ir appetites for more, and Kidd
cruised savagely over the eastern seas in search of other spoils.

After a time the _Adventure_ fell in with a fine English ship, called
the _Royal Captain_, and although she was probably laden with a rich
cargo, Kidd did not attack her. His piratical character was not yet
sufficiently formed to give him the disloyal audacity which would enable
him with his English ship and his English crew, to fall upon another
English ship manned by another English crew. In time his heart might be
hardened, but he felt that he could not begin with this sort of thing
just yet. So the _Adventure_ saluted the _Royal Captain_ with
ceremonious politeness, and each vessel passed quietly on its way. But
this conscientious consideration did not suit Kidd's crew. They had
already had a taste of booty, and they were hungry for more, and when
the fine English vessel, of which they might so easily have made a
prize, was allowed to escape them, they were loud in their complaints
and grumblings.

One of the men, a gunner, named William Moore, became actually
impertinent upon the subject, and he and Captain Kidd had a violent
quarrel, in the course of which the captain picked up a heavy iron-bound
bucket and struck the dissatisfied gunner on the head with it. The blow
was such a powerful one that the man's skull was broken, and he died the
next day.

Captain Kidd's conscience seems to have been a good deal in his way; for
although he had been sailing about in various eastern waters, taking
prizes wherever he could, he was anxious that reports of his misdeeds
should not get home before him. Having captured a fine vessel bound
westward, he took from her all the booty he could, and then proceeded
to arrange matters so that the capture of this ship should appear to be
a legal transaction. The ship was manned by Moors and commanded by a
Dutchman, and of course Kidd had no right to touch it, but the
sharp-witted and business-like pirate selected one of the passengers and
made him sign a paper declaring that he was a Frenchman, and that he
commanded the ship. When this statement had been sworn to before
witnesses, Kidd put the document in his pocket so that if he were called
upon to explain the transaction he might be able to show that he had
good reason to suppose that he had captured a French ship, which, of
course, was all right and proper.

Kidd now ravaged the East India waters with great success and profit,
and at