nd water for five days!" Then he turned on his heel
and went back to the cabin. So once more Jeremy's life was saved by the
Captain's whim. He half carried, half supported his chum to their bunk
and after rubbing his back with grease, begged from the galley, nursed
him the rest of the day. By the following afternoon the Delaware lad had
recovered his spirits and although he was still too sore and stiff to go
on deck, had no trouble in eating the food Jeremy brought him. The
absence of Daggs made life assume a happier outlook and it was not long
before the boy was as right as ever.

August was nearly past. To the boys, who knew little of the geography of
the coast and nothing of Bonnet's plans, it was something of a surprise
when the man at the tiller of the _James_, which was in the lead, swung
her head over to landward one morning. Low shores, with a white line of
sand beneath the vivid dark green of trees, ran along the western
horizon. As the sloop ran in, the boys expected to see the broad opening
of some bay but there was still no visible variation of the coast line.
No town was to be seen, nor even a single hut, when they were close in.
The trees were live-oaks, Bob said, though Jeremy had never seen one to
know it before.

The _Royal James_ and her consorts held a slow course along the shore
for several hours. The strip of sand was gradually widening and in
places stretched inland for a mile in dunes and hillocks, traversed by
little tidewater creeks. At last there showed a narrow inlet between two
dunes, and Bonnet, who had now taken the helm, headed the sloop
cautiously for this opening. One of the men constantly heaved the lead
and cried the soundings as the ship progressed. The pirate chief kept to
the left of the channel and finally passed through into a wide lagoon,
with a scant fathom to spare at the shallowest place. The _Fortune_
entered without difficulty, but the deeply-laden _Francis_ grounded
midway in and had to wait several hours for the tide to float her.

Listening to the talk of the crew, Bob heard them say they had come into
the mouth of the Cape Fear River in Carolina. From what he knew of the
nearby coast he believed that it was a very wild region, almost
unsettled, and that there would be slight chance of getting to safety,
even if they were able to effect an escape. This fear seemed justified
later in the day, when Bonnet said to one of his men that there was no
need of shackling the boys