as had been done in the Chesapeake. Turning
so that they could hear, he added, "Too many Indians in these woods for
the lads to try to leave the ship." Jeremy, who had seen enough of both
pirates and Indians to last him a lifetime, remarked to his friend that
personally he would risk his neck with one as soon as the other, but Bob
had heard terrible stories of the red men's cruelty and did not agree
with him. "We'd best stay aboard and wait for a better chance," he
argued.

All three of the sloops were leaky and needed a thorough overhauling in
various ways. As soon as the _Francis_ was off the bar, therefore, they
proceeded up the estuary for a distance of nearly two miles and secured
their vessels in shallow water, where they could be careened at low
tide.

Next morning and for many hot days thereafter the pirates and their
prisoners toiled hard at the refitting of the ships. Lumber was not easy
to come by in that desolate region and when they had used up all their
spare planking, Bonnet took the _Royal James_ out over the bar to hunt
for the wherewithal to do his patching. After a cruise of a day and a
night to the southward they sighted a small fishing shallop which they
quickly overtook, and captured without a fight. The two men in the
shallop jumped overboard and swam ashore when they saw the black flag,
and Bonnet was too much occupied in getting the prize back to the
river-mouth to give chase. It was an unfortunate thing for him that he
did not do so, but of that presently. The shallop was run into the
river-mouth and broken up the next day. With the fresh supply of lumber
thus secured, the work of repair went forward undelayed, and within a
few weeks the sloops were almost ready for sea again.

CHAPTER XX

It had been about the beginning of September when the pirate fleet had
sighted the live oaks on the bars of the Cape Fear River. To Bob and
Jeremy those first days were uneventful but hardly pleasant. Through the
long still afternoons a pitiless sun blazed into every corner of the
deck. Wide flats and hot-looking white dunes stretched away on either
hand. Only the line of woods half a mile distant offered a suggestion of
green coolness. When the sun had set the fo'c's'le held the heat like a
baker's oven. One long, tossing night of it sufficed for the two boys,
and after that they sought a corner of the deck away from the snoring
seamen and lying down on the bare planks, contrived to sleep in
re