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Page 42
"Where is your Captain?" roared their conqueror.
The Captain came trembling forward.
"Bring to me your gold and silver, your jewels and your precious
stones, and your rich stuffs!"
The Captain ordered these to be quickly brought and placed before the
Reformed Pirate, who continued to stride to and fro across the deck
waving his glittering blade, and who, when he saw the treasures placed
before him, shouted again:
"Prepare for scuttling!" and then, while the women got down on their
knees and begged that he would not sink the ship, and the children
cried, and the men trembled so that they could hardly kneel straight,
and the Captain stood pale and shaking before him, he glanced at the
pile of treasure, and touched it with his sword.
"Aboard with this, my men!" he said. "But first I will divide it. I
will divide this into,--into,--into _one_ part. Look here!" and then
he paused, glanced around, and clapped his hand to his head. He looked
at the people, the treasure and the ship. Then suddenly he sheathed his
sword, and stepping up to the Captain, extended his hand.
"Good sir," said he, "you must excuse me. This is a mistake. I had no
intention of taking this vessel. It was merely a temporary absence of
mind. I forgot I had reformed, and seeing this ship, old scenes and my
old business came into my head, and I just came and took the vessel
without really thinking what I was doing. I beg you will excuse me. And
these ladies,--I am very sorry to have inconvenienced them. I ask them
to overlook my unintentional rudeness."
"Oh, don't mention it!" cried the Captain, his face beaming with joy as
he seized the hand of the Reformed Pirate. "It is of no importance, I
assure you. We are delighted, sir, delighted!"
"Oh yes!" cried all the ladies. "Kind sir, we are charmed! We are
charmed!"
"You are all very good indeed," said the Reformed Pirate, "but I really
think I was not altogether excusable. And I am very sorry that I made
your men bring up all these things."
"Not at all! not at all!" cried the Captain. "No trouble whatever to
show them. Very glad indeed to have the opportunity. By the by, would
you like to take a few of them, as a memento of your visit?"
"Oh no, I thank you," replied the Reformed Pirate, "I would rather
not."
"Perhaps, then, some of your men might like a trinket or a bit of
cloth--"
"Oh, I have no men! There is no one on board but myself--excepting a
little girl, who is a passenger. But I must be going. Good-by,
Captain!"
"I am sorry you are in such a hurry," said the Captain. "Is there
anything at all that I can do for you?"
"No, thank you. But stop!--there may be something. Do you sail to any
port where there is a trade in tidies?"
"Oh yes! To several such," said the Captain.
"Well, then, I would be very much obliged to you," said the Reformed
Pirate, "if you would sometimes stop off that point that you see there,
and send a boat ashore to my house for a load of tidies."
"You manufacture them by the quantity, then?" asked the Captain.
"I expect to," said the other, sadly.
The Captain promised to stop, and, after shaking hands with every
person on deck, the Reformed Pirate went down the side of the ship, and
taking in his ladder and his grapnels, he pushed off.
As he slowly sailed away, having lowered his flag, the Captain looked
over the side of his ship, and said:
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