rite some letters, which I shall ask you to take to Bridgetown
with you. I shall be ready by the time the rest of your cargo is
removed."

"Oh, don't do that!" cried Ben; "there is surely pen an' paper here,
close to your hand. Go down to Captain Marchand's cabin an' write your
letters."

"No, no," cried Bonnet, "I have my own conveniences." And with that he
leaped on board the Revenge.

"That's a chance gone," said Ben Greenway to Captain Marchand, "a good
chance gone. If we could hae kept him on board here an' down in your
cabin, I might hae passed the word to that big miscreant, the
sailing-master, to cast off an' get awa' wi' that wretched crowd. The
scoundrels will be glad to steal the ship, an' it will be the salvation
o' Master Bonnet if they do it."

"If that's the case," said Captain Marchand, "why should we resort to
trickery? If his men want his ship and don't want him, why can't we
seize him when he comes on board with his letters, and then let his men
know that they are free to go to the devil in any way they please? Then
we can convey Major Bonnet to his home, to repentance, perhaps, and a
better life."

"That's good," said Ben, "but no' to punishment. Ye an' I could testify
that his head is turned, but that, when kindness to a neebour is
concerned, his heart is all right."

"Ay, ay," said the captain, "I could swear to that. And now we must act
together. When I put my hand on him, you do the same, and give him no
chance to use his sword or pistols."

The captain of the pirates sat down in his well-furnished little room to
write his letters, and the noise and confusion on deck, the swearing and
the singing and the shouting to be heard everywhere, did not seem to
disturb him in the least. He was a man whose mind could thoroughly
engage itself with but one thing at a time, and the fact that his men
were at work sacking the merchantman did not in the least divert his
thoughts from his pen and paper.

So he quietly wrote to his wife that he had embraced a pirate's life,
that he never expected to become a planter again, and that he left to
her the enjoyment and management of his estate in Barbadoes. He hoped
that, his absence having now relieved her of her principal reason for
discontent with her lot, she would become happy and satisfied, and
would allow those about her to be the same. He expected to send Ben
Greenway back to her to help take care of her affairs, but if she should
need further advice