 6. Within a week Levi West had pretty well established himself among his old friends and acquaintances, though upon a different footing from that of nine years before, for this was a very different Levi from that other. Nevertheless he was nonetheless popular in the bar room of the tavern and at the country store where he was always the center of a group of loungers. His nine years seemed to have been crowded full of the wildest of wild adventures and happenings, as well by land as by sea, and given an appreciative audience. He would reel off his yarns by the hour in a reckless devil-may-care fashion that set a gait even old sea-dogs who had sailed the western ocean since boyhood. Then he seemed always to have plenty of money, and he loved to spend it at the tavern taproom, with a lavishness that was at once the wonder and admiration of gossips. At that time, as was said, blue-skin was the one engrossing topic of talk, and it added not a little to Levi's prestige when it was found that he had actually often seen that bloody devilish pirate with his own eyes. A great heavy burly fellow, Levi said he was, with a beard as black as a hat, a devil with his sword and pistol afloat, but not so black as he was painted when ashore. He told of many adventures in which blue-skin figured and was then always listened to with more than usual gaping interest. As for blue-skin, the quiet way in which the pirates conducted themselves at Indian River almost made the loose folk forget what he could do when the occasion called. They almost ceased to remember that poor shattered schooner that had crawled with its ghastly dead and groaning wounded into the harbor a couple of weeks since, but if for a while they forgot who or what blue-skin was, it was not for long. One day a bark from Bristol bound for Cuba and laden with a valuable cargo of clothed stuffs and silks put into loose harbor to take in water. The captain himself came ashore and was at the tavern for two or three hours. It happened that Levi was there and that the talk was of blue-skin. The English captain, a grizzled old sea-dog, listened to Levi's yarns with not a little contempt. He had, he said, sailed in the China Sea and the Indian Ocean too long to be afraid of any hog-eating Yankee pirate such as this blue-skin. A junk full of coolies armed with stink-pots was something to speak of, but who ever heard of the likes of blue-skin falling afoul of anything more than a Spanish canoe or a Yankee coaster? Levi grinned. All the same, my hearty, said he, if I was you I'd give blue-skin a wide earth. I hear that he's cleaned the vessel that was careened a while ago, and maybe he'll give you a little trouble if you come to nigh him. To this the Englishman only answered that blue-skin might be blank, and that the next afternoon, wind and weather permitting, he intended to heave anchor and run out to sea. Levi laughed again. I wish I might be here to see what'll happen, said he, but I'm going up the river tonight to see a gal and maybe won't be back again for three or four days. The next afternoon the Englishbark set sail as the captain promised, and that night loose town was awake until almost morning, gazing at a broad red glare that lighted up the sky away toward the southeast. Two days afterward a negro-oisterman came up from Indian River with news that the pirates were lying off the inlet, bringing ashore bales of goods from their larger vessel and piling the same upon the beach under tarpaulins. He said that it was known down at Indian River that blue-skin had fallen afoul of an Englishbark, had burned her and had murdered the captain and all but three of the crew who had joined with the pirates. The excitement over this terrible happening had only begun to subside when another occurred to cap it. One afternoon a ship's boat, in which were five men and two women, came rowing into loose harbor. It was the long boat of the Charleston packet, bound for New York, and was commanded by the first mate. The packet had been attacked and captured by the pirates about ten leagues south by east of Cape Henlopen. The pirates had come aboard of them at night, and no resistance had been offered. Perhaps it was this circumstance that saved the lives of all, for no murder or violence had been done. Nevertheless officers, passengers and crew had been stripped of everything of value and set adrift in the boats and the ship herself had been burned. The long boat had become separated from the others during the night and had sighted Henlopen a little after sunrise. It might be here said that Squire Hall made out a report of these two occurrences and sent it up to Philadelphia by the mate of the packet. But for some reason it was nearly four weeks before a sloop of war was sent around from New York. In the meanwhile the pirates had disposed of the booty stored under the tarpons on the beach at Indian River Inlet, shipping some of it away in two small sloops and sending the rest by wagons somewhere up the country. Sub Chapter 7. Levi had told the English captain that he was going up country to visit one of his lady friends. He was gone nearly two weeks. Then once more he appeared as suddenly as unexpectedly as he had done when he first returned to lose. Hiram was sitting at supper when the door opened and Levi walked in, hanging up his hat behind the door as unconcernedly as though he had only been gone an hour. He was in an ugly, lowering humor and sat himself down at the table without uttering a word, resting his chin upon his clenched fist and gloring fixedly at the corn cake while Dina fetched him a plate and knife and fork. His coming seemed to have taken away all of Hiram's appetite. He pushed away his plate and sat staring at his stepbrother, who presently fell too at the bacon and eggs like a famished wolf. Not a word was said until Levi had ended his meal and filled his pipe. Looky Hiram said he as he stooped over the fire and raked out a hot coal. Looky Hiram, I've been to Philadelphia, do you see? A set line up that trouble I told you about when I first came home. Do you understand, do you remember? Do you get it through your skull? He looked around over his shoulder, waiting as though for an answer, but getting none he continued. I expect two gentlemen here from Philadelphia tonight, their friends of mine, and are coming to talk over the business. And ye needn't stay at home high. You can go out somewhere, do you understand? And then he added with a grin, ye can go see Sally. Hiram pushed back his chair and arose. He leaned with his back against the side of the fireplace. I'll stay at home, said he presently. But I don't want you to stay at home high, said Levi. We'll have to talk business and I want you to go. I'll stay at home, said Hiram again. Levi's brow grew as black as thunder. He ground his teeth together and for a moment or two it seemed as though an explosion was coming. But he swallowed his passion with a gulp. You're a pig-headed half-witted fool, said he. Hiram never so much as moved his eyes. As for you, said Levi, whirling round upon Dinah, who was clearing the table, and gloring baffly upon the old Negroes, you put them things down and get out of here. Don't you come night as kitchen again till I tell ye to. If I catch you prying around, may I be blank, eyes in livery, if I don't cut your heart out? In about half an hour, Levi's friends came. The first a little thin-wisened man with a very foreign look. He was dressed in a rusty black suit and wore grey yarn stockings and shoes with brass buckles. The other was also plainly a foreigner. He was dressed in sailor fashion with petticoat britches of duck, a heavy pea jacket, and thick boots reaching to the knees. He wore a red sash tied around his waist, and once as he pushed back his coat, Hiram saw the glitter of a pistol-butt. He was a powerful, thick-set man, low-browed and bull-necked, his cheek and chin and throat closely covered with a stubble of blue-black beard. He wore a red kerchief tied around his head and over it a cocked hat, edged with tarnished gilt braid. Levi himself opened the door to them. He exchanged a few words outside with his visitors, in a foreign language of which Hiram understood nothing. Neither of the two strangers spoke a word to Hiram. The little man shot him a sharp look out of the corners of his eyes, and the burly ruffian scowled blackly at him. But beyond that neither vouch saved him any regard. Levi drew too the shutters, shut the bolt in the outer door, and tilted a chair against the latch of the one that led from the kitchen into the adjoining room. Then the three worthy seated themselves at the table, which Dina had half cleared of the supper china, and were presently deeply engrossed over a packet of papers which the big burly man had brought with him in the pocket of his P-jacket. The confabulation was conducted throughout in the same foreign language which Levi had used when first speaking to them, a language quite unintelligible to Hiram's ears. Now and then the murmur of talk would rise loud and harsh over some disputed point. Now and then it would sink away to whispers. Twice the tall clock in the corner word and sharply struck the hour. But throughout the whole long consultation Hiram stood silent, motionless as a stock. His eyes fixed almost unwinkingly upon the three heads grouped close together around the dim, flickering light of the candle and the paper scattered upon the table. Suddenly the talk came to an end. The three heads separated, and the three chairs were pushed back, grating harshly. Levi rose, went to the closet, and brought a bottle of Hiram's Apple Brandy as coolly as though it belonged himself. He set three tumblers and a crock of water upon the table and each helped himself liberally. As the two visitors departed down the road, Levi stood for a while at the open door looking after the dusky figures until they were swallowed in the darkness. Then he turned, came in, shut the door, shuttered, took a final dose of the Apple Brandy and went to bed. Without, since his first suppressed explosion, having said a single word to Hiram. Hiram, left alone, stood for a while, silent, motionless as ever. Then he looked slowly about him, gave a shake of the shoulders as though to arouse himself, and taking the candle left the room, shutting the door noiselessly behind him. Sub Chapter 8. This time of Levi West's unwelcome visitation was indeed a time of bitter trouble and speculation to pour Hiram white. Money was a very different value in those days than it is now, and five hundred pounds was in its way a good round lump. In Sussex County it was almost a fortune. It was a desperate struggle for Hiram to raise the amount of his father's bequest to his stepbrother. Squire Hall, as may have been gathered, had a very warm and friendly feeling for Hiram, believing in him when all others disbelieved. Nevertheless, in the matter of money, the old man was as hard and as cold as adamant. He would, he said, do all he could to help Hiram, but that five hundred pounds must and should be raised, Hiram must release his security bond. He would loan him, he said, three hundred pounds, taking a mortgage upon the mill. He would have lent him four hundred, but that there was already a first mortgage of one hundred pounds upon it, and he would not dare to put more than three hundred pounds upon it, or a top of that. Hiram had a considerable quantity of wheat, which he had bought upon speculation, and which was then lying idle in a Philadelphia storehouse. This he had sold at public sale and at a very great sacrifice. He realized barely one hundred pounds upon it. The financial horizon looked very black to him. Nevertheless, Levi's five hundred pounds was raised and paid into Squire Hall's hands, and Squire Hall released Hiram's bond. The business was finally closed on one cold gray afternoon in the early part of December. As Hiram tore his bond across and then tore it across again and again, Squire Hall pushed back the papers upon his desk, and cock his feet upon it, slanting top. Hiram, said he abruptly, Hiram, do you know that Levi West is forever hanging around Billy Martin's house after that pretty daughter of his? So long a space of silence followed the speech that the Squire began to think that Hiram might not have heard him. But Hiram had heard. No, said he. I didn't know it. Well he is, said Squire Hall. It's the talk of the whole neighborhood. The talk's pretty bad, too. Do you know that they say that she was away from home three days last week? Nobody knew where. The Fellows turned her head with his arms, and his travelers' lies. Hiram said not a word, but he sat looking at the other, installered silence. That step-brother of yours, continued the old Squire presently, is a rascal. He is a rascal, Hiram, and I missed doubt he's something worse. I hear he's been seen in some queer places and with queer company of late. He stopped again, and still Hiram said nothing. And looky, Hiram, the old man resumed, suddenly. I do hear that you'd be courting the girl, too. Is that so? Yes, said Hiram. I'm courting her, too. Tut, tut, said the Squire. That's a pity, Hiram. I'm afraid your cakes are dough. After he had left the Squire's office, Hiram stood for a while in the street, bare-headed, his hat in his hand, staring unwinkingly down at the ground at his feet, with inwardly drooling lips and lackluster eyes. Presently, he raised his hand and began slowly smoothing down the sandy shock of hair upon his forehead. At last he aroused himself with a shake, looked duly up and down the street, and then, putting on his hat, turned and walked slowly and heavily away. The early dusk of the cloudy winter evening was settling fast, for the sky was leaden and threatening. At the outskirts of the town, Hiram stopped again and again stood for a while in brooding thought. Then finally he turned slowly, not the way that led homeward, but taking the road that led between the bare and withered fields and crooked fences toward Billy Martin's. It would be hard to say just what it was that led Hiram to seek Billy Martin's house at that time of day, whether it was fate or ill fortune. He could not have chosen a more opportune time to confirm his own undoing. What he saw was the very worst that his heart veered. Along the road, at a little distance from the house, was a mock orange hedge, now bare, naked, leafless. As Hiram drew near, he heard footsteps approaching and low voices. He drew back into the fence corner and there stood, half sheltered by the stark network of twigs. Two figures passed slowly along the gray of the roadway in the glooming. One was his step-brother, the other was Sally Martin. Levi's arm was around her, he was whispering into her ear, and her head rested upon his shoulder. Hiram stood as still, as breathless, as cold as ice. They stopped upon the side of the road just beyond where he stood. Hiram's eyes never left them. There, for some time they talked together in low voices, their words now and then reaching the ears of that silent, breathless listener. Suddenly there came the clattering of an opening door, and then Betty Martin's voice broke the silence, harshly, shrilly. Sal? Sal? Sally Martin? You, Sally Martin, come in here. Where be ye? The girl flung her arms around Levi's neck and their lips met in one quick kiss. The next moment she was gone, flying swiftly, silently, down the road past where Hiram stood, stooping as she ran. Levi stood looking after her until she was gone. Then he turned and walked away whistling. His whistling died shrilly into silence in the wintry distance, and then at last Hiram came stumbling out from the hedge. His face had never looked before as it looked then. Sub Chapter 9. Hiram was standing in front of the fire with his hands clasped behind his back. He had not touched the supper on the table. Levi was eating with an appetite. Suddenly he looked over his plate at his step-brother. How about that five hundred pounds, Hiram? said he. I gave ye a month to raise it, and the month ain't quite up yet, but I'm going to leave this here placed day after tomorrow, by next day at the furthest, and I want the money that's mine. I paid it to Squire Hall today, and he has it for ye, said Hiram Dully. Levi laid down his knife and fork with a clatter. Squire Hall, said he, what's Squire Hall got to do with it? Squire Hall didn't have the use of that money. It was you had it, and you have got to pay it back to me, and if you don't do it, by gee, I'll have the law on you, sure as you're born. Squire Hall's trustee. I ain't your trustee, said Hiram, in the same dull voice. I don't know nothing about trustees, said Levi, or anything about lawyer business either. What I want to know is, are you going to pay me my money, or no? No, said Hiram. I ain't. Squire Hall pay ye. You go to him. Levi West's face grew purple red. He pushed back, his chair grating harshly. You bloody land pirate, he said, grinding his teeth together. I see through your tricks. You're up to cheating me out of my money. You know very well that Squire Hall is down on me, hard and bitter, writing his blank reports to Philadelphia, and doing all he can to stir up everybody again me, to bring the blue jackets down on me. I see through your tricks as clear as glass, but ye shan't trick me. I'll have my money if there's law in the land, ye bloody unnatural thief ye, who'd go again your dead father's will. Then, if the roof had fallen in upon him, Levi West could not have been more amazed. Hiram suddenly strode forward, and leaning half across the table with his fists clenched, fairly scared into Levi's eyes. His face, dull, stupid wooden, was now fairly convulsed with passion. The great vein stood out upon his temples like knotted whip-cords, and when he spoke his voice was more a breathless snarl than the voice of a Christian man. You'll have the law, will ye, said he. You'll have the law, will ye. You're afeared to go to law, Levi West. You try the law, and see how ye like it. Who are ye to call me thief, ye bloody murder and villain ye? You're the thief, Levi West. You come here and stole my daddy from me, ye did. You make me ruin myself to pay outer to bin mine. Then ye, ye steal the gall I was courting to boot. He stopped, and his lips writhed for words to say. I know ye, said he, grinding his teeth. I know ye, and only for what my daddy made me promise, I'd have had you up to the magistrates before this. Then, pointing with quivering finger, there's the door, you see it. Go out that there door, and don't never come into it again, if ye do, or if ye ever come where I can lay eyes upon ye again. By the holy, holy, I'll hail ye up to the squire's office, and tell all I know and all I've seen. Oh, I'll give ye your belly full of law, if ye want the law. Get out of the house, I say. As Hyrum spoke, Levi seemed to shrink together. His face changed from its copper color to a dull, waxy yellow. When the other ended, he answered never a word. But he pushed back his chair, rose, put on his hat, and, with a furtive, side-long look, left the house, without stopping to finish the supper which he had begun. He never entered Hyrum White's door again. Hyrum had driven out the evil spirit from his home, but the mischief that it had brewed was done and could not be undone. The next day it was known that Sally Martin had run away from home, and that she had run away with Levi West. Old Billy Martin had been in town in the morning with his rifle, hunting for Levi, and threatening if he caught him to have his life for leading his daughter astray. And, as the evil spirit had left Hyrum's house, so had another, and a greater evil spirit, quitted its harborage. It was heard from Indian River in a few days more that Blue Skin had quitted the inlet and had sailed away to the southeast, and it was reported by those who seemed to know that he had finally quitted those parts. It was well for himself that Blue Skin left when he did, for not three days after he sailed away the scorpion's loop of war dropped anchor in Luz Harbor. The New York agent of the unfortunate packet, and a government commissioner had also come aboard the scorpion. Without loss of time, the officer in command instituted a keen and searching examination that brought to light some singularly curious facts. It was found that a very friendly understanding must have existed for some time between the pirates and the people of Indian River. For, in the houses throughout that section, many things, some of considerable value that had been taken by the pirates from the packet were discovered and seized by the commissioner. Valuables of a suspicious nature that had found way even into the houses of Luz itself. The whole neighborhood seemed to have become more or less tainted by the presence of the pirates. Even poor Hyrum White did not escape the suspicions of having had dealings with them. Of course, the examiners were not slow in discovering that Levi West had been deeply concerned with Blue Skin's doings. Old Dinah and Black Bob were examined, and not only did the story of Levi's two visitors come to light, but also the fact that Hyrum was present and with them while they were in the house disposing of the captured goods to their agent. Of all that he had endured, nothing seemed to cut poor Hyrum so deeply and keenly as these unjust suspicions. They seemed to bring the last bitter pang, hardest of all to bear. Levi had taken from him his father's love. He had driven him, if not to ruin, at least perilously close to it. He had run away with the girl he loved and now, through him, even Hyrum's good name was gone. Neither did the suspicions against him remain passive. They became active. Goldsmith's spills, to the amount of several thousand pounds, had been taken in the packet and Hyrum was examined with an almost inquisitorial closeness and strictness as to whether he had or had not knowledge of their whereabouts. Under his accumulated misfortunes, he grew not only more dull, more taciturn than ever, but gloomy, moody brooding as well. For hours he would sit staring straight before him into the fire without moving so much as a hair. One night, it was a bitterly cold night in February, with three inches of dry and gritty snow upon the ground. When Hyrum sat thus brooding, there came, of a sudden, a soft tap upon the door. Low and hesitating as it was, Hyrum started violently at the sound. He sat for a while, looking from right to left. Then suddenly pushing back his chair, he arose, strode to the door and flung it wide open. It was Sally Martin. Hyrum stood for a while, staring blankly at her. It was she who first spoke. Won't you let me come in high? Said she. I'm nigh-starved with the cold and I'm fit to die. I'm so hungry. For God's sake, let me come in. Yes, said Hyrum. I'll let you come in. But why don't you go home? The poor girl was shivering and chattering with the cold. Now she began crying, wiping her eyes with the corner of a blanket in which her head and shoulders were wrapped. I have been home, Hyrum, she said. But dad, he shut the door in my face. He cursed me just awful high. I wish I was dead. You better come in, said Hyrum. It's no good standing out there here. He stood aside and the girl entered, swiftly, gratefully. At Hyrum's bidding, Black Diner presently set some food before Sally and she fell to eating ravenously, almost ferociously. Meantime, while she ate, Hyrum stood with his back to the fire, looking at her face. That face went so round and rosy, now thin, pinched, haggard. Are you sick, Sally? Said he presently. No, said she. But I've had pretty hard time at home high. The tears sprang to her eyes at the recollection of her troubles, but she only wiped them hastily away with the back of her hand, without stopping in her eating. A long pause of dead silence followed. Diner sat crouched together on a cricket on the other side of the hearth, listening with interest. Hyrum did not seem to see her. Did you go off with Levi? Said he at last, speaking abruptly. You needn't be a fear to tell, he added. Yes. Said she at last. I did go off with him high. Where have you been? At the question she suddenly laid down her knife and fork. Don't you ask that. Don't you ask me that high, she said agitatedly. I can't tell you that. You don't know Levi, Hyrum. I daren't tell you anything he don't want me to. If I told you where I've been he'd hunt me out, no matter where I was, and kill me. If you only knew what I know about him, Hyrum, you wouldn't ask anything about him. Hyrum stood looking brutally at her for a long time. Then at last he spoke again. I thought a sight of you once, Sally, said he. Sally did not answer immediately, but after a while she suddenly looked up. Hyrum, said she, if I tell you something will you promise on your oath not to breathe a word to any living soul? Hyrum nodded. If Levi finds I've told you he'll murder me as sure as you're standing there. Come nire, I've got to whisper it. He leaned forward close to her where she sat. She looked swiftly from right to left, then raising her lips she breathed into his ear. I'm an honest woman, Hy. I was married to Levi West before I run away. End of Section 13. Section 14 of Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Barry Eads. Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle. Compiled by Merle Johnson. Blue Skin the Pirate, Part 3. Sub Chapter 11. The winter had passed, spring had passed, and summer had come. Whatever Hyrum had felt, he had no sign of suffering. Nevertheless, his lumpy face had begun to look flabby, his cheeks hollow, and his loose jointed body shrunk more awkwardly together into its clothes. He was often awake at night, sometimes walking up and down his room until far into the small hours. It was through such a wakeful spell as this, that he entered into the greatest, the most terrible happening of time. The air was like the breath of a furnace, and it was a hard matter to sleep, with even the easiest mind and under the most favorable circumstances. The full moon shone in through the open window, laying a white square of light upon the floor. And Hyrum, as he paced up and down, up and down, walked directly through it, his gaunt figure starting out at every turn into sudden brightness as he entered the straight line of four of twelve, and Hyrum stopped in his walk to count the strokes. The last vibration died away into silence, and still he stood motionless, now listening with a new and sudden intentness. Four, even as the clock rang the last stroke, he heard soft, heavy footsteps, moving slowly and cautiously along the pathway before the house and directly below the open window. A few seconds more, and he a serious visitor had entered the mill. Hyrum crept softly to the window and looked out. The moon shone full on the dusty, shingled face of the old mill, not thirty steps away, and he saw that the door was standing wide open. A second or two of stillness followed, and then, as he stood looking intently, he saw the figure of a man suddenly appear, sharp and vivid, from the gaping blackness of the day. It was Levi West, and he carried an empty meal bag over his arm. Levi West stood looking from right to left for a second or two, and then he took off his hat and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. Then he softly closed the door behind him and left the mill as he had come, and with the same cautious step. Hyrum looked down upon him as he passed close to the house sixty yards from the house. Levi stopped, and a second figure arose from the black shadow in the angle of the worm fence and joined him. They stood for a while talking together, Levi pointing now and then toward the mill. Then the two turned, and climbing over the fence, cut across an open field and threw the tall shaggy grass toward the southeast. Hyrum straightened himself and drew a deep breath, and convulsed as it had been when he had fronted his stuck-brother seven months before in the kitchen. Great beads of sweat stood on his brow and he wiped them away with his sleeve. Then, coatless, hatless as he was, he swung himself out of the window, dropped upon the grass, and without an instant of hesitation, strode off down the road in the direction that Levi West had taken. As he climbed the fence where the two men had climbed it, Hyrum crossed the level scrubby meadowland, walking toward a narrow strip of pine woods. A little later they entered the sharp cut shadows beneath the trees and were swallowed in the darkness. With fixed eyes and closed shut lips, as doggedly, as inexorably as though he were a nemesis hunting his enemy down, Hyrum followed their footsteps across the stretch of moonlit open. Then, by and by, he also was spoke to midnight hush. His feet made no noise upon the resinous softness of the ground below. In that dead, pulseless silence he could distinctly hear the distant voices of Levi and his companion, sounding loud and resonant in the hollow of the woods. Beyond the woods was a cornfield and presently he heard the rattling of the harsh leaves as the two plunged into the tassled jungle. Here, as in the woods, he heard the rust through the canes. Beyond the cornfield ran a road that, skirting to the south of Luz, led across a wooden bridge to the wide salt marshes that stretched between the town and the distant sandhills. Coming out upon this road, Hyrum found that he had gained upon those he followed and that they now were not fifty paces away and he could see that Levi's companion carried over his shoulder what looked like a bundle of tools. And for the second time wiped his forehead with his shirt sleeve. Then, without ever once letting his eyes leave them, he climbed the fence to the roadway. For a couple of miles or more he followed the two along the white level highway, past silent sleeping houses, past barns, sheds and haystacks looming big in the moonlight, past fields and woods and clearings, past the dark and silent skirts of the town and so at last out upon the wide misty salt marshes, he went away interminably through the pallid light, yet were bounded in the far distance by the long white line of sandhills. Across the level salt marshes he followed them, through the rank sedge and past the glossy pools in which his own inverted image stalked beneath as he stalked above. On and on until at last they had reached a belt of scrub pines, gnarled and gray, that fringed the foot of the white sandhills. Here Hyrum kept quiet. The two whom he followed walked more in the open with their shadows as black as ink walking along in the sand beside them and now in the dead breathless stillness might be heard, chill and heavy, the distant thumping, pounding roar of the Atlantic surf, beating on the beach at the other side of the sandhills half a mile away. At last the two rounded the southern end of the white bluff and when Hyrum, following rounded the sandhills, was seen. Before him the sand hill rose, smooth and steep, cutting in a sharp ridge against the sky. Up this steep hill trailed the footsteps of those he followed, disappearing over the crest. Beyond the ridge lay a round bull like hollow, perhaps 50 feet across an 18 or 20 feet deep, scooped out by the eddying of the winds into an almost perfect circle. Hyrum, slowly, cautiously, stealthily trailing line of footmarks, mounted to the top of the hillock and peered down into the bowl beneath. The two men were sitting upon the sand, not far from the tall, skeleton-like shaft of a dead pine tree that rose, stark and gray, from the sand in which it may once have been buried centuries ago. Levi had taken off his coat and waistcoat and was fanning himself with his hat. He was sitting upon the bag he had spread out upon the sand, his companions at facing him. The moon shone full upon him and Hyrum knew him instantly. He was the same burly, fourly-looking ruffian who had come with the little man to the mill that night to see Levi. He also had his hat off and was wiping his forehead and face with a red handkerchief. Beside him laid the bundle of tools he had brought, a couple of shovels, a piece of rope, and a long, sharp iron rod. The two men were talking together, but Hyrum could not understand what they said, for they spoke in the same foreign language that they had before used. But he could see his step-brother point with his finger, now to the dead tree and now to the steep white face of the opposite side of the bowl like hollow. At last, having apparently rested themselves, the conference, if conference it was, came to an end and Levi led the way, the other following, to the dead pine tree. He began searching as though for some mark. Then, having found that which he looked for, he drew a tape-line and a large brass pocket-compass from his pocket. He gave one end of the tape-line to his companion, holding the other with his thumb pressed upon a particular part of the tree. Taking his bearings by the compass, he gave now and then some orders to the other, who moved a little to the left or the right as he bade. At last he gave a word upon, his companion drew a wooden peg from his pocket and thrust it into the sand. From this peg as a base they again measured, taking bearings by the compass and again drove a peg. For a third time they repeated their measurements and then at last, seemed to have reached the point which they aimed for. Here Levi marked across with his heel upon the sand. His companion brought him the pointed rod which lay beside the shovels and then stood watching as Levi thrust it into the sand, again and again as though sounding for some object below. It was some while before he found that for which he was seeking, but at last the rod struck with a jar upon some hard object below. After making sure of success by one or two additional taps with the rod, Levi left it remaining where it stood, brushing the sand from his hands. Now fetched the shovels, Pedro, said he, speaking for the first time in English. The two men were busy for a long while, shoveling away the sand. The object for which they were seeking lay buried some six feet deep, and the work was heavy and laborious, the shifting sand sliding back again and again into the hole. But at last the blade of one of the shovels struck upon some hard substance and Levi stooped and brushed away the sand with the palm of his hand. Levi's companion climbed out of the hole which they had dug and tossed the rope which he had brought the shovels down to the other. Levi made it fast to some object below and then himself mounted to the level of the sand above. Pulling together the two drew up from the hole a heavy iron bound box nearly three feet long and a foot wide and deep. Levi's companion stooped and began untying the rope which had been lashed to a ring in the lid. What happened next happened suddenly swiftly terribly. Levi drew back a single step and shot a quick keen look to right and to left. He passed his hand rapidly behind his back and the next moment Hiram saw the moonlight gleam upon the long sharp keen blade of a knife. Levi raised his arm then just as the other arose from bending over the chest he struck and struck again two swift powerful blows. Hiram saw the blade dive clean and sharp into the back and heard the hilt strike with a dull thud against the ribs once, twice. The burly black-bearded wretch gave a shrill terrible cry and fell staggering back. Then in an instant with another cry he was up and clutched Levi with a clutch of despair by the throat and by the arm. Then followed a struggle short, terrible, silent. Not a sound was heard but the deep panting breath and the scuffling of feet in the sand upon which they're now poured and dabbled a dark purple stream. But it was a one-sided struggle that lasted only for a second or two. Levi wrenched his arm loose from the wounded man's grasp, tearing his shirt sleeve from the wrist to the shoulder as he did so. Again and again the cruel knife was lifted and again and again it fell. Now no longer bright but stained with red. Then suddenly all was over. Levi's companion dropped to the sand without a sound like a bundle of rags. For a moment he lay limp and inert. Then one shattering spasm passed over him and he lay silent and still with his face half buried in the sand. Levi with a knife still gripped tight in his hand stood leaning over his victim looking down upon his body. His shirt and hand and even his naked arm were stained and blocked with blood. The moon lit up his face and it was the face of a devil from hell. At last he gave himself a shake, stooped and wiped his knife and hand and arm upon the loose petticoat of the dead man. He thrust his knife back into its sheath, drew a key from his pocket and unlocked the chest. In the moonlight Hyrim could see that it was filled mostly with paper and leather bags full apparently of money. All through this awful struggle and its awful ending Hyrim lay dumb and motionless upon the crest of the sand hill looking with a horrid fascination upon the death struggle in the pit below. Now Hyrim arose. The sand slid whispering from him from the crest as he did so but Levi was too intent in turning over the contents of the chest to notice the slight sound. Hyrim's face was ghastly pale and drawn. For one moment he opened his lips as though to speak but no word came. So white, silent he stood for a few seconds rather like a statue than a living man. Then suddenly his eyes fell upon the bag which Levi had brought with him no doubt to carry back the treasure companion were in search and which still lay spread out on the sand where it had been flung. Then as though a thought had suddenly flashed upon him his whole expression changed. His lips closed tightly together as though fearing an involuntary sound might escape and the haggard look dissolved from his face. Cautiously, slowly he stepped over the edge of the sand hill and down the slanting face. His coming was as silent as death for his feet made no noise as he sank ankle deep in the yielding surface. So stealthily step by step he descended reached the bag, lifted it silently. Levi still bending over the chest and searching through the papers within was not four feet away. Hyrim raised the bag in his hands. He must have made some slight rustle as he did so for suddenly Levi half turned his head but he was one instant too late. In a flash the bag was over his head, shoulders, arms, body. Then came another struggle as fierce, as silent, as desperate as that other and as short. Wiry, tough and strong as he was with a lean, sinewy, nervous figure fighting desperately for his life as he was, Levi had no chance against the ponderous strength of his step-brother. In any case the struggle could not have lasted long. As it was Levi stumbled backward over the body of his dead mate and fell with Hyrim upon him. Maybe he was stunned by the fall, maybe he felt the hopelessness of resistance, for he lay quite still while Hyrim, kneeling upon him, drew the rope from the ring of the chest and without uttering a word bound it tightly around both the bag and the captive within, knotting it again and again and drawing it tight. Only once was a word spoken. If you'll let me go, said a muffled voice from the bag, I'll give you five thousand pounds, it's in that there box. Hyrim answered never a word, but continued knotting the rope and drawing it tight. Sub Chapter 13 The scorpion's loop of war lay in loose harbor all that winter and spring, probably upon the slim chance of a return of the pirates. It was about eight o'clock in the morning and Lieutenant Maynard was sitting in Squire Hall's office fanning himself with his hat and talking in a desultory fashion. Suddenly the dim and distant noise of a great crowd was heard without, coming nearer and nearer. The Squire and his visitor hurried to the door. The crowd was coming down the street shouting, jostling, struggling, some on the footway, some on the roadway. Heads were at the doors and windows looking down upon them. Nearer they came and nearer. Then at last they could see that the press surrounded and accompanied one man. It was Hyrim White, hatless, coatless, the sweat running down his face in streams, but over his shoulder he carried a bag, tied round and round with a rope. It was not until the crowd and the man it surrounded had come quite near that the Squire and the Lieutenant saw that a pair of legs and grey yarn stockings hung from the bag. It was a man he was carrying. Hyrim had lugged his burden five miles that morning without help and was scarcely arrest on the way. He came directly toward the Squire's office and, still surrounded and hustled by the crowd, up the steps to the office within. He flung his burden heavily upon the floor without a word and wiped his streaming forehead. The Squire stood with his knuckles on his desk, staring first at Hyrim and then at the strange burden he had brought. A sudden hush fell upon all, though the voices of those without sounded as loud and turbulent as ever. What is it, Hyrim? said Squire Hall at last. Then for the first time Hyrim spoke, panting thickly. Bloody murderer, said he, pointing a quivering finger at the motionless figure. Here, some of you, called out the Squire, come untie this man. Who is he? A dozen willing fingers quickly unnotted the rope and the bag was slipped from the head and body. Hair and face and eyebrows and clothes were powdered with meal. But in spite of all and through all the innocent whiteness, dark spots and blotches and smears of blood showed upon head and arm and shirt. Levi raised himself upon his elbow and looked scowlingly around at the amazed, wonderstruck faces surrounding him. Why, it's Levi West, croaked the Squire, at last finding his voice. Then suddenly, Lieutenant Maynard pushed forward before the others crowded around the figure on the floor and clutching Levi by the hair, dragged his head backward so as to better see his face. Levi West, said he in a loud voice, is this the Levi West you've been telling me of? Look at that scar and mark on his cheek. This is Blue Skin himself. Sub Chapter 14 In the chest which Blue Skin had dug up out of the sand were found not only the gold smith's bills taken from the packet but also many other valuables belonging to the officers and the passengers of the unfortunate ship. The New York agents offered Hiram a handsome reward for his efforts in recovering the lost bills but Hiram declined it, positively and finally. All I want, said he in his usual dull, stalled fashion, is to have folks know I'm honest. Nevertheless, though he did not accept what the agents of the packet offered, fate took the matter into its own hands and rewarded him not unsubstantially. Blue Skin was taken to England in the Scorpion but he never came to trial. While in Newgate he hanged himself to the cell window with his own lockings. The news of his end was brought to loose in the early autumn and Squire Hall took immediate measures to have the five hundred pounds of his father's legacy duly transferred to Hiram. In November, Hiram married the pirate's widow. End of Section 14 Section 15 of Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer LibriVox.org. Recording by Anosimum. Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle. Compiled by Marilyn Johnson. Chapter 7 Captain Scarfield Preface The author of this narrative cannot recall that in any history of the famous pirates he has ever read a detailed and sufficient account of the life and death of Captain John Scarfield. Doubtless some data concerning his death and the destruction of his schooner might be gathered from the report of Lieutenant Manning, now filed in the archives of the Navy Department, but beyond such bold and bloodless narrative the author knows of nothing unless it be the little chapbook history published by Isaiah Thomas in Newbury Port about the year 1821, 22, entitled A True History of the Life and Death of Captain Jack Scarfield. This lack of particularity in the history of one so notable in his profession, it is the design of the present narrative in a measure to supply and if the author has seen fit to cast it in the form of a fictional story it is only that it may make more easy reading for those who see fit to follow the tale from this to its conclusion. Captain Scarfield Section 1 Eliezer Cooper, or Captain Cooper as was his better known title Delphia, was a prominent member of the Society of Friends. He was an overseer of the meeting and an occasional speaker upon particular occasions. When at home from one of his many voyages he never failed to occupy his seat in the meeting both on first day and fifth day and he was regarded by his fellow townsmen as a model of business integrity and of domestic responsibility. More incidental to this history however it is to be narrated that Captain Cooper was one of those trading skippers who carried their own merchandise in their own vessels which they sailed themselves and on whose decks they did their own bartering. His vessel was a swift large skooner the Eliezer Cooper of Philadelphia named for his wife. His cruising grounds were the West India Islands and his merchandise was flour and cornmeal ground at the Brandywine Mills at Wilmington, Delaware. During the war of 1812 he had earned as was very well known an extraordinary fortune in his trading. For flour and cornmeal sold at fabulous prizes in the French, Spanish, Dutch and Danish islands cut off as they were from the rest of the world by the British blockade. The running of this blockade was one of the most hazardous maritime ventures possible but Captain Cooper had met with such unvaried success and had sold his merchandise at such incredible profit that at the end of the war he found himself to have become one of the wealthiest merchants of his native city. It was known at one time that his balance in the mechanics bank was greater than that of any other individual depositor upon the books and it was told of him that he had once deposited in the bank a test of foreign silver coin the exchanged value of which when translated into American currency was upward of $42,000 a prodigious sum of money in those days. In person Captain Cooper was tall and angular of frame his face was thin and severe wearing continually an unsmiling mask-like expression of continent and unruffled sobriety. His manner was dry and taciturn and his conduct and life were measured to the most absolute accord with the teaching of his religious belief. He lived in an old-fashioned house on Front Street below Spruce a pleasant, cheerful house as ever a trading captain could return to. At the back of the house a lawn sloped steeply down toward the river to the south stood the wolf and storehouses to the north an orchard and kitchen garden bloomed with abundant verdure two large chestnut trees sheltered the porch and little space of lawn and when you sat under them in the shade you looked down the slope between two rows of box bushes directly across the shining river to the Jersey's shore. At the time of our story that is about the year 1820 this property had increased very greatly in value but it was the old home of the Coopers as Eliezer Cooper was entirely rich enough to indulge his fancy in such masses accordingly as he chose to live in the same house where his father and his grandfather had dwelt before him he parameterily if quietly refused all of us looking toward the purchase the lot of ground though it was now worth five or six times its former value as was said it was a cheerful pleasant home impressing you when you entered it with the feeling of spotless and all-pervading cleanliness a cleanliness that greeted you in the shining brass door-knocker that entertain you in this sitting-room with its stiff leather-covered furniture the brass had a text where it sparkled like so many stars a cleanliness that bade you farewell in the spotless stretch of sand-sprinkled hallway the wooden floor of which was worn into knobs around the nail-heads by the countless scorings and scrubbings to which have been subjected and which left behind them an all-pervading feigned fragrant odor of soap and warm water Eliezer Cooper and his wife were childless but one inmate made the great silent shady house bright with life listen the Fairbanks a niece of Captain Cooper's by his only sister was a handsome, sprightly girl of 18 or 20 and a great favourite in the Quaker society of the city it remains only to introduce the final and perhaps the most important actor of the narrative Lieutenant James Manoring during the past 12 months or so he had been a frequent visitor at the Cooper House at this time he was a broad-shouldered, red-cheeked stalwart fellow of 26 or 28 he was a great social favourite and possessed the added romantic interest of having been aboard the Constitution when she fought the guerriere and of having with his own hands touched the match that fired the first gun of that great battle Manoring's mother and Eliezer Cooper had always been intimate friends and the coming and going of the young men during his leave of absence were looked upon in the house as quite a matter of course half a dozen times a week he would drop in to execute some little commission for the ladies or if Captain Cooper was at home to smoke a pipe of tobacco with him to sip a drum of his famous old Jamaica rum or to play a rubber of checkers of an evening it is not likely that either of the older people was the least aware of the real cause of his visits still less that they suspect that any passages of sentiment had passed between the young people the truth was that Manoring and the young lady were very deeply in love it was a love that they were obliged to keep a profound secret for not only had Eliezer Cooper held the strictest sort of testimony against the late war a testimony so rigorous as to render it altogether unlikely that one of so military a profession as Manoring practiced could hope for his consent to a suit for marriage but Lysinda could not have married one not a member of the society of friends without losing her own birthright membership therein she herself might not attach much weight to such a loss of membership in the society but her fear of and her respect for her uncle led her to walk very closely in her path of duty in this respect accordingly she and Manoring met as they could clandestinely and the stolen moments were very sweet with equal secrecy Lysinda had at the request of her lover said for a miniature approached to Mrs. Gregory which miniature set in a gold medallion Manoring with a mild mental pleasure war hung around his neck and beneath his shirt-frill next to his heart in the month of April of the year 1820 Manoring received orders to report at Washington during the preceding autumn the west india pirates and notably captain Jack Scarfield had been more than usually active and the loss of the packet marble head which sailing from Charleston South Carolina was never heard of more was attributed to them two other coasting vessels off the coast of Georgia had been looted and burned by Scarfield and the government had at last aroused itself to the necessity of active measures for repressing these pests of the west india waters Manoring received orders to take command of the Yankee a swift light draught heavily armed break of war and to cruise about the Bahama islands and to capture and destroy all the pirates vessels he could there discover on his way from Washington to New York where the Yankee was then waiting orders Manoring stopped in Philadelphia to bid goodbye to his many friends in that city he called at the old Cooper house it was on a Sunday afternoon the spring was early and the weather extremely pleasant that day being filled with a warmth almost as of summer the apple trees were already in full bloom and filled all the air with their fragrance everywhere there seemed to be the trees and the drowsy tepid sunshine was very delightful at that time Eleazar was just home from an unusually successful voyage to Antigua Manoring found the family sitting under one of the still leafless chestnut trees Captain Cooper smoking his long clay pipe and lazily perusing a copy of the national gazette Eleazar listened with a great deal of interest to what Manoring had to say of his proposed cruise he himself knew a great deal about the pirates and singularly unbending from his moral stiff tessitonity he began telling of what he knew particularly of Captain Scarfield in whom he appeared to take an extraordinary interest fastly to Manoring's surprise the old Quaker assumed the position of a defendant of the pirates protesting that the wickedness of the accused was enormously exaggerated he declared that he knew some of the freebooters very well but he also had a very complicated wretchedness who had by easy gradation slid into their present evil ways from having been tempted by the government authorities to enter into privateering in the days of the late war he conceded that Captain Scarfield had done many cruel and wicked deeds but he averred that he had also performed many kind and benevolent actions the world made no note of this letter but took care only to condemn that he had allowed his crew to cast lots for the wife and the daughter of the skipper of the northern rose but there were none of his accusers who told how at the risk of his own life and the lives of all his crew he had given succor to the schooner Halifax found adrift with all hands down with yellow fever there was no defender of his actions to tell how he and his crew of pirates had sailed the pest-stricken vessel almost into the rescuing waters of Kingston Harbour he confessed that he could not deny that when Scarfield had tied the skipper of the Baltimore Bell, naked to the foremost of his own brig, he had permitted his crew of cutthroats, who were drunk at the time, to throw bottles at the helpless captive, who died that night the wounds he had received for this he was doubtless very justly condemned but who was there to praise him when he had at the risk of his life and in the face of the authorities carried a cargo of provisions purchased at Tampa Bay to the island of Bella Vista after the great hurricane of 1818 in this notable adventure he had barely escaped after a two-days chase the British frigate Ceres whose captain had a capture been affected would instantly have hung the unfortunate man to the yard arm in spite of the beneficent mission he was in the act of conducting in all this Eliezer had the air of conducting the case for the defendant he became more and more animated and viable the light went out in his tobacco pipe and a hectic spot appeared in either thin and shallow chic mannering sat wondering to hear the severely peaceful Quaker preacher defending so notoriously bloody and cruel a cutthroat pirate as captain Jack Scarfield the warm and innocent surroundings the old brick house looking down upon them the odour of apple blossoms seemed to make it all the more incongruous and still the elderly Quakers kipper talked on and on with hardly an interruption till the warm sun slanted to the west and the day began to decline that evening mannering stayed to tea and when he parted from the Cinder Fairbanks it was after nightfall with a clear round moon shining in the milky sky an irradiance pallet and unreal enveloping the old house looking at apple trees the sloping lawn and the shining river beyond he implored his sweetheart to let him tell her uncle and aunt of their acknowledged love and to ask the old man's consent to it but she would not permit him to do so they were so happy as they were who knew but what her uncle might forbid their fondness would he not wait a little longer maybe it would all come right after a while she was so fond so tearful at the nearness of their parting that he had not the heart to insist at the same time it was with a feeling of almost despair that he realized that he must now be gone maybe for the space of two years without in all that time possessing the right to call her his before the world when he bade farewell to the older people it was with a choking feeling of bitter disappointment he yet felt the pressure of her cheek against his shoulder the touch of soft and velvet lips to his own but what were such clandestine endearments compared to what might perchance be his the right of calling her his own when he was far away and upon the distant sea and besides he felt like a coward who had shirked his duty but he was very much in love the next morning appeared in a drizzle of rain that followed the beautiful warmth of the day before he had the coach all to himself and in the damp and leathery solitude he drew out the little oval picture from beneath his shirt-frill and looked long and fixedly with a fond and foolish joy at the innocent face the blue eyes the red smiling lips depicted upon the satin-like ivory surface Section 2 for the better part of five months men are increased about in the waters surrounding the Bahama Islands at that time he ran to earth and dispersed a dozen nests of pirates he destroyed no less than 15 paradical crafts of all sizes from a large half-decked will-boat to a 300 tonne barkentine the name of the Yankee became a terror to every sea-wolf in the western tropics and the waters of the Bahama Islands became swept almost clean at the bloody wretches who had so lately infested it but the one free-booter of all others whom he sought and Jack Scarfield seemed to evade him like a shadow to slip through his fingers like magic twice he came almost within touch the famous marauder both times the ominous wrecks that the pirate captain had left behind him the first of these was the water-locked remains of a burnt and still-smoking wreck that he found adrift in the great Bahama Channel it was the water-witch of Salem but it did not learn a tragic story until two weeks later he discovered a part of a crew at Port Maria on the north coast of Jamaica it was indeed a dreadful story to which he listened the castaways said that they of all the vessels crew had been spared so that they might tell the commander of the Yankee should they meet him that he might keep what he found with Captain Scarfield's compliments who served it up to him hot-cooked three weeks later he rescued with the remainder of the crew of the shattered bloody Hulk of the Baltimore Belle eight of whose crew headed by the captain had been tied hand and foot and heaved overboard again there was a message from Captain Scarfield to the commander of the Yankee that he might season what he found to suit his own taste menoring was of a certain disposition with a fiery temper he swore with the utmost vehemence that either he or John Scarfield would have to leave the earth he had little suspicion of how soon was to befall the ominous realization of his angry prophecy at that time one of the chief rendezvous of the pirates was a little island of San Jose one of the southernmost of the Bahama group here in the days before the coming of the Yankee they were want to put in to Korean and clean their vessels and to take in a fresh supply of provisions gunpowder and rum preparatory to renewing their attacks upon the peaceful commas circulating up and down outside the islands the wide stretches of the Bahama Channel menoring had made several descents upon this nest of freebooters he had already made two notable captures and it was here he hoped eventually to capture Captain Scarfield himself a brief description of this one-time notorious rendezvous of freebooters might not be out of place it consisted of a little settlement of those wattled and much smeared houses such as you'll find through the West Indies there were only three houses of a more pretentious sort build of wood one of these was a store house another was a rum shop and a third a house in which dwelled a Malata woman who was reputed to be a sort of left-handed wife of Captain Scarfields the population was almost entirely black and brown one or two Jews and a half dozen Yankee traders of hardly dubious honesty comprised the entire white population the rest consisted of a mongrel accumulation of Negroes and Malatos and half-caste Spaniards and of a multitude of black or yellow women and children the settlement stood in a bite of the beach forming a small harbour and affording a fair anchorage for small vessels accepting it were against the beating of a south-easterly gale the houses or cabins were surrounded by clusters of cocoa palms and growths of bananas and a long curve of white beach sheltered from the large Atlantic breakers that burst and exploded upon an outer bar was drawn like a necklace round the semi-circle of emerald green water such was the famous pirate settlement of San Jose a paradise of nature and a hell of human depravity and wickedness and it was to this spot that Manoring paid another visit a few days after rescuing the crew of the Baltimore Bell from her shattered and sinking wreck as the little bay with its fringe of palms and its cluster of water huts opened up to view Manoring discovered a vessel lying at anchor in the little harbour it was a large and well-rigged schooner of 250 or 300 tons burden as the Yankee rounded two under the stern of the stranger and dropped anchor in such a position as to bring her broadside battery to bear should the occasion require Manoring's had his glass to his eye to read the name he could distinguish beneath the overhang of her stern it is impossible to describe his infinite surprise when the white lettering starting out in the circle of the glass he read the Eliza Cooper of Philadelphia he could not believe the evidence of his senses certainly this sync of iniquity was the last place in the world he would have expected to have fallen in with Eliza Cooper he ordered out the gig and had himself immediately rode over to the schooner whatever lingering doubts he might have entertained as the identity of the vessel who quickly dispelled when he beheld Captain Cooper himself standing at the gangway to meet him the impassive face of the friend showed neither surprise nor confusion at what must have been to him a most unexpected encounter but when he stepped upon the deck of the Eliza Cooper and looked about him Manoring could hardly believe the evidence of his senses at the transformation that he beheld upon the main deck were eight 12 pound coronade neatly covered with topolan in the bow a long tom also snugly stowed away and covered directed availed and muscled snout out over the bow spread it was entirely impossible for Manoring to conceal his astonishment at so unexpected a sight and whether or not his own thoughts lend color to his imagination it seemed to him that Eliza Cooper concealed under the immobility of his countenance no small degree of confusion after Captain Cooper had led the way into the cabin and he and the younger man were seated over a pipe tobacco and the invariable bottle of fine old Jamaica rum Manoring made no attempt to refrain from questioning him as to the reason for this singular and ominous transformation I am a man of peace James Manoring Eliza replied but there are men of blood in these waters and an appearance of great strength is of use to protect the innocent from it if I remained in appearance the peaceful trader I really am how long does he suppose I could remain unassailed in this place it occurred to Manoring that the powerful armament he had beheld was rather extreme to be used merely as a preventive he smoked for a while in silence and then he suddenly asked the other point blank whether if it came to blows with such a one as Captain Scarfield would he make a fight of it the Quaker trading captain regarded him for a while in silence his look it seemed to Manoring appear to be dubitative as to how far he dared to be frank friend James he said at last I may as well acknowledge that my officers and crew are somewhat worldly of a truth they do not hold the same testimony as I I am inclined to think that if it came to the point of a broil with those men of equity my individual voice cast for peace would not be sufficient to keep my crew from meeting violence with violence as for myself he knows who I am and what is my testimony in these matters Manoring made no comment as to the extremely questionable manner in which the Quaker proposed to beat the devil about the stump presently he asked his second question and might I inquire he said what you are doing here and why you find it necessary to come at all into such a wicked dangerous place as this indeed I knew he would ask that question of me said the friend that I will be entirely frank with thee these men of blood are after all but human beings and as human beings they need food I have it present upon this vessel upward of two hundred and fifty barrels of flour which will bring a higher price here than anywhere else in the West Indies to be entirely frank with thee I will tell thee that I was engaged in making a bargain with the sale of the greater part of my merchandise when the news with I approached drove away my best customer Manoring sat for a while in smoking silence what the other had told him explained many things he had not before understood it explained why Captain Cooper got almost as much for his flour and cornmeal now that peace had been declared as he had obtained when the war and the blockade were in full swing it explained why he had been fulfilled in the pirates that afternoon in the garden mean time what was to be done a liaison confessed openly that he dealt with the pirates what now was his Manoring's duty in the case was the cargo of the Eliza Cooper contraband and subject to confiscation and then another question framed itself in his mind who was this customer whom his approach had driven away as though he had formulated a diary into speech the other began directly to speak of it I know he said that in a moment he will ask me who was this customer of whom I've just now spoken I have no desire to conceal his name from thee it was the man who is known as Captain Jack or Captain John Scarfield Manoring fairly started from his seat that devil you say he cried and how long has it been he asked since he left you the Quaker Skipper carefully refilled his pipe which he had by now smoked out I would judge he said that it is a matter of four or five hours since newt was brought over land by means of swift runners of thy approach immediately the man of witness disappeared here Eliza set the bull of his pipe to the candle flame and began puffing out voluminous clouds of smoke I would have the understand James Manoring he resumed that I am no friend of this wicked and sinful man his safety is nothing to me it is only a question of buying upon his pouch and of selling upon mine if it is any satisfaction to thee I will heartily promise to bring the news if I hear anything of the man of Belial I may furthermore say that I think it is likely thee will have news more or less directly of him within the space of a day if this should happen however thee will have to do thy own fighting to help from me for I am no man of combat nor of blood and will take no hand in it either way it struck Manoring that the words contained some meaning that did not appear upon the surface this significance struck him as so ambiguous that when he went aboard the Yankee he confided as much of his suspicions as he saw fit to his second command left him at Underwood as night descended he had a double watch set and was quickly prepared to repel any attack or surprise that might be attempted End of Section 15 Section 16 of Howard Piles' Book of Pirates this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Anna Simon Howard Piles' Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle Section 16 Captain Scarfield Part 2 Sub-Tep 3 Nighttime in a tropics descends with a surprising rapidity at one moment the earth is shining with the brightness of the twilight the next, as it were, all things are suddenly swallowed into a gulf of darkness the particular night of which this story treats was not entirely clear the time of year was about the approach of the season and the tepid tropical clouds added obscurity to the darkness of the sky so that the night fell with even more startling quickness than usual the blackness was very dense now and then a group of drifting stars swam out of a rift in the vapours but the night was curiously silent and of a velvety darkness as the obscurity had deepened menoring had ordered lanterns to be lighted and slung to the shrouds and the faint yellow of their illumination lighted the level white of the snug little war vessel gleaming here and there and a star-like spark upon the brass trimmings and causing the rows of cannons to assume curiously gigantic proportions for some reason menoring was possessed by a strange uneasy feeling he walked restlessly up and down to the deck for a time and then still full of anxieties for he knew not what he was writing up his log for the day he unstrapped his cutlass and laid it up on the table lighted his pipe at the lantern and was about preparing to lay aside his coat when word was brought to him that the captain of the trading schooner was come alongside and had some private information to communicate to him menoring surmised in an instant that the trader's visit related somehow to news of captain scarfield and as immediately in the relief of something positive to face the manors vanished like a shadow of mist he gave orders that captain cooper should be immediately shown into the cabin and in a few moments the tall angular form of the quaker-skipper appeared in the narrow lantern-lighted space menoring at once saw that his visitor was strangely agitated and disturbed he had taken off his head and shining beads of perspiration had gathered and stood clustered upon his forehead he did not reply to menoring's greeting he did not indeed seem to hear it but he came directly forward to the table and stood leaning with one hand upon the open lock-book in which the lieutenant had just been writing menoring had receded himself at the head of the table and the tall figure of the skipper stood looking down at him as from a considerable height James Menoring, he said I promise thee to report if I had news of the pirate is thee ready now to hear my news there was something so strange in his agitation that it began to infect menoring with a feeling somewhat akin to that which appeared to disturb his visitor I know not what you mean sir he cried by asking if I care to hear your news at this moment I would rather have news of that scoundrel than to have anything I know of in the world that would that would cried the other with mounting agitation is thee in such haste to meet him as all that very well, very well then suppose I could bring thee face to face with him what then, eh? face to face with him James Menoring the thought instantly flashed to Menoring's mind that the pirate had returned to the island that perhaps at that moment he was somewhere near at hand I do not understand you sir he cried do you mean to tell me that you know where the villain is if so lose no time in informing me for every instant of delay may mean his chance of again escaping no danger of that the other declared vehemently no danger of that I'll tell thee where he is and I'll bring thee to him quick enough and as he spoke he thumbed his fist against the open lock book in the vermin's of his growing excitement his eyes appeared to shine green in length and light and the sweat that had stood in a beets upon his forehead was now running in streams down his face one drop hung like a jewel to the tip of his beak like nose he came a step nearer to Menoring and bent forward toward him and there was something so strange and ominous in his bearing that the lieutenant instinctively drew back a little where he sat cat in scarefield sent something to you said Eliezer almost in a raucous voice something that you'll be surprised to see and the lapse in his speech from the quaker thee to the plural you struck Menoring a singularly strange as he was speaking Eliezer was fumbling in a pocket of his long tail drab code and presently he brought something forth that gleamed in a length and light the next moment Menoring saw leveled directly in his face the round and hollow nozzle of a pistol there was an instant of dead silence and then I am the man you seek said Eliezer Cooper in a tense and breathless voice the whole thing had happened so instantaneously and unexpectedly that for the moment Menoring said like one petrified had a thunderbolt fallen from the sky in sky and burst at his feet he could not have been more stunned he was like one held in the meshes of a heart nightmare and he gazed as through a mist of impossibility into the linuments of the well-known sober face now transformed as from within into the aspect of a devil that face now ashy white was distorted into a diabolical grin the teeth glistened in a lamp light the brows twisted into a tense and convulsed frown were drawn down into black shadows through which the eyes burned a baleful green like the eyes of a wild animal driven to bay again he spoke in the same breathless voice I am John Scarfield look at me then if you want to see a pirate again there was a little time of silence through which Menoring heard his watch ticking loudly from where it hung against the bulkhead then once more the other began speaking you would chase me out of the West Indies would you? God and you what have you come to now you're caught in your own trap and you'll squeal loud enough before you get out of it speak a word or make a movement and I'll blow your brains out against the partition behind you listen to what I say or you are a dead man sing out an order instantly for my mate and my boson to come here to the cabin and be quick about it for my fingers on the trigger it's only a pull to shut your mouth forever it was astonishing to Menoring in afterward thinking about it all how quickly his mind began to recover its steadiness after that first astonishing shock even as the other was speaking he discovered that his brain was becoming clarified to a wonderful lucidity his thoughts were becoming rearranged and with a marvellous activity and an alertness he had never before experienced he knew that if he moved to escape or uttered any outcry he would be instantly a dead man for the circle of the pistol barrel was directed full against his forehead and with the steadiness of a rock if he could but for an instant divert that fixed and deadly attention he might still have a chance for life with the thought an inspiration burst into his mind and he instantly put it into execution thought inspiration and action as in a flesh were one he must make the other turn aside his deadly gaze and instantly he roared out in a voice that stunned his own ears strike boson strike quick taken by surprise and thinking doubtless that another enemy stood behind him the pirate swung around like a flesh with his pistol leveled against the blank boarding equally upon the instant he saw the trick that had been played upon him and in the second flesh had turned again the turn and return had occupied but a moment of time but that moment, thanks to the retinas of his own invention had undoubtedly saved Menorings life as the other turned away his gaze for a brief instant Menorings leapt forward and upon him there was a flashing flame of fire as the pistol was discharged and a deafening detonation that seemed to split his brain for a moment with reeling senses he supposed himself to have been shot the next he knew he had escaped with the energy of despair he swung his enemy around and drove him with prodigious violence against the corner of the table the pirate emitted a grunting cry clattered with them to the floor in their fall even as he fell Menorings roared in a voice of thunder all hands repel borders and then again all hands repel borders whether hurt by the table edge or not the fallen pirate struggled as though possessed of forty devils and in a moment or two Menorings saw the shine of a long keen knife that he had drawn from somewhere about his person the lieutenant caught him by the wrist but the others muscles were as though steel they both fought in despairing silence the one to carry out his frustrated purposes to kill the other to save his life again and again Menorings felt the knife had been thrust against him piercing once his arm once his shoulder and again his neck he felt the warm blood streaming down his arm and body and looked about him in despair the pistol lay near upon the deck of the cabin still holding the other by the wrist as he could Menorings snatched up the empty weapon and struck once and again at the bold narrow forehead beneath him a third blow he delivered with all the force he could command and then with a violent convulsive throw the straining muscles beneath him relaxed and grew limp and the fight was won through all the struggle he had been aware of the shouts of voices of trembling of feet and discharge of firearms and the thought came to him even through his own danger that the Yankee was being assaulted by the pirates as he felt the struggling form beneath him loosen and dissolve into quietude he leaped up and snatching his cutlass which was still lay upon the table rushed out upon the deck leaving this trick and form lying twitching upon the floor behind him it was a fortunate thing that he had set double watches and prepared himself for some attack from the pirates otherwise the Yankee would certainly have been lost as it was the surprise was so overwhelming that the pirates who had been concealed in a large whale boat that had come alongside were not only able to gain a foothold upon the deck but for a time it seemed as though they would drive the crew of the brig below the hatches but as mannering streaming with blood rushed out upon the deck the pirates became immediately aware that their own captain must have been overpowered and in an instant their desperate energy began to evaporate one or two jumped overboard one who seemed to be their mate fell dead from a pistol shot and then in the turn of a hand there was a rush of a retreat that forms in the dusky light of the lanterns and a sound of splashing in the water below the crew of the Yankee continued firing at the fosfosserent wakes of the swimming bodies but whether with effect it was impossible at the time to tell sub-taptor four the pirate captain did not die immediately he lingered for three or four days now and then unconscious now and then semi-conscious but always deliriously wondering all the while he thus lay dying the mulatto woman with whom he'd lived in this part of his extraordinary dual existence nursed and cared for him with such rude attentions as the surroundings afforded in the wanderings of his mind the same duality of life followed him now and then he would appear the calm, sober, self-contained well-ordered member of a peaceful society as friends in his faraway home knew him to be at times the nether part of his nature would leap up into life like a wild beast furious and gnashing at the one time he talked evenly and clearly of peaceful things at the other time he blasphemed and hooded with fury several times man-ring, though wracked by his own wounds sat beside the dying man through the silent watches of the tropical nights often times upon these occasions as he looked at the thin, lean face babbling and talking so aimlessly he wondered what it all meant could it have been madness madness in which the separate entities of good and bad each had in its turn a perfect and distinct existence he chose to think that this was the case who within his inner consciousness does not feel that same farine, savage man struggling against the stern, adamantine bonds of morality and decorum where those bonds burst asunder as it was with this man might not the wild beast rush forth as it had rushed forth in him to rend and to tear such were the questions that man-ring asked himself and how had it all come about by what easy gradations had the respectable Quaker skipper descended from the decorum of his home life step by step into such a gulf of iniquity many such thoughts passed through man-ring's mind and he pondered them through the still reaches of the tropical nights while he set watching the pirate captains struggle out of the world he had so long burdened at last the poor wretch died and the earth was well quit of one of its torments a systematic search was made through the island for the scattered crew but none was captured either there were some secret hiding places upon the island which was not very likely or else they had escaped in boats hidden somewhere among the tropical foliage at any rate they were gone nor search as he would could man-ring find a trace of any of the pirate treasure after the pirate's death and the close questioning the weeping malato woman so far broke down is to confess in broken English that captains car-field had taken a quality of silver money aboard his vessel but either she was mistaken or else the pirates had taken it thence again and had hidden it somewhere else nor would the treasure ever have been found but for a most fortuitous accident man-ring had given orders that the Eliza Cooper was to be burned and a party was detailed to carry the order into execution at this the cook of the Yankee came petitioning for some of the Wilmington and brand new wine flour to make some plum-duff upon the morrow and man-ring granted his request in so far that he ordered one of the men to knock open one of the barrels of flour and supply the cook's demands the crew detailed to execute this modest ordered in connection with the destruction of the pirate vessel had not been gone a quarter of an hour when word came back that the hidden treasure had been found man-ring hurried aboard the Eliza Cooper and there in the midst of the open flower barrel he beheld a great quantity of silver coin buried in and partly covered by the white meal a systematic search was now made one by one the flower barrels were heaved up from below and burst open on the deck and their contents surged and if nothing but the meal was found it was swept overboard the breeze was whitened with clouds of flour and the white meal covered the surface of the ocean for yards around in all upward one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was found concealed beneath the innocent flour and meal it was no wonder the pirate captain was so successful when he could upon an instance notice transform himself from a wolf of the ocean to a peaceful quaker trader selling flour to the hungry towns and settlements among the scattered islands of the West Indies and so carrying his bloody treasure safely into his quiet northern home in concluding this part of the narrative it may be added that a white strip of canvas painted black was discovered in the hold of the Eliza Cooper upon it in great white letters was painted the name the Bloodhound undoubtedly this was used upon occasions to cover the real and peaceful title of the trading schooner just as its captain had in reverse covered his Sanroan and cruel life by a thin sheet of morality and respectability this is a true story of the death of Captain Jack Scarfield the Newburyport chapbook of which I've already spoken speaks only of how the pirate disguised himself upon the ocean as a quaker trader nor is it likely that anyone ever identified Eliza Cooper with the pirate for only menoring of all the crew of the Yankee was exactly aware of the true identity of Captain Scarfield all that was ever known to the world was that Eliza Cooper had been killed in a fight with the pirates in a little less than a year menoring was married to Lucinda Fairbanks as to Eliza Cooper's fortune which eventually came into the possession of menoring through his wife it was many times a subject of speculation to the lieutenant how it had been earned there were times when he felt well assured that a part of it at least was a conspiracy but it was entirely impossible to guess how much more was the result of legitimate trading for a little time it seemed a manoring that he should give it all up but this was at once so impracticable and so quixotic that he presently abandoned it and in time his poems and missed-outs faded away and he settled himself down to enjoy that which had come to him through his marriage in time the manorings were moved to New York and ultimately the fortune that the pirate's car filled at left behind him was used in part to found the great shipping-house of menoring and bigot whose famous transatlantic packet-ships were in their time the admiration of the whole world End of Chapter 7 and end of Section 16 Section 17 of Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Mary Schneider Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle compiled by Merle Johnson The Ruby of Kishmore Part 1 Prologue A very famous pirate of his day was Captain Robertson Kite Before embarking upon his later career of Infamy he was in the beginning very well known as a reputable merchant in the island of Jamaica then entering first of all upon the business of the African trade he presently by regular degrees became a pirate and finally ended his career as one of the most renowned pre-booters of history The remarkable adventure through which he had once reached the pinnacle of success and became in his profession the most famous figure of his day was the capture of the Raja of Kishmore's great ship The Son of the East in this vessel was the Raja's favorite queen who together with her attendants was set upon a pilgrimage to Mecca the court of this great Oriental potentate was as may be readily supposed with gold and jewels so that what with such personal adornments that the queen and her attendants had fetched with them besides an ample treasury for the expenses of the expedition an incredible prize of gold and jewels rewarded the free-booters for their successful adventure Among the precious stones taken in this great purchase was the splendid Ruby of Kishmore This as may be known to the reader was one of the world's greatest gems and was unique alike both for its prodigious size in the splendor of its color The precious jewel the Raja of Kishmore had upon a certain occasion bestowed upon his queen and at the time of her capture she wore it as the centerpiece of a sort of coronet which encircled her forehead and brow The seizure by the pirate of so considerable a person as that of the queen of Kishmore the enormous treasure that he found aboard her ship would alone have been sufficient to have established his fame But the capture of so extraordinary a prize as that of the Ruby which was in itself worth the value of an entire Oriental kingdom exalted him at once to the very highest pinnacle of renown Having achieved the capture of this incredible prize our captain scuttled the great ship like with all on board Three laskers of the crew alone escaped to bear the news of this tremendous disaster to an astounded world As may readily be supposed it was now no longer possible for Captain Kite to hope to live in such comparative obscurity as he had before enjoyed His was now too remarkable a figure in the eyes of the world Several expeditions from various parts were immediately fitted out against him and it presently became no longer compatible with his safety to remain thus clearly outlined before the eyes of the world Accordingly he immediately set about seeking such security as he might now hope to find which he did the more readily since he had now at one cast so entirely fulfilled his most sanguine expectations of good fortune and of fame Thereafter accordingly the adventures of our captain became of a more apocryphal sort It was known that he reached the West Indies in safety for he was once seen at Port Royal and twice at Spanish town in the island of Jamaica Thereafter however he disappeared nor was it until several years later that the world heard anything concerning him One day a certain Nicholas Stuckworthy who had once been gunner aboard the pirate captain's own ship, the Good Fortune was arrested in the town of Bristol in the very act of attempting to sell to a merchant of that place several valuable gems from a quantity which he carried with him tied in a red bandana handkerchief In the confession of which Duckworthy afterward delivered himself he declared that Captain Kite after his first adventure having sailed from Africa in safety and so reached the shores of the new world had wrecked the Good Fortune on a coral reef off the windward islands that he then immediately deserted the ship and together with Duckworthy himself a sailing master who was Portuguese the captain of a brig the bloody hand a consort of Kites and a villainous rascal named Hunt who occupying no precise position among the pirates was at once the instigator of the Greatest Part of Captain Kite's Wickednesses made his way to the nearest port of safety These five Worthies at last fetched the island of Jamaica bringing with them all the jewels and some of the gold that had been captured from the son of the East but upon coming to a division of their booty it was presently discovered that the Rogers Ruby had mysteriously disappeared from the collection of jewels to be divided the other pirates immediately suspected their captain of having secretly perloined it and indeed so certain were they of his turpitude that they immediately set about taking means to force a confession from him in this however they were so far unsuccessful that the captain refusing to yield to their importunities had suffered himself to die under their hands and so had carried the secret of the hiding place of the Great Ruby if he possessed such a secret along with him Duckworthy concluded his confession by declaring that in his opinion he himself the Portuguese sailing master the captain of the bloody hand and Hunt were the only ones of Captain Kite's crew who were now alive for that the good fortune must have broken up in a storm which immediately followed their desertion of her in which event the entire crew must inevitably have perished it may be added that Duckworthy himself was shortly hanged so that if his surmise was true there were now only three left alive of all that wicked crew that had successfully carried to its completion the greatest adventure which any pirate in the world had ever perhaps embarked upon one Jonathan rug you may never know what romantic aspirations may lie hidden beneath the most sedate and sober demeanor to have observed Jonathan rug who was a tall, lean, loose-joined young Quaker of a somewhat forbidding aspect with straight dark hair and a bony overhanging forehead set into a frown a pair of small, deep-set eyes in a squared jaw no one would for a moment have suspected that he concealed beneath so serious an exterior any appetite for romantic adventure nevertheless finding himself suddenly transported as it were from the quiet of so sober a town as that of Philadelphia to the tropical enchantment of Kingston in the island of Jamaica the night brilliant with a full moon that swung in an oval sky the warm and luminous darkness replete with the mysteries of a tropical night and burdened with the odors and breeze he suddenly discovered himself to be overtaken with so vehement a desire of some unwanted excitement that had the opportunity presented itself he felt himself ready to embrace any adventure with the utmost eagerness no matter whether it would have conducted him at home where he was a clerk in the counting-house of a leading merchant by name Jeremiah Doolittle should such idle fancies have come to him he would have looked upon himself as little better than a fool but now that he found himself for the first time in a foreign country surrounded by such strange and unusual sights and sounds all conducive to extravagant imaginations the wish for some extraordinary and altogether unusual experience to possession of him with a singular vehemence to which he had, here to for, been altogether a stranger in the street where he stood which was of a shining whiteness and which reflected the effulgence of the moonlight with an incredible distinction he observed stretching before him long lines of white garden walls overtopped by a prodigious luxuriance of tropical foliage in these gardens and set close to the street stood several pretentious villas and mansions the slatted lines and curtains and windows of which were raised to admit of the freer entrance of the cool and balmy air of the night from within there issued forth bright lights together with the exhilarating sound of merry voices laughing and talking or perhaps a song accompanied by the tinkling music of a spinot or of a guitar an occasional group of figures clad in light in summer-like garments and adorned with gay and startling colors cast him through the moonlight so that what with the brightness and warmth of the night together with all these unusual sights and sounds it appeared to Jonathan Rugg that he was rather the inhabitant of some extraordinary land of enchantment and unreality than a dweller upon that sober and solid world in which he had heretofore past his entire existence before continuing this narrative the reader may here be informed that our hero had come into this enchanted world as the supercargo of the ship Susanna Hayes of Philadelphia that he had for several years proved himself so honest and industrious a servant to the merchant house of the worthy Jeremiah Doolittle that that benevolent man had given to his well-deserving clerk this opportunity at once of gratifying an inclination for foreign travel and of filling a position of trust which should redown to his individual prophet the Susanna Hayes had entered Kingston Harbour that afternoon and this was Jonathan's first night in those tropical latitudes whither his fancy and imagination had so often carried him while he stood over the desk filing the accounts of invoices from foreign parts it may be finally added that had he had all conceived how soon and to what a degree the inclination for adventure was to be gratified his romantic aspirations might have been somewhat dashed at the prospect that lay before him two, the mysterious lady with the silver veil at that moment our hero suddenly became conscious of the fact that a small wicket in a wooden gate near which he stood had been opened and that the eyes of an otherwise concealed countenance were observing him at most closeness of scrutiny he had hardly time to become aware of this observation of his person when the gate itself was opened and there appeared before him in the moonlight the bent and crooked figure of an aged negris she was clad in a Kalamanko raiment and was further adorned with a variety of godly colored trimmings vastly suggestive of the tropical world of which she was an inhabitant her woolly head was enveloped after the fashion of her people in the folds of a gigantic and flaming red turban constructed of an entire pocket handkerchief her face was pock pitted to an incredible degree so that what with this deformity emphasized by the pouting of her prodigious and shapeless lips and the rolling of a pair of eyes as yellow as saffron Jonathan Rugg thought that he had never beheld a figure at once so extraordinary and so repulsive it occurred to our hero that here maybe was to overtake him such an adventure as that which he had just a moment before been desiring so ardently nor was he mistaken for the negris first looking this way and then that with an extremely wary and cunning expression and apparently having satisfied herself that the street for the moment was pretty empty of passers to him to draw nearer when he had approached close enough to her she caught him by the sleeve and instantly drawing him into the garden beyond shut and bolded the gate with a quickness and a silence suggestive of the most extravagant secrecy at the same moment a huge negro suddenly appeared from the shadow of the gate post and so placed himself between Jonathan and the gate that any attempt to escape inevitably have entailed conflict upon our hero's part with a sable and giant guardian says the negris looking very intently at our hero be you feared Buckra why no, quotes Jonathan for to tell thee the truth friend though I am a man of peace being of that religious order known as the society of friends I am not so weak in person nor so timid in disposition as to warrant me in being afraid of anyone indeed were I of a mind to escape I might without boasting declare my belief that I should be able to push my way past even a better man than thy large friend who stands so threateningly in front of yonder gate at these words the negro spoke into so prodigious a grin that in the moonlight it appeared as though the whole lower part of her face had been transformed into shining teeth you be a brave Buckra said she in her gibberish English you come with Melina and Melina take you to pretty lady who want you to eat supper with her there upon and allowing our hero no opportunity to decline the extraordinary invitation even had he been of a mind to do so she took him by the hand and led him toward the large and imposing house which commanded the garden indeed said Jonathan to himself as he followed his sable guide himself followed in turn by the gigantic negro indeed I am like to have my fill of adventure if anything is to be judged from such a beginning as this nor did the interior sumptuousness of the mansion at all belie the imposing character of its exterior for entering by way of an illuminated veranda and so coming into a brilliantly lighted hallway beyond Jonathan beheld himself to be surrounded by such a wealth of exquisite and well appointed tastefulness as it had never before been his good fortune to behold candles of clarified wax sparkled like stars in chandeliers of crystal these in turn catching the illumination glittered in prismatic fragments with all the varied colors of the rainbow so that a mellow yet brilliant radiance filled the entire apartment polished mirrors of a spotless clearness framed in gold frames and built into the walls reflected the waxed floors the rich oriental carpets and the sumptuous paintings that hung against the ivory-tended paneling so that in appearance the beauties of the apartment were continued in bewildering vistas upon every side toward which the beholder directed his gaze bidding our hero to be seated which he did with no small degree of embarrassment and constraint and upon the extreme edge of the guilt and sat and covered chair the negrous who had been his conductor left him for the time being to his own contemplation almost before he had an opportunity to compose himself into anything more than a part of his ordinary sedatedness of demeanor the silken curtains at the door at the other end of the apartment were suddenly divided and Jonathan beheld before him a female figure displaying the most exquisite contour of mold and of proportion she was clad entirely in white and was enveloped from head to foot in the folds of a veil of delicate silver gauze which, though hiding her countenance from recognition, nevertheless permitted sufficient of her beauties to be discerned to suggest the extreme elegance and loveliness of her linements advancing toward our hero and extending to him a tapering hand as white as alabaster the fingers encircled with a multitude of jeweled rings she addressed him thus Sir, she said speaking in accents of the most silvery and musical cadence you are no doubt vastly surprised to find yourself thus unexpectedly and almost as by violence introduced into the house of one who is such an entire stranger to you as myself but though I am unknown to you I must inform you that I am better acquainted with my visitor for my agents have been observing you ever since you landed this afternoon at the dock and they have followed you ever since until a little while ago when you stopped immediately opposite my garden gate these agents have observed you with a closeness of scrutiny of which you are doubtless entirely unaware they have even informed me that owing doubtless to your extreme interest in your new surroundings you have not as yet sucked knowing this and that you must now be enjoying a very hearty appetite I have to ask you if you will do me the extreme favor of sitting at table with me at a repast if you will doubtless be surprised to learn has been hastily prepared entirely in your honor so saying and giving Jonathan no time for reply she offered him her hand and with the most polite insistence conducted him into an exquisitely appointed dining room adjoining here stood a table covered with a snow white cloth and embellished with silver and crystal ornaments of every description having seated herself and having indicated to Jonathan to take the chair opposite to her the two were presently served with the repast such as our hero had not thought could have existed out of the pages of certain extraordinary oriental tales which one time had fallen to his lot to read this supper which in itself might successfully have tempted the taste of the Siborite was further enhanced by several wines and cordials which filling the room with the aroma of the sunlit grapes from which they had been expressed stimulated the appetite which without them needed no such spur the lady who ate but sparingly herself possessed herself with patience until Jonathan's hunger had been appeased when however she beheld that he weakened in his attacks upon the dessert of sweets with which the banquet was concluded she addressed him upon the business which was evidently entirely occupying her mind sir she said you are doubtless aware that everyone whether man or woman is possessed of an enemy in my own case I must inform you that I have no less than three who to compass their ends would gladly sacrifice my life itself to their purposes at no time am I safe from their machinations by anyone she cried exhibiting a great emotion to whom I may turn in my need it was this that led me to hope to find in you a friend in my perils for having observed through my agents that you are not only honest in disposition and strong in person but that you are possessed of a considerable degree of energy and determination I am most desirous of imposing upon your good nature a trust of which you cannot for a moment suspect the magnitude tell me are you willing to assist a poor defenseless female in her hour of trial indeed friend quote Jonathan with more vivacity than he usually exhibited with a lenity to which he had here to forward in his lifetime been a stranger being warmed into such a spirit doubtless by the generous wines of which he had partaken indeed friend if I could but see thy face it would doubtless make my decision in such a matter the more favourable since I am inclined to think from the little I can behold of it that thy appearance must be extremely comely to the eye sir said the lady exhibiting some amusement at this unexpected sally I am you must know as God made me in time perhaps I may be very glad to satisfy your curiosity and exhibit to you my poor countenance such as it is but now and here she reverted to her more serious mood I must again put it to you are you willing to help an unprotected woman in a period of very great danger to herself should you decline the assistance which I solicit my slaves shall conduct you to the gate through which you entered in peace should you upon the other hand accept the trust you are to receive no reward therefore accept the gratitude of one who thus appeals to you in her helplessness for a moment Jonathan fell silent for here indeed was he entering into an adventure which infinitely surpassed any anticipation that he could have formed he was besides of a cautious nature and was entirely disinclined to embark on any affairs so obscure entangled is that in which he now found himself becoming involved friend he said at last I may tell thee that thy story has so far moved me as to give me every inclination to help thee in thy difficulties but I must also inform thee that I am a man of caution having never before entered into any business of this sort therefore before giving any promise that may bind my future actions I must in good wisdom demand to know what are the conditions that thou hast in mind to impose upon me indeed sir cried the lady with great vivacity and with more cheerful accents as though her mind had been relieved of a burden of fear that her companion might at once have declined even a consideration of her request indeed sir you will find that the trust which I would impose upon you is in appearance no such great matter as my words have led you to suppose you must know that I am possessed of a little trinket which in the hands of anyone who like yourself as a stranger in these parts would possess no significance but which while in my keeping is fraught with infinite menace to me here upon and having so spoken she clapped her hands and an attendant immediately entered disclosing the person of the same Negress who had first introduced Jonathan into the strange adventure in which he now found himself involved this creature who appeared still more deformed and repulsive in the brilliantly lighted room than she had in the moonlight carried in her hands a white napkin which she handed to her mistress this being opened disclosed a small ivory ball of about the bigness of a lime nodding to the Negress to withdraw the lady handed him the ivory ball and Jonathan took it with no small degree of curiosity and examined it carefully it appeared to be of an exceeding antiquity and of so deep a yellow as to be almost brown in color it was covered over with strange figures and characters of an oriental sort which appeared to our hero to be of Chinese workmanship I must tell you sir said the lady after she had permitted her guest to examine this for a while in silence that though this appears to you to be of little worth it is yet of extreme value after all however it is nothing but a curiosity that anyone who is interested in such matters might possess what I have to ask you is this willing to take this into your charge to guard it with the utmost care and fidelity yes even as the apple of your eye during your continuance in these parts and to return it to me in safety the day before your departure by so doing you will render me a service which you may neither understand nor comprehend but which shall make me your debtor for my entire life by this time Jonathan has pretty well composed his mind for a reply friend he said such a matter as this is entirely out of my knowledge of business which is indeed that of a clerk in the mercantile profession nevertheless I have every inclination to help thee though I trust thou mayest have magnified the dangers that be set thee this appears to me to be a little trifle for such an ado nevertheless I will do my best I will keep it in safety and will return it to thee upon this day a week hence by which time I hope to have discharged my cargo and be ready to continue my voyage to Demerara at these words the lady who had been watching him all the time with the most unaccountable eagerness burst forth into words of such heartfelt gratitude as to entirely overwhelm our hero somewhat assuaged she permitted him to depart and the negris conducted him back through the garden once she presently showed him through the gate whether he had entered and out into the street that's the end of section 17 part 1 of the Ruby of Kishmar