ort to escape, and Rhett had launched them without
difficulty. A great sound of hammering filled the air above the desert
lagoon for two days. The old _Revenge_, now so rechristened since she
had fallen into honest hands, had to be floated, for there was still
service in her shattered black hull. A hundred men toiled on and around
her, and in a remarkably short time a jury patch was made in her gaping
side and her hold pumped dry. Then crews were picked to man the three
captured sloops, and the flotilla was ready to return triumphant. On the
morning when they stood out to sea, the twelve men of Rhett's party who
had been killed in action were buried with military honors, saluted by
the cannon of the fleet.

A voyage of three days, unmarred by any accident, brought the victorious
squadron into Charles Town harbor. Joy knew no bounds among the
merchants and seamen along the docks. Indeed, the rejoicing spread
through the town to the tune of church bells and the whole colony was
soon made aware of Rhett's victory.

When the buccaneers had been taken ashore under a heavy guard and locked
up in the public watchhouse, Mr. Curtis and Bob, with Job and Jeremy,
went ashore to stretch their legs. It was a fine, fall day, warm as
midsummer to Jeremy's way of thinking. The docks were fascinatingly full
of merchandise. Great hogsheads of molasses and rum from Jamaica, set
ashore from newly arrived ships, shouldered for room with baled cotton
and boxes of tobacco ready to be loaded. There was a smell of spices and
hot tar where the sun beat down on the white decks and tall spars of
the shipping. Negroes, hitherto almost unknown to the Yankee boy,
handled bales and barrels on the wharves, their gleaming black bodies
naked to the waist.

Planters from the fertile country behind the town rode in with their
attendant black boys, and gathered at the coffee-houses on King Charles
Street. It was to one of these, the "Scarlet Fish," that the bluff
Delaware man took his proteges for dinner.

The place was resplendent with polished deal and shining pewter.
Curtains of brightly colored stuff hung at the high square windows, and
on the side where the sun entered, pots of flowers stood in the broad
window-shelves. There were gay groups of men at the tables, and talk of
the pirates was going everywhere over the Madeira and chocolate. It
seemed the news of Job's gunnery had been spread by Rhett's men, for
some of the diners recognized and point