tell!" roared the boatswain. "D'ye suppose
I've never been down here before, not to know that every man about here
knows the passes of the shoals?"

The fellow still held his pipe in his hand. He looked at another one of
the men. "Do you know the passes in over the shoals, Jem?" said he.

The man to whom he spoke was a young fellow with long, shaggy, sunburnt
hair hanging over his eyes in an unkempt mass. He shook his head,
grunting, "Na--I don't know naught about t' shoals."

"'Tis Lieutenant Maynard of His Majesty's navy in command of them
vessels out there," said the boatswain. "He'll give any man five pound
to pilot him in." The men on the wharf looked at one another, but still
no one spoke, and the boatswain stood looking at them. He saw that they
did not choose to answer him. "Why," he said, "I believe you've not got
right wits--that's what I believe is the matter with you. Pull me up
to the landing, men, and I'll go ashore and see if I can find anybody
that's willing to make five pound for such a little bit of piloting as
that."

After the boatswain had gone ashore the loungers still stood on the
wharf, looking down into the boat, and began talking to one another for
the men below to hear them. "They're coming in," said one, "to blow poor
Blackbeard out of the water." "Aye," said another, "he's so peaceable,
too, he is; he'll just lay still and let 'em blow and blow, he will."
"There's a young fellow there," said another of the men; "he don't look
fit to die yet, he don't. Why, I wouldn't be in his place for a thousand
pound." "I do suppose Blackbeard's so afraid he don't know how to see,"
said the first speaker.

At last one of the men in the boat spoke up. "Maybe he don't know how to
see," said he, "but maybe we'll blow some daylight into him afore we get
through with him."

Some more of the settlers had come out from the shore to the end of the
wharf, and there was now quite a crowd gathering there, all looking at
the men in the boat. "What do them Virginny 'baccy-eaters do down here
in Caroliny, anyway?" said one of the newcomers. "They've got no call to
be down here in North Caroliny waters."

"Maybe you can keep us away from coming, and maybe you can't," said a
voice from the boat.

"Why," answered the man on the wharf, "we could keep you away easy
enough, but you ben't worth the trouble, and that's the truth."

There was a heavy iron bolt lying near the edge of the landing. One of
the men upon