresolute while the _Henry_ went up alongside. There was nowwater enough for her to come close aboard and when she stood at a boat'slength distant, Colonel Rhett appeared at the rail. He pointed to themuzzles of four loaded cannon aboard his sloop and told Bonnet that hewould proceed to blow him into the air if he did not surrender in oneminute's time. There was little parley. The pirate captain's flare ofresistance had burned out and pale and strangely shaken he handed overhis sword and submitted to the disarming of his men.
It was now well along in the morning. The prisoners whom Rhett had takenwere rowed out in small boats across the bar and put aboard the _IndianQueen_. One by one they were hauled over the side and placed below inchains. Job, Jeremy and Bob stood at a little distance and counted thosewho had been captured. Now and then they were greeted by an ugly lookand a curse as some old shipmate recognized them. Last of all, MajorBonnet passed, haggard and unkempt, his head bowed in shame.
"Thirty-five in all," finished Job. "Guess our old and handsome friend,Pharaoh Daggs must have got his gruel in that fight. Well, if ever mandeserved to die a violent death, it's him. I'd like to make sure,though. Want to go over to the _James_ with me?" Both boys welcomed theopportunity and as the longboat was just then starting back, they weresoon aboard the battered pirate, so recently their home. Three or fourdead men lay on the canted deck, for no effort had been made as yet toclean the ship. Bob and Jeremy had no stomach for looking at the corpsesof their erstwhile companions and turned rather to explore the cabin andfo'c's'le, leaving Job to hunt for the body of their old enemy.
In the long bunkroom some water had entered with the rising tide andthey found the lower side a miniature lake. In the semi-darkness,seamen's chests floated past like houses in a flood. One of the bigboxes was open, half its contents trailing after it. Something familiarabout the brass-bound cover and the blue cloth that hung over the sidemade Jeremy start. "Daggs' chest!" he exclaimed and reached forward,pulling it up on the dry planking. The two boys delved into the damprubbish it held. There were a few clothes, a rusty pistol, an ableseaman's certificate crumpled and torn almost beyond recognition. Thesack of money and the chart were gone. After searching in dark cornersof the fo'c's'le and fishing in the pool of leakage without discoveringwhat they sought, the boys returned to the box. "Odd," said Jeremy atlength. "Every other chest is locked fast. Why should he have openedhis?" This seemed unanswerable. They returned to the deck, to find Jobpeering into the green water overside. "The body's not here," said thebig seaman, "unless he fell over the rail or was thrown over. I'mlooking to see if it's down there." The sand shone clean and whitethrough the shallow water on every side. No trace of the buccaneer wasto be seen. Jeremy told of finding the open chest. "Hm," mused Job,"looks like he'd got away, though he may be dead; I'd like to know forsure. Still," he added, his face clearing, "chances are we'll never seenor hear of him again." And putting the man with the broken nose out oftheir thoughts, they rejoined their friends on the big merchantman.
Just before nightfall the Carolina sloops, which had made an expeditionup the river, returned with Bonnet's two prizes in tow. They had beenabandoned in the effort to escape, and Rhett had launched them withoutdifficulty. A great sound of hammering filled the air above the desertlagoon for two days. The old _Revenge_, now so rechristened since shehad fallen into honest hands, had to be floated, for there was stillservice in her shattered black hull. A hundred men toiled on and aroundher, and in a remarkably short time a jury patch was made in her gapingside and her hold pumped dry. Then crews were picked to man the threecaptured sloops, and the flotilla was ready to return triumphant. On themorning when they stood out to sea, the twelve men of Rhett's party whohad been killed in action were buried with military honors, saluted bythe cannon of the fleet.
A voyage of three days, unmarred by any accident, brought the victorioussquadron into Charles Town harbor. Joy knew no bounds among themerchants and seamen along the docks. Indeed, the rejoicing spreadthrough the town to the tune of church bells and the whole colony wassoon made aware of Rhett's victory.
When the buccaneers had been taken ashore under a heavy guard and lockedup in the public watchhouse, Mr. Curtis and Bob, with Job and Jeremy,went ashore to stretch their legs. It was a fine, fall day, warm asmi
dsummer to Jeremy's way of thinking. The docks were fascinatingly fullof merchandise. Great hogsheads of molasses and rum from Jamaica, setashore from newly arrived ships, shouldered for room with baled cottonand boxes of tobacco ready to be loaded. There was a smell of spices andhot tar where the sun beat down on the white decks and tall spars ofthe shipping. Negroes, hitherto almost unknown to the Yankee boy,handled bales and barrels on the wharves, their gleaming black bodiesnaked to the waist.
Planters from the fertile country behind the town rode in with theirattendant black boys, and gathered at the coffee-houses on King CharlesStreet. It was to one of these, the "Scarlet Fish," that the bluffDelaware man took his proteges for dinner.
The place was resplendent with polished deal and shining pewter.Curtains of brightly colored stuff hung at the high square windows, andon the side where the sun entered, pots of flowers stood in the broadwindow-shelves. There were gay groups of men at the tables, and talk ofthe pirates was going everywhere over the Madeira and chocolate. Itseemed the news of Job's gunnery had been spread by Rhett's men, forsome of the diners recognized and pointed to him. A pretty barmaid, withdimples in her elbows, curtsied low as she set down his cup. "Oh, yes,Captain Howland!" she answered as he gave his order, blushed a deep pinkand ran to the kitchen. Whereupon Job, quite overcome, vowed that theladies of Carolina were the fairest in the world, and Mr. Curtis roaredheartily, saying that "Captain Howland" it should be, and that beforemany months, if he knew a good seadog.
As they sat and sipped their coffee after a meal that reflected gloryupon the cook of the "Scarlet Fish," Colonel Rhett came in and made hisway to their table through a hurly-burly of back-slappings and "Bravos."As soon as he was able to sit down in peace, he drew Mr. Curtis a littleaside to talk in private. The two boys were content to watch thechanging scene and listen to the hearty badinage of the fashionableyoung blades about the tables. It was, you must remember, Jeremy's firstexperience of luxury, unless the good, clean quarters and wholesomemeals aboard the _Queen_ could be so called. He had never read any bookexcept the Bible, had never seen more than a half-dozen pictures in hislife. From these and from the conversation of backwoodsmen and, morerecently, of pirates, he had been forced to form all his conceptions ofthe world outside of his own experience. It is a tribute to his cleantraditions and sturdy self-reliance that he sat unabashed, pleased withthe color, the gayety, the richness, but able still to distinguish thefine things from the sham, the honest things from those which onlyappeared honest--to feel a thrill of pride in his father's hard,rough-hewn life and his own.
Colonel Rhett's conference with Mr. Curtis being over, the score waspaid and the party took their triumphal way to the door, Job turning hissunburned face once or twice to glance regretfully after the dimpledbarmaid.
That afternoon they were taken to the Governor's house, where Job andeach of the boys told the story of their experiences in Bonnet'scompany. These stories were sworn to as affidavits and kept for use inthe coming trial of the pirate crew. It was a special dispensation ofthe Governor's which allowed them to give their evidence in this forminstead of waiting in Charles Town for the court to sit, and needless tosay they were heartily glad of it. The formalities over, GovernorJohnson led the party into the adjoining room. He motioned them to sitdown and faced them with a smile. "Now, my lads," said he, "the spoiltaken on the _Royal James_ has been divided, and though, as you mayguess, it had to go a long way, there's a share left for each of you."Jeremy and Bob stared at each other and at their friends. The benignsmiles of Mr. Curtis, Colonel Rhett and Job showed that they had knownbeforehand of this surprise. The Governor was holding out a smallleather sack in each hand. "Here, catch," he laughed, and the twoastonished lads automatically did as they were bid. In each purse therewas something over twenty guineas in gold. Before they had found wordsto thank the Governor he laughed again merrily. "Never mind a speech ofacceptance," said he. "Colonel Rhett, here, has something else for you."
"Yes," replied the Colonel. "You see, there was a deal of junk in theCaptain's cabin that comes to me as Admiral of the expedition. I'd bemuch pleased if you two lads would each pick out anything that pleasesyou, as a personal gift from myself and Stede Bonnet." As he spoke, hetook the cloth cover from a table which stood at one side. On it theboys saw a shining array of small arms, some glass and silver decantersand a pile of books. The Colonel motioned Bob forward. "Here you are,lad, take your choice," he said. Bob stepped to the table and glancedover the weapons eagerly. He finally selected a silver-mounted pistolwith the great pirate's name engraved on the butt, and went with prideto show it to his father.
It was Jeremy's turn. He had no hesitation. From the moment he had heardthe offer his shining eyes had been fastened upon one object, and now hewent straight to the table and picked up the biggest and thickest of theheap of books, a great leather-bound volume--Bunyan's "Pilgrim'sProgress." It is not the least inexplicable fact in the career of theterrible Stede Bonnet that he was a constant reader of such books asthis and the "Paradise Lost" of Milton. Bunyan's great allegory hadcome at last into a place where it could do more good than in the cabinbookshelf of a ten-gun buccaneer. Jeremy, poor lad, uneducated save forthe rude lessons of his father and the training of the open, had longedfor books ever since he could remember. He had affected a gruff scornwhen Bob had spoken from his well-schooled knowledge, but inwardly ithad been his sole ground for jealousy of the Delaware boy. Thatponderous leather book was read many times and thoroughly in afteryears, and it became the foundation of such a library as was not oftenmet with in the colonies. Job gave the lad an understanding smile and apat on the back, for Jeremy had told him of his passion for aneducation.
The four grown men drank each other's health and separated with manyhearty handclasps. An hour later the _Queen's_ anchor was up and she wasmoving out to sea upon the tide, cheered vigorously from the docks andsaluted by every vessel she passed. The warm September dusk settled overthe ocean. A soft land breeze rustled in the shrouds, and the greatsails filled with a gentle flapping. Slowly the tall ship bowed herselfto the northeast and settled away on her course contentedly, while thewater ran with a smooth murmur beneath her forefoot. Jeremy, lyingwide-eyed in his bunk, where a single star shone through the open port,thought it the sweetest sound he had ever heard. He was homeward boundat last.