mile from the flag-ship,
he would be sunk with the vessel and all on board. The loss of the bark
and some men would be nothing compared to the maintenance of discipline,
quoth the planter pirate.

Bonnet's ambition rose still higher and higher. He was not content with
being a relentless pirate, bloody if need be, but he longed for
recognition, for a position among his fellow-terrors of the sea, which
should be worthy of a truly wicked reputation. A pirate bold, he would
consort with pirates bold. So he set sail for the Gulf of Honduras, then
a great rendezvous for piratical craft of many nations. If the father of
Kate Bonnet had captured and burned a dozen ships, and had forced every
sailor and passenger thereupon to walk a plank, he would not have sinned
more deeply in the eyes, of Dickory Charter than he did by thus
ruthlessly, inhumanly, hard-heartedly, and altogether shamefully
ignoring and pitilessly passing by that island on which dwelt an angel,
his own daughter.

But Bonnet declared to the young man that it would now be dangerous for
him and his ship to approach the harbour of Kingston, generally the
resort of British men-of-war, but in the waters of Honduras he could not
fail to find some quiet merchant ship by which he could send a message
to his daughter. Ay! and in which--and the pirate's eye glistened with
parental joy as this thought came into his mind--he might, disguised as
a plain gentleman, make a visit to Mistress Kate and to his good
brother-in-law, Delaplaine.

So Dickory was now to be satisfied, and even to admit that there might
be some good common sense in these remarks of that most uncommon pirate,
Captain Bonnet.

So the Revenge, with her tender, sailed southward, through the fair
West-Indian waters and by the fair West-Indian isles, to join herself to
the piratical fleet generally to be found in the waters of Honduras.

CHAPTER XIV

A GIRL TO THE FRONT

The days were getting very long at Spanish Town, although there were no
more hours of sunlight than was usual at the season; and even the
optimism of Dame Charter was scarcely able to brighten her own soul,
much less that of Kate Bonnet, who had almost forgotten what it was to
be optimistic. Poor Mr. Delaplaine, whose life had begun to cheer up
wonderfully since the arrival of his niece and her triumphant entry into
the society of the town, became more gloomy than he had been since the
months which followed the death of his wi