e short-handed, and if
any or all of you will turn pirate and ship with me, I will let bygones
pass; but, if any of you choose not that, overboard you go. I will have
no unwilling rascals in my crew."

All but one of the men of the Badger, downcast, wounded, panting with
thirst and loving life, agreed to become pirates and to ship on board
the Revenge.

The first mate would not break his oath of allegiance to the king, and
he went overboard.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE ADDRESS OF THE LETTER

There was hard and ghastly work that day when the Revenge was cleared
after action, and there was lively and interesting work on board the
Badger when Blackbeard and his officers went over the captured vessel to
discover what new possessions they had won.

At first Blackbeard had thought to establish himself upon the corvette
and abandon the Revenge. It would have been such a grand thing to
scourge the seas in a British man-of-war with the Jolly Roger floating
over her. But this would have been too dangerous; the combined naval
force of England in American waters would have been united to put down
such presumption. So the wary pirate curbed his ambition.

Everything portable and valuable was stripped from the Badger--her guns
would have been taken had it been practicable to ship them to the
Revenge in a rising sea--and then she was scuttled, fired, and cast
off, and with her dead on board she passed out of commission in the
royal navy.

During the turmoil, the horror and the bringing aboard of pillage,
Dickory Charter had kept close below deck, his face in his hands and his
heart almost broken. It is so easy for young hearts to almost break.

When he had seen the British ship come sailing down upon them, hope had
sprung up brightly in his heart; now there was a chance of his escaping
from this hell of the waves. When the Revenge should be taken he would
rush to the British captain, or any one in authority, and tell his tale.
It would be believed, he doubted not; even his uniform would help to
prove he was no pirate; he would be taken away, he would reach Jamaica;
he would see Kate; he would carry to her the great news of her father.
After that his life could take care of itself.

But now the blackness of darkness was over everything. Those who were to
have been his friends had vanished, the ship which was to have given him
a new life had disappeared forever. He was on board the pirate ship,
bound for the shores of Engla