as to announce to him this
resolution.

"Do not let that stick you," says Ballantrae, "I will do that."

And he stepped to the companion and down alone into the cabin to face
that drunken savage.

"This is the man for us," cried one of the hands. "Three cheers for the
quartermaster!" which were given with a will, my own voice among the
loudest, and I daresay these plaudits had their effect on Master Teach
in the cabin, as we have seen of late days how shouting in the streets
may trouble even the minds of legislators.

What passed precisely was never known, though some of the heads of it
came to the surface later on; and we were all amazed, as well as
gratified, when Ballantrae came on deck with Teach upon his arm, and
announced that all had been consented.

I pass swiftly over those twelve or fifteen months in which we continued
to keep the sea in the North Atlantic, getting our food and water from
the ships we overhauled, and doing on the whole a pretty fortunate
business. Sure, no one could wish to read anything so ungenteel as the
memoirs of a pirate, even an unwilling one like me! Things went
extremely better with our designs, and Ballantrae kept his lead, to my
admiration, from that day forth. I would be tempted to suppose that a
gentleman must everywhere be first, even aboard a rover; but my birth is
every whit as good as any Scottish lord's, and I am not ashamed to
confess that I stayed Crowding Pat until the end, and was not much
better than the crew's buffoon. Indeed, it was no scene to bring out my
merits. My health suffered from a variety of reasons; I was more at home
to the last on a horse's back than a ship's deck; and, to be ingenuous,
the fear of the sea was constantly in my mind, battling with the fear of
my companions. I need not cry myself up for courage; I have done well on
many fields under the eyes of famous generals, and earned my late
advancement by an act of the most distinguished valour before many
witnesses. But when we must proceed on one of our abordages, the heart
of Francis Burke was in his boots; the little egg-shell skiff in which
we must set forth, the horrible heaving of the vast billows, the height
of the ship that we must scale, the thought of how many might be there
in garrison upon their legitimate defence, the scowling heavens which
(in that climate) so often looked darkly down upon our exploits, and the
mere crying of the wind in my ears, were all considerations most
unpala