The Green Flag

g parties found their occupation gone. Some took to the more peaceful but less lucrative ways of ordinary commerce, others were absorbed into the fishing fleets, and a few

ally to careen in some lonely inlet, or putting in for a debauch at some outlying port, whe

the pirates were a constant menace. With an insolent luxury they would regulate their depredations by the comfort

r prisoners according to the drunken whim of the moment. Flashes of grotesque generosity alternated with longer stretches of inconceivable ferocity, and the skipper who fell into their hands might find himself dismissed with his cargo, after

terre. St. Kitt's was his final port of call, and early next morning his bowsprit would be pointed for Old England. He had had enough of those robber-haunted seas. Ever since he had left Maracaibo upon the Main, with his full lading of

ble ferocity. From the Bahamas to the Main his coal-black barque, with the ambiguous name, had been freighted with death and many things which are worse than death. So nervous was Captain Scarrow, with his new full-rigged ship, and

oard, and showed a dried-up tongue like a black and wrinkled fungus at the back of his mouth. Water and nursing soon transformed him into the strongest and smarte

nce committed it to the deep, lest the temptation should be more than he could bear. He had lived upon his own huge frame until, at the last moment, the Morning Star had found him in that madness which is the precursor of such a dea

was at an end, and yet the thought of him lay heavily upon the seaman's m

irst mate, "that the agent will speak of Sharkey

ver dollar, and chance it," said th

n-clad steersman sprang up the ladder. "Welcome, Capta

n grinned

as he been up t

afe under lock and key at Basseterre. He was tried las

as forgotten as they scrambled up through the break of the poop to hear the news. The New Englander

. "You don't know, Master Agent,

e mate, whose outraged

interest at the news.

he lightest heart that

e villain t

ngles to the south of the Mysteriosa Bank, and there he was found by a Portobello trader, who brought him in. There was talk of sending him to Jamaica to be tried, but our good little

tfully, "but I am sadly behind time now

agent with decision. "The Go

Gover

e fly-boat that brought it has gone on to Virginia. So Sir Charles ha

s spoke to one. But if it's in King George's service, and he asks a cast in the Morning Star as far as London, I'll do what I can for him. There's my own cabin he can have and

gue, and it is likely he will keep his cabin most of the voyage. Dr. Larousse said that he would have sunk had the hanging of Sharkey

ng the ship," said the captain. "He is Governor of St. Kitt's, but I am Governor of the Morning Star, and, by

ht, for he has many things to

morning t

ail upon him to leave St. Kitt's without seeing Sharkey do the rogue's hornpipe. His own orders were insta

brought off to vary the plain food of an ocean-going trader. In the evening the Governor's baggage began to arrive-great iron-bound ant-proof trunks, and official tin packing-cases, with other strange-shaped packages, which suggested the cocked hat or the swo

supported by a thick bamboo cane. He wore a Ramillies wig, all twisted into little tails like a poodle's coat, and cut so low across the brow that the large green glasses which covered his eyes looked as if they were hung from it. A fierce beak of a nose, very long and very thin, cut the air in front of him. His ague had caused him to

my things?

Sir Ch

ou wine

ered five c

tob

a keg of

a hand a

ly well

hor up, a

the morning haze, the ship was hull down from the islands. The decrepit G

. "They are counting the days till I come to Westmins

nch, Sir

fear, Captain Scarrow, that you will find a blind

ng your Excellency's soc

at your eyes shoul

cursed glare of the su

has gone far to

t you had been plague

pyrexy, which has

ide a cabin fo

amongst the merchants. But hark!" He raised his ring-covered band in

e captain in astonishment. "Can i

ed this morning. I ordered the batteries to salute when the rascal was kickin

ook up the cry as they gathered in little knots upon the deck

an immediate trial and sentence, the villain might have played upon some more venal judge and so escaped. At dinner that day Sir Charles gave many anecdotes of the deceased pirate; and so aff

Sharkey cut in the do

some presence,"

at he was an ugly, sneering

ld look ugly upon occasi

et his eyes," said Captain Scarrow. "They were of the lightest

scribe, and added that the jury was so foolish as to be visibly discomposed when it was turned upon them. It is well for them that he is dead, for he was

ate might come to be their own. Another bottle was broached to drink to a pleasant voyage, and the Governor would drink just one other on the top of it, so that the seamen were glad at last to stagger off-the one to his watch, and the other to his bunk. B

he was sick," said he, "and God forbid that I sho

qualities of wine might point to him in triumph, for never a night passed that he did not repeat the performance of his first one. And yet be would be out upon deck in the early morning as fresh and brisk as the best of them, peering about with his weak eyes, and asking questions about the sails and the rigging, for he was anxious to learn t

s a pleasure to the big American to lend his arm to the invalid, and at night he would stand with all respect behind his chair in the cabin and lay his great stub-nailed forefin

his bamboo cane would whistle up over his shoulders. He cracked it once over the head of the carpenter when the man had accidentally jostled him upon the deck. Once, too, when there was some grumbling and talk of a mutiny over the state of the provisions, he was of opinion that they sho

official position, a stout prop of the House of Hanover, and he swore in his cups that he had never met a Jacobite without pistolling him where he stood. Yet for all his vapo

ont of her. Next morning they would pick up their pilot at the Foreland, and Sir Charles might meet the King's ministers at Westminster before the evening. The boatswain had the watch, and the three friends were met for a last turn of cards in the cabin, the faithful American s

's mine!"

Captain Scarrow; "you have not played o

at you are a loser." He whipped off his wig and his glasses as he spoke, and there was a

ied the mate.

upon the scattered cards in front of him, and he burst into his high, neighing laugh. "Captain Sharkey is the name, gentlemen," said he, "and this is Roaring Ned Galloway, the quartermaster of th

st of his frieze jacket. "If it's my last breath, Sharkey, I tell you that you

pretty death of it!" cried Sharkey. "There's no one aft save the man at the wheel,

y, cap

ther boats

em all in t

w. You look as if you hadn't quite got your bear

evil himself!" cried th

of St.

e Governor was starting for Europe under a master who had never seen him. I climbed his verandah, and I paid him the little debt that I owed him. Then I came aboard you with suc

d down on his head, and he dropped like a pithed ox. Scarrow rushed for the door, but

arkey. "Let us see you go down on

ied Scarrow, shaki

m round, Ned.

f you twis

of your kni

ix inches, and

, and it's a pity so stout a man should not take to the only trade where a pretty fellow can pick up a living. You mu

stove, c

Galloway, unless they are called for, or I'll let you know which of us

eant to roast him!" s

o not mean to

y, it is still for me to command and for you to obey. Si

n the table. With the quick dexterity of a seaman, he tied his spread-eagled hands and feet with a rope which was pass

foremast hand with the spirit of a mouse. I see there are some small craft about, and we shall get one of them. When Captain Sharkey has a boat he can get a smack, when he has a smack he can get a brig

where the dinghy hung in the stern. Then, still struggling and writhing, he heard the creak of the falls and the splash of the boat in the water. In a mad fury he tore and dragged at

away the long-boat! Clear away the gig! Sharkey, the pirate, is in yonder dingh

gig, but in an instant the coxswains and crews w

!" they cried. "They ar

, with neither wind nor the promise of it. The sails flapped idly in the moonlight. Far away lay a fishing-smack, wi

f the fishing-boat. There were two rapid pistol-shots, a scream, and then another pistol-shot, followed by silence. The clustering fishermen had disappeared. And then, sudden