The Voyage of the Hoppergrass

ey are still disputing whether he was a pirate or not. If he was one, he didn't take to it until late in life, and he'd been a per

for something," sai

e were a lot of others who went out to catch pirates, but ended by turning pirates themselves. Then there were some who just carried on pirating as a kind of branch

wreckers

the ships upon the rocks. That was a pretty mean sort of thing! They couldn't pick out a rich galleon, all full of gold ingots, and then fight for the treasure, like pirates and gentlemen! No; they had to take whatever came along

ship of his grand-father,-old Black Pedro the First. The old man, the grand-father, was captured once by an Admiral of the English Navy, and taken to Tyburn to be hanged. You see he was such a prominent pirate that they wouldn't just string him up to the yard arm, like a common buccaneer. He was tried with the greatest ceremony, and sentenced to

irm in San Domingo, who made a specialty of pirate ships. It was the very latest thing in that kind of vessel, strong, swift, heavily armed, and

?" This fro

you'd ever been to school. Why, THE PLANK,-the one that the pirate

, y

cutlasses and eight pistols. And he had two or three more pistols in each boot. He had a fierce, black beard, and the most ferocious face you can imagine. He scared some people to death by just GLARING at them. And his own son was first mate,-he was almost as ferocious as old Pedro the First. And HIS son-the grandson, that is, of Pedro the First-was cabin boy. It was the boy's first voyage. Before they had been out a week they fell in with 'El E

k it's about tim

pers running w

d went and inspe

e said,

till they are,' or

rs to board. That was why he was the prince of pirates,-it was his attention to details, to the little things that make up the difference between a real

and the cabin-boy waiting for them with cutlasses. The three Pedros, father, son, and grandson, engaged them according to rank, and finished them off at the same moment. The rest of the Spanish crew had been subdued in the me

of the galleon were lined up on deck, awaiting their fate, o

at all eyes were on him, 'w

ed: 'Fetch o

a pause. No

old Pedro, 'don't you hea

'n, Aaron Halyard

he pirate chief, 'well, why don't you fetch out T

his forelock, and bo

I have a word with yer private-like? Lemme

ispering here. What's the matter with you an

'you know ME. I've been with you ever since you begun. I was with you

tified in all my life-specially in front of all the gentry here,' pointing his thumb towar

screamed

elf, an' I'd a- taken my affydavy I put her under my bunk, but when I looked for her, when we fust sighted this he

rt!' Pedro r

. Once he raised his cutlass and seemed about to sweep off

e, think! Can't you remem

he stood there, quaking, a sudden gl

. The cook wanted an ironin' boa

n he rushed below, and in a few minutes came back, nervously tearing off some s

lowed Pedro, 'now put

pleasure of starting the long procession of victims who

s terrible picture of the Black Angel, struck terror to the heart of every man afloat. Even men-of-war fought shy of the three Pedros. Once 'The Angel of Death' rounded the Cape of Good Hope and attacked a treasure fleet on its way back from the Indies. On t

d, during his usual duel with the captain of the merchantman, and then he foolishly sat down in a draft while he ate his breakfast. He had a bad attack of rheumatism, and it made it very hard for

e all sailing for Spain,' he grumbled, 'I don'

bo's'n,-the same one who came so near to botching everything in the first fight. He said good-bye to them all, and gave some good advice to the younge

gel' had a most profitable voyage. Gold and silver from the mines of Peru, diamonds from Brazil, rubies and other kinds of precious stones,-oh, I tell you, the pirates sailed back to Rum Island that winter, chuckling with glee at the thought of the wealth they had won. They had with them the Governor General of the Antilles, a Spanish grandee of the very highest kind. They held him for ransom, and made the King of Spain pay fifty thousand dollars

in at Alligator Key, for a few weeks one summer, and while they were there some friend presented the captain with a water-melon. He ate it at supper that night, and as it was unripe, it disagreed with him. Several glasses

ory and came and sat down wi

asn't a shoal or a passage, an inlet or a creek from one end of the Spanish Main to the other that they didn't know. Black Pedro spread terror into far corners of the ocean, where neither his father nor grand-father had ever been heard of. They would have been pr

and the cannon-balls flying, Black Pedro stood amid the smoke, in his velvet suit, his black beard bristling with rage, and his face bearing an expression ten times more ferocious than his grand- father's at its worst. He noted carefully the precise moment when the scuppers were running with blood, and then

e treasure at the pirates' lair, and six more days to bury it in the ground. Think how they felt when the last shovelful of earth was put in, how the sense of work well done filled

e, smoking his pipe. This cottage was his regular dwelling place, while he was at Rum Island. From the veranda he could

is cane. Behind him walked the entire crew of the 'Angel,' two by two. They were heading toward their Captain's cottage. This was not only astonishing, but it was strictly against the rules, as all interviews with the Capta

'we'd like to hav

Black Pedro, 'w

Sandy Buggins, an' Roarin' Pete, an' some on us has stuck to the 'Angel' since the day she was built. There aint any on us but has seen more'n twenty years sarvice with you or yer father. Now some on us got talkin' over things today, and talkin' 'bout the big haul o' treasure we made last v'y'ge from tha

ed a little, as he remembered the

sir, all on a suddent like, it come over us

d?' asked

' what good is it all a-doin' of, a-buried in the ground? The book-keeper here, Mike the Shark, was a-reckonin' up this morning, an' a-addin'

he precise sum to date is nine hundred and sixty-six thousand

in', an' a-shootin' folks, an a-stabbin' on 'em, an' a-slittin' of their wind-pipes, a

sked Black Pedro again. His

ike some of our share of the mon

nued the pirate chief, 'what

ol' sailor-man, for speakin' right out. An' we'd like somethin' good to eat, an' somethin' good to drink. Look at me: risin' eighty-six year, I be, an' aint never tasted nothin' all my life 'cept salt-hoss, an' ship-bread, an'

nts,' corrected

e island? Nothin'. Here I am-an' here we all be-scorched an' burnt by the sun, and bit by these here scorpions, an' oth

four feet into the air, and gave

ed to see this day! Thankful am I that my father and grand-father are safe in their graves! This would have broken th

is feet in the sand, and

, but what in Sancho HAVE we

moan, and then ano

undrels,-out of my sight! What? You defy me,

left. The first shot hit Mike the Shark and doubled up the book-keepe

, 'p'r'aps you'll tell us what all this p

know. It was for the pure love of the thing. And to think that a

e brothers, had changed into a blood-thirsty mob. Knives flashed and pistols cracked. Some of them hit each other in their excitement, and that made them so angry that they turned and fought amongst themselves. In the meantime, the Captain was firing his pistols and slashing with his cutlasses, and making terrible havoc amongst his followers. In ten minu

don't you tech me!'

he ship. There was no other boat, and Pedro could only watch him. The old man rowed to 'The Angel of Death,' climbed aboard, and commenced, with the help of the boy, who had been left there, to get up the foresail. Then they hoisted the a

hat 'The Angel of Death' had gone to pieces in the storm. When The Plank itself, worn smooth on its upper side by the hundreds of feet that had passed over it, was tossed upon the shores of Rum Island, the pirate sat down on the sand and sobbed aloud. He knew

he lives to