ed it, positively and
finally. "All I want," said he, in his usual dull, stolid fashion, "is
to have folks know I'm honest." Nevertheless, though he did not
accept what the agents of the packet offered, fate took the matter
into its own hands and rewarded him not unsubstantially. Blueskin was
taken to England in the _Scorpion_. But he never came to trial. While
in Newgate he hanged himself to the cell window with his own
stockings. The news of his end was brought to Lewes in the early
autumn and Squire Hall took immediate measures to have the five
hundred pounds of his father's legacy duly transferred to Hiram.

In November Hiram married the pirate's widow.

[Illustration: "There Cap'n Goldsack goes, creeping, creeping,
creeping, Looking for his treasure down below!"

_Illustration from_
CAP'N GOLDSACK

_by_ William Sharp

_Originally published in_
HARPER'S MAGAZINE, _July_, 1902]

Chapter VII

CAPTAIN SCARFIELD

PREFACE

[Illustration: CAPTAIN SCARFIELD]

_The author of this narrative cannot recall that, in any history of
the famous pirates, he has ever read a detailed and sufficient account
of the life and death of Capt. John Scarfield. Doubtless some data
concerning his death and the destruction of his schooner might be
gathered from the report of Lieutenant Mainwaring, now filed in the
archives of the Navy Department, but beyond such bald and bloodless
narrative the author knows of nothing, unless it be the little
chap-book history published by Isaiah Thomas in Newburyport about the
year 1821-22, entitled, "A True History of the Life and Death of
Captain Jack Scarfield." This lack of particularity in the history of
one so notable in his profession it is the design of the present
narrative in a measure to supply, and, if the author has seen fit to
cast it in the form of a fictional story, it is only that it may make
more easy reading for those who see fit to follow the tale from this
to its conclusion._

CAPTAIN SCARFIELD

I

Eleazer Cooper, or Captain Cooper, as was his better-known title in
Philadelphia, was a prominent member of the Society of Friends. He was
an overseer of the meeting and an occasional speaker upon particular
occasions. When at home from one of his many voyages he never failed
to occupy his seat in the meeting both on First Day and Fifth Day, and
he was regarded by his fellow townsmen as a model of business
integrity and of domestic responsibility.

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