his thigh. He had bled badly.
He looked up at me. ‘Tm sorry,” he said.
“Sorry? You did very well,” I said. “Sakim will take care of you.”
It had needed no more than a minute or two for me to see that Sakim worked
swiftly, surely, and with confidence. I had no further doubts.
There had been a surplus of poles cut when the stockade was under construction,
and from these a new gate was being made.
Food was being put on the table when a messenger came from the Abigail. The hole
in the hull had been temporarily repaired and the water was being pumped out,
but extensive repairs would yet be needed before she was seaworthy again.
There was no word from Pim Burke and Wa-ga-su regarding the Jolly Jack. Abigail
was in our cabin meanwhile, and I sat down there.
“Did you mean it?” I said, “A son?”
“Well,” she hesitated, “a child, anyway. I can’t promise a son.”
“It would be easier for a son,” I said. “Here.”
She nodded seriously. “You know, I never thought of that until now. It is one
thing for a boy to grow up in this wilderness. But a girl? Here … so far from
everything. Could she become a lady?”
“Wherever she grows up,” I said, “your daughter would be a lady.”
We talked of that, and of other things, and with one ear listened for the
trouble we knew would come.
Pim Burke came in. He accepted a flagon of ale and sat down opposite me.
The Jolly Jack’s not badly hurt. Bowsprit gone, sprits’l and sprit-tops’l gone.
Some damage to the bow. Most of her bulwark amidships is gone, and up to when we
left they’d buried three men over the side.”
He swallowed some ale, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Her
main-tops’l yard is gone. Crashed to the deck. Several guns or gun-carriages
damaged, but she’s able to go to sea.”
He paused. “I wonder if he knows how shallow the water is out there in the
sound? He might run aground.”
“I hope he doesn’t,” I said frankly. “I want him out of here.”
“Aye, I was thinkin’ on that.” Pim looked up at me. “You plannin’ to stay here?”
He paused again.
Outside the wind stirred slightly. I could hear the men working to repair the
gate.
“I’m going to the mountains, Pim,” I said, “when spring comes.”
“They’ll not all go with you, Barnabas,” he said quietly. “There’s been talk.
Some think we should take the Abigail and go a-pirating, and some are for trade,
but many are restless now that the work’s finished.”
It was no hard thing to understand. They were far from others of their kind, and
we’d seen no ships but Bardle’s.
The sound was shallow. There were places where, if a man was careful, he could
guide a vessel through the water and into the rivers in safety, yet there were
shoals here and there, and floods from upriver kept them changing.
A large vessel could not well navigate in the sound unless during a time when
the rivers were in flood. Abigail, if well-handled, could do it.
“Who’s the leader of those who would be pirates?” I asked.
“Jonathan Delve.”
I well knew the man. A good gunner, a fierce fighter, and a tall, sallow-cheeked
man with a spotty black beard and always-watchful eyes.
“So Delve’s their leader now?”
“Aye. He says nothing of you, mind you. Delve is a wily one, and you’ll not
catch him out. Only he’s talking of going a-pirating … of ships to be had off
the coast. He’s already come to me twice, wanting a boat with which to explore.
I think he’s got something on his mind, Barnabas. I’ve watched him … and
listened. He’s been on this coast before.”
“How many of them are there?”
Pim shrugged. “It could be five, it could be more … They’re restless, like I
said.”
Pim paused, drank some ale, and then said, “Delve came up with something …
pointblank. Asked me if I’d ever heard of a man named Chantry.”
“Chantry?”
“Aye. You mayn’t have heard of him, being in the fens, like. He was talked about
along the waterfront of Bristol, and in the dives. He was Irish, they say, but
there seems some mystery about him. He had great skill with arms, but was a
trading man … or so it seemed. He put money in a voyage to America, and went
along.”
“What happened to him?” I asked.
“Well, he was lost ashore. Indians attacked a watering party and he was killed
with the others and the ship pulled off … only he wasn’t dead.”
“So?”
“He showed up again in Bristol, a-sailing of his own ship, but how he come by it
or a crew, no man could say. He unloaded a few mast-timbers, sold some
freshwater pearls and some dried fish, but when he pulled out of Bristol his
ship was still deep in the water. There was a lot of talk. You know how it is
around the harbor dives. Was it treasure he had aboard? Where did he get his
ship and his treasure, if any? Where did he get a crew? And where had he been
all that time?
“The next thing known is that he slipped out of harbor, and when we heard of him
again he’d set himself up in western Ireland. Living like a King he is, him and
the girl.”
“Girl?”
“Aye. He was married to her, they say. Some say she was a Spanish lass, and some
say an Indian. But she was beautiful, rarely, wonderfully beautiful … and
different.”
“He was a lucky man, then. Fortune and a beautiful woman,” I said.
“Aye,” Pim said, “I should be so lucky! But that is not all of the story. There
was gossip about it, and Delve has heard it all. Chantry had looted a Spanish
galleon of its treasure, they say. Some say he captured it, some that he found
it deserted but for the girl. He took a shipload of treasure from it.”
“It’s a good story.”
“Aye, but the story that Delve likes is that he only brought back a small part
of the treasure—that his ship wasn’t large enough to take the whole, and that
the biggest part of the treasure is still in the bottom of the ship.”
“And where is the ship?”
“Run ashore on some island or other, laying there for the taking.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Some years back … maybe twenty … I don’t know. Point is, from the
description they got, they think it is somewhere near here. The story is told of
some barrier islands, and sounds into which rivers flowed.”
I shrugged. “Pim, this whole coast is like that, for miles and miles.”
Nevertheless I was remembering a ship in which I had taken shelter, a ship
almost buried in sand on the shore of a river islet … a ship that might be
buried or swept out to sea by this time. I said nothing.
“Put a couple of men to watch the Jolly Jack, Pim. Have them report her every
move.” I got up, thinking of Delve, and well knowing the lure of gold. I might
lose almost all who were with me, leaving us vulnerable for any attack.
Now many things that had been keeping their shadows in the back of my mind came
to the fore. What future, beyond the promise of land, could I offer those with
me?
Other colonists would eventually come … but when? How long, I thought, must we
wait? Most of us were young, but I think that no two men age at the same rate,
or learn equal sums from experience. Some men learn by their years, others
simply live through them.
I found Jublain at once. It took me only a moment to explain.
“Aye,” he said gloomily, “I have had a feeling about Delve, but he has had a
feeling about me, so I’d likely be the last he’d speak to.”
That night, the Jolly Jack sailed away, to the great relief of all.
It was only later that I discovered Delve had spread the word very well indeed.
On the morning after, he came to me with three other men.
Delve hooked his thumbs in his belt. He was smiling, a kind of taunting,
challenging smile it was. “We be going to hunt for gold,” he said. “We’ve heard
there’s a treasure ship nearby, run aground and beached.”
“I know of no such treasure ship,” I replied.
Jeremy Ring and Jublain had come to stand beside me.
“Aye, well, mayhap you’ve your own reasons for not sharing your knowledge with
us,” he said, still smiling. “But mayn’t we hunt on our own?” His sharp little
eyes probed mine. “Unless you would try to stop us.”
“Why should I do that? Go ahead. You’ve my permission, if it is needed. Only