th shame. There would be no more of the friendly traffic with
pirates.

It was fully believed that the wretched Blackbeard would be as good as
his word in allowing no more than two days' grace. Therefore when Mr.
Peter Forbes came back in the boat to inform his neighbors that he had
been unable to reach the ship, it was sadly taken for granted that those
helpless passengers had been put to death. Forthwith the pirates of the
boat's crew were seized and thrown in gaol. There they lay in double
irons until the Council met and ordered them to be tried. In accordance
with the verdict the six seamen and the boatswain were promptly hanged
by the neck from the same gallows at White Point hard by the town. And
the people no longer shivered at the name of Blackbeard nor feared his
vengeance. Their fighting blood was thoroughly aroused.

Not long after this, there arrived from England a new Governor of the
Province, a man of honor and resolution who approved what had been done.
This Governor Johnson proceeded to organize the town for defense,
building batteries on Sullivan's Island, recruiting the seafaring men in
the militia, and seeking to obtain merchant vessels which could be
employed as armed cruisers. Learning that the Governor of North Carolina
was in a corrupt partnership with pirates, he sent messages to Virginia
to solicit cooperation.

This activity made much work for Secretary Peter Forbes who forsook his
intention of going to England to beg the cooperation of his Majesty's
Government against the plague of pirates. Dapper and plump and
important as of yore, his florid face was clouded with sorrow and he
seemed a much older man. He mourned his nephew, Jack Cockrell, as no
more and felt as though he had lost an only son. Every angry word he had
ever addressed the lad, every hasty punishment inflicted, hurt him
grievously.

It was a solace to talk with winsome Dorothy Stuart because hers was the
bright optimism of youth and she held so exalted an opinion of Jack's
strength and courage that she refused to abandon hope. And the fact that
he had confided to her his rash intention of running away and signing as
a pirate sooner than be transported to school in England, persuaded her
that he might be alive.

"From what you saw yourself, Mr. Forbes," said she, "when Blackbeard
boarded the _Plymouth Adventure_ with his dreadful men, our Jack won his
fancy."

"So it appeared, Dorothy. The boy boasted of knocking a tall pir