hair."

"God bless me, boy, we thought the pirates had slain you both,"
spluttered Uncle Peter, a tear in his eye. "What means this tall
savage?"

"A noble chief of the Yemassees who used us with all courtesy," said
Jack.

Captain Wellsby had drawn Joe Hawkridge aside and was swiftly
enlightened concerning the alliance with the Indians. Presently they
were holding a conference, all seated together in the shade of a tree. A
tobacco pipe of clay, with a long reed for a stem, was lighted and
passed from hand to hand. The chief puffed solemnly with an occasional
nod and a grunt. It was agreed, with due ceremony, that the pirates
should be attacked in their camp and driven away. The Yemassee warriors
would make common cause with the Englishmen. As a reward, Blackbeard's
treasure was to be fairly divided, half and half.

The chief raised his voice in a long, deep shout of summons and his band
of fighting men emerged from their ambush in the swamp. There was no
reason for delaying the movement against the pirates. The Yemassees were
eager for the fray. They were about to advance through the swamp,
cunningly hidden, while the Englishmen followed at a slower pace to
spread out on the flanks. Just then there was heard a sudden and riotous
commotion among the pirates at the creek. It was a mad, jubilant uproar
as though some frenzy had seized them all. Bill Saxby leaned on his
musket and listened for a long moment.

"The rogues have fished up the sea-chest, by the din they make," said
he. "We left that sounding rod a-stickin' in the mud. They save us the
trouble, eh, Captain Wellsby?"

The skipper laughed in his beard and floundered ahead like a bear. Jack
Cockrell passed the word to the chief that the gold was awaiting them.
Like shadows the Yemassees drew near the creek and then, full-lunged,
terrific, their war-whoop echoed through the dismal Cherokee swamp.
Nimble Jack Cockrell was not far behind them, his heart pumping as
though it would burst.

He was in time to see four lusty pirates swaying at a rope which led
through the pulley-blocks of the spars that overhung the creek as a
tall derrick. They were hoisting away with all their might while there
slowly rose in air a mud-covered, befouled sea-chest all hung with weeds
and slimy refuse. Two other pirates tailed on to a guy rope and the
heavy chest swung toward the bank, suspended in air.

At this moment the screeching chorus of the Indian war-whoop smote their
af