e customhouse door and read it there
myself. The governor offers one hundred pounds for you, and fifty
pounds for your officers, and twenty pounds each for your men."

"Well, then," said Blackbeard, holding up his glass, "here, I wish 'em
good luck, and when they get their hundred pounds for me they'll be in
a poor way to spend it. As for the Hollands," said he, turning to
Captain Burley, "I know what you've got aboard here and what you
haven't. D'ye suppose ye can blind me? Very well, you send over two
kegs, and I'll let you go without search." The two captains were very
silent. "As for that Lieutenant Maynard you're all talking about,"
said Blackbeard, "why, I know him very well. He was the one who was so
busy with the pirates down Madagascar way. I believe you'd all like to
see him blow me out of the water, but he can't do it. There's nobody
in His Majesty's service I'd rather meet than Lieutenant Maynard. I'd
teach him pretty briskly that North Carolina isn't Madagascar."

* * * * *

On the evening of the twenty-second the two vessels under command of
Lieutenant Maynard came into the mouth of Ocracoke Inlet and there
dropped anchor. Meantime the weather had cleared, and all the vessels
but one had gone from the inlet. The one vessel that remained was a
New Yorker. It had been there over a night and a day, and the captain
and Blackbeard had become very good friends.

The same night that Maynard came into the inlet a wedding was held on
the shore. A number of men and women came up the beach in oxcarts and
sledges; others had come in boats from more distant points and across
the water.

The captain of the New Yorker and Blackbeard went ashore together a
little after dark. The New Yorker had been aboard of the pirate's
sloop for all the latter part of the afternoon, and he and Blackbeard
had been drinking together in the cabin. The New York man was now a
little tipsy, and he laughed and talked foolishly as he and Blackbeard
were rowed ashore. The pirate sat grim and silent.

It was nearly dark when they stepped ashore on the beach. The New York
captain stumbled and fell headlong, rolling over and over, and the
crew of the boat burst out laughing.

The people had already begun to dance in an open shed fronting upon
the shore. There were fires of pine knots in front of the building,
lighting up the interior with a red glare. A negro was playing a
fiddle somewhere inside, and the shed