heard the great sea oaths which he was accustomed to pour forth now.
And his daughter, she must be a strapping wench by this time; he was
sure she could stand a slap on the back which would kill her mother.

Yes, there should be a wedding, a fine wedding, and good old rum should
water the earth. And he would detail a boat's crew of jolly good fellows
from the Revenge to help make things uproarious. This Charter boy and
Eliza should have a house of their own, with plenty of money--he had
more funds in hand than ever in his life before--and his respectable
son-in-law should go to London and deposit his fortune in a bank. It
would be royal fun to think of him and Eliza highly respectable and with
money in the bank. A quart of the best rum could scarcely have made
Blackbeard more hilarious than did this glorious notion. He danced among
his crew; he singed beards; he whacked with capstan bars; he pushed men
down hatchways; he was in lordly spirits, and his crew expected some
great adventure, some startling piece of deviltry.

Of course he did not keep his great design from Dickory--it was too
glorious, too transcendent. He took his young admiral into his cabin and
laid before him his dazzling future.

Dickory sat speechless, almost breathless. As he listened he could feel
himself turn cold. Had any one else been talking to him in this strain
he would have shouted with laughter, but people did not laugh at
Blackbeard.

When the pirate had said all and was gazing triumphantly at poor
Dickory, the young man gasped a word in answer; he could not accept this
awful fate without as much as a wave of the hand in protest.

"But, sir," said he, "if--"

Blackbeard's face grew black; he bent his head and lowered upon the pale
Dickory, then, with a tremendous blow, he brought down his fist upon the
table.

"If Eliza will not have you," he roared; "if that girl will not take you
when I offer you to her; if she or her mother as much as winks an
eyelash in disobedience of my commands, I will take them by the hair of
their heads and I will throw them into the sea. If she will not have
you," he repeated, roaring as if he were shouting through a speaking
trumpet in a storm, "if I thought that, youngster, I would burn the
house with both of them in it, and the rum I had bought to make a jolly
wedding should be poured on the timbers to make them blaze. Let no
notions like that enter your mind, my boy. If she disobeys me, I will
cook her