Within the hearing of several, I stopped him. “Pike?”
He turned squarely to face me.
“Starting today you are sailing-master. You will direct the deck work, and the
handling of sails. You will report to me … and only to me.”
“Aye!”
“The ship is our home, Pike. It is also our fortress, our refuge. I wish it
treated so. If there comes a time when we must sail through the eye of a needle,
I want her ready. Do you understand?”
“I will do that. She will be ready, Captain.”
On the fifth day we sailed out of the harbor and set our course for the coast of
the great land to the west, but I chose a route that would hold us far at sea
and clear of the Gaspe.
Whoever the pirate was who had the claw hand, I had no quarrel with him. Let him
go his way, and I mine, and mine was for Raleigh’s land.
For three days the wind held true and we made good weather of it, seeing neither
land nor ship, nor wishing it. My intent was to reach for the south, closer to
home, and perhaps a Spanish ship.
On the sixth day in the morning watch there was a cry, “Sail ho!”
With the glass I’d found aboard I studied her. It was a small fishing vessel,
nothing aboard, no doubt, but hardworking fishermen and their catch, and I’d rob
no such man.
“The other would have,” Handsel said grimly. ” ‘Twas said he passed nothing!”
“And wasted his time,” I replied shortly, “judging by what’s below.”
Twice during the next few hours we sighted craft. One was another fishing
vessel; the second was an Icelandic boat. Having been dealt with so justly at
their hands, I had no intention of returning the favor by looting a craft that
might belong to some friend of Thorvald’s.
Now we moved in closer to the coast. It was a dangerous practice, and this I
knew, but I believed that most Spanish craft came north along the great warm
stream that flows along the coast of America until nearly opposite Raleigh’s
land, when they turned eastward for Spain.
We were still far tp the north, but there was ever a chance …
Pike was at my elbow. “Captain,” he spoke for my ears only, “there’s a vessel
beyond the island there.” He indicated the direction with a nod. “Over the
trees? Can you see?”
“Aye.” I directed my glass that way and saw it plain, only the tips of her masts
visible above the trees on the low, sandy island. Those masts should be showing
well above the trees, and I had an idea about that.
“Pike, have a look. What do you think of her masts?” He peered through the
glass, then turned to me. “She’s stepped her topm’sts, Captain. Whoever she is,
she’s stepped her topm’sts not to be visible. For some reason she’s lying up.”
“Aground?”
“She’s on an even keel. She’s making repairs, I’d say, or being looted.”
Taking the glass I studied the shore. The island was low and sandy with a few
sandhills covered with coarse grass, and the sandy ridge along the backbone of
the island was covered with pines.
There was a mild sea running and we eased the whipstaff to guide her in closer
along shore. I saw no sign of life anywhere.
Night was coming on and I liked not the look of the shore.
“Captain?” Pike said. “We’ve a man aboard knows this island.”
I lowered my glass, incredulously. “Aye, we call him Blue, for there’s an odd
color to his skin. He was fishing off the Banks and was blown away for several
days ahead of a storm. He once landed here for water … there’s springs on the
other side.”
“Have him up. I would speak with him.”
Still no sign of life or movement. Was she a dead ship, then? Or some trick of
the eye and no ship at all? Or were we watched from beneath the pines, yonder?
Blue was a lean, long-armed man with a face scarred by powder or some such
thing, giving it a blue cast. “I know her,” he said, “and there’s a fair
anchorage beyond the island, good holding ground if the weather be good. More
than one ship has watered there.”
It was growing dark, but through the glass which I handed him he could barely
make out the masts. “I’ve a feeling about her,” he said, taking the glass from
his eye, “and I’d be hard put to say the why of it, but I am certain sure she is
Flemish. My eyes are better than most and I seem to see a heart-shaped dead-eye
in her rig—and the Flemish do like them so.”
Under his guidance, and with careful use of the lead, we worked our way about
the end of the island, with no lights showing.
In a small cove Blue knew, we dropped our anchor and lowered a boat. With a
dozen men, I led a reconaissance.
Up the low, sandy shore, over the sandhills and along the edge of the trees.
Walking quietly was not an easy thing, for there was much debris—fallen limbs,
broken twigs, and leaves. Yet we managed it, and slowly, warily, we made our way
through the trees.
Blue caught my arm, pointing.
Not one ship, but two! Closer to the shore was a Flemish galleon, a fine craft
of a type they’d been building no more than ten or a dozen years, beautifully
ornamented along her gundeck. Obviously her masts had been stepped to avoid any
sudden escape, but her way out of the inlet was blocked by the other ship, of
which we could make out very little in the darkness.
An awning had been spread and several men were seated under it, drinking. At
least, three were drinking and the fourth sat opposite them, his hands tied
behind him. Further along the beach another fire had been lighted and we heard
shouting and laughter from there, drunken laughter, it seemed.
“A fine place!” One of the men was saying. “A dozen times I’ve used it, and a
dozen good ships looted and their loot taken aboard our own craft at our
leisure.”
He pointed a finger at the bound man. “Come now! We know there’s gold aboard,
and the gold we will have, or we’ll take your hide off, an inch at a time.”
He was a big man, by the look of him, although he was seated on a cask. He had a
dark, saturnine look about him, with a taunting, evil face, and his companions
looked no better. I glanced toward the beach to see how many men were there …
a dozen? More … many more.
At least thirty, and there might be fifty. How many were left aboard? And was
there anybody on the captured vessel?
Abruptly, I turned and led the way back out of the brush. “Blue, keep an eye on
that ship.” I pointed to the captured vessel. “Let no one see you, but keep an
eye on them. If there’s any move, come to me at once.”
On the shore we got into the boat, and in a matter of minutes I was sitting in
the aftercabin of the fluyt with Pike and Handsel.
“You will stay with the fluyt,” I told Handsel. “At the first light, bring her
off the mouth of their cove, and have her ready for action. Can you do it with a
dozen men?”
“With this craft I can. The Dutch build their ships to be worked by few hands.”
“Bring her around at daylight, then, and train your guns on the pirate ship, but
do not fire unless fired upon.”
Turning to Pike, I said, “You take a dozen men and seize the ship. Go around by
boat … ’tis all in darkness yonder by their ship. Slip aboard and take over.
When you have her, run up a white flag or any bit of white cloth on the
fo’m’st.”
“And you?”
“We’ll go the way we went before, meet Blue, and take the master of the ship and
his prisoners. Be wary now, I want to lose no men, but if you move with
swiftness and silence you’ll have them. Most of the crew is ashore and drunk.”
Pike turned to leave. “Pike?” He stopped. “I trust in your judgment. If at any
point you think the job cannot be done, return to the fluyt. You’ll get no
argument from me.”
All was dark and still when we next came through the pines. The fires still
flickered on the beach, but few men stirred. Most were already in a drunken
sleep.
Under the awning the three men sat, still baiting the captured captain. “You
have until daybreak. Think it over,” the pirate was saying, “or else we’ll skin
you alive.”
Softly I came to the edge of the pines. The wind had swept clear the sand upon