ed
my last ducat that she was whirled away to founder. Blackbeard boasts of
his compact with Satan. I believe it's true."

"Shall we pull down our mast and pray that he passes the raft as a piece
of wreckage?" implored Jack.

Mustering his wits to meet this new crisis, Joe Hawkridge cried
impatiently:

"No, no, boy! This way death is sure, and most discomfortin'. If it
suits Blackbeard's whim to pick us up, there is a chance,--a chance, I
say, but make one slip and he will run us through with his own hand."

"We must arrange our tale of the wreck, Joe, to match without flaw.
Quick! What have we to say?"

"A task for a scholar, this," grinned the sea urchin. "If it's not well
learned, we'll taste worse'n a flogging. Where be his prize crew of
pirates, asketh Blackbeard. Answer me that, Jack."

"The _Plymouth Adventure_ was driven upon a shoal and lost," glibly
affirmed the other lad who had rallied to play at this hazardous game.
"Her boats were stove up. We left the pirates building a raft for
themselves and trusted ourselves to this poor contrivance, hoping to
gain the coast."

"Good, as far as it goes," observed the critical Joe.

"And it veers close to the truth. About the ship's company? What say
you?"

"There I hang in the wind," confessed Jack. "Blackbeard would have flung
'em overboard, I trow. Have a shot at it yourself."

"Well, leave me to answer that when the time comes. That we may agree,
suppose we say Ned Rackham needed the sailors to work the ship and so
spared 'em. Hanged if we can make it all true as Gospel."

"But if Blackbeard searches for the wreck, or if some of those pirates
rejoin him, Joe----"

"But me no more buts," snapped the sea rover. "We be jammed in a
clove-hitch, as the seaman's lingo hath it. Take trouble as it comes
and, ware ye, don't weaken."

They stared at the oncoming ship, dreading to be rescued and even more
fearful of being passed by. Disfigured though she was by a shattered
foremast, the _Revenge_ made a gallant picture as she leaned to show the
copper sheathing which flashed like gold. Her bow flung the crested seas
aside and Joe Hawkridge muttered admiringly:

"A swift vessel! She carries a bone in her teeth. A telescope can sight
us soon. Steady the raft, Jack, whilst I wriggle up this mast of ours
and wave my shirt."

"A hard choice," sighed Jack. "Now we well know what it means to be
betwixt the devil and the deep sea."

They saw the _Revenge_ shift h