crew as Jack
Cockrell came running up to say:

"Trapped on the very islet where he cast you and the other pirates! His
chickens have come home to roost."

"Call me no pirate or I'll stretch ye with a handspike," grinned Joe.
"'Tis a plaguey poor word in this company. Aye, Cap'n Ed'ard Teach has a
taste of his own medicine and he will get a worse dose this day than
ever he served me."

CHAPTER XVII

THE GREAT FIGHT OF CAPTAIN TEACH

YES, there was Blackbeard's ship hard in the sand which had gripped her
keel while she was steering to enter the Cherokee Inlet. There was no
pearly vapor of swamp mist out here to shroud her from attack. The air
was clear and bright, with a robust breeze which stirred a flashing surf
on the shoals. Under lower sails, the two sloops watchfully crept nearer
until their crews could examine the stranded brig and read the story of
her plight. She stood on a slant with the decks sloped toward the enemy.
This made it impossible to use her guns with any great effect.

Captain Wellsby tacked ship and kept the _King George_ well away from
the cay, as Joe Hawkridge advised. With an ebbing tide, it was unsafe to
venture into shallower water in order to pound Blackbeard's vessel with
broadsides. Lieutenant Maynard came aboard in a small boat and was quite
the dandy with his brocaded coat and ruffles and velvet small-clothes.
One might have thought he had engaged to dance the minuet. Colonel
Stuart met him in a spick-and-span uniform of His Majesty's Foot,
cross-belts pipe-clayed white as snow, boots polished until they shone.
Such gentlemen were punctilious in war two hundred years ago.

"Your solid shot will not pound him much at this range, my good sir,"
said the lieutenant. "With his hull so badly listed toward us, you can
no more than splinter the decks while his men take shelter below."

"I grant you that," regretfully replied the soldier. "And case-shot will
not scatter to do him much harm. Shall I blaze away and demoralize the
rascals whilst you make ready your boats?"

"Toss a few rounds into the varlets, Colonel Stuart. It may keep them
from massing on deck. One boat from your ship, if it please you, with
twenty picked men. I shall take twenty men from each sloop as boarders."

"Sixty in all?" queried the colonel. "Why not take a hundred?"

"They would be tumbling over one another,--too much confusion. This is
not a large vessel yonder. We must have room on deck to swing and