248

XVII. THE GREAT FIGHT OF CAPTAIN TEACH 260

XVIII. THE OLD BUCCANEER IS LOYAL 274

XIX. THE QUEST FOR PIRATES' GOLD 288

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

THIS LEAN, STRAIGHT ROVER LOOKED THE PART OF A COMPETENT
SOLDIER _Frontispiece_

THE BRAWN OF THESE LADS MADE THE PIKE A MATCH FOR A
PIRATE'S CUTLASS 83

THE FIRST MATE LEAPED UP WITH A HORRIBLE YELL 120

JACK ALMOST BUMPED INTO THE DUGOUT CANOE 129

THEY CAPERED AND HUGGED EACH OTHER 164

HE LOOMED LIKE THE BELIAL WHOM HE WAS SO FOND OF CLAIMING
AS HIS MENTOR 224

[Illustration]

Blackbeard: Buccaneer

CHAPTER I

THAT COURTEOUS PIRATE, CAPTAIN BONNET

THE year of 1718 seems very dim and far away, but the tall lad who
sauntered down to the harbor of Charles Town, South Carolina, on a fine,
bright morning, was much like the youngsters of this generation. His
clothes were quite different, it is true, and he lived in a queer, rough
world, but he detested grammar and arithmetic and loved adventure, and
would have made a sturdy tackle for a modern high-school football team.
He wore a peaked straw hat of Indian weave, a linen shirt open at the
throat, short breeches with silver buckles at the knees, and a
flint-lock pistol hung from his leather belt.

He passed by scattered houses and stores which were mere log huts
loopholed for defense, with shutters and doors of hewn plank heavy
enough to stop a musket ball. The unpaved lanes wandered between mud
holes in which pigs wallowed enjoyably. Negro slaves, half-naked and
bearing heavy burdens, jabbered the dialects of the African jungle from
which they had been kidnapped a few months before. Yemassee Indians clad
in tanned deer-skins bartered with the merchants and hid their hatred of
the English. Jovial, hard-riding gentlemen galloped in from the indigo
plantations and dismounted at the tavern to drink and gamble and fight
duels at the smallest excuse.

Young Jack Cockrell paid scant heed to these accustomed sights but
walked as far as the wharf built of pal