t wind and tide to
the end that he might carry forth with him such an armament as scarce
had been the _Cygnet's_ own. Tier on tier rose the _Sea Wraith's_
ordnance; she carried warlike stores of all sorts that might serve for
battle by sea or land. If his money could not buy such men as stood
ready to ship with Drake and Hawkins, yet in his wild, sin-stained crew
he had purchased experience, the maddest bravery, and a lust of Spanish
gold that might not be easily sated. The qualities of a captain over men
he himself supplied.

In his confidence neither before nor after their sailing, yet the two
hundred men of the _Sea Wraith_ guessed well his destination, but for
themselves preferred the island towns--Santiago and Santo Domingo in
Hispaniola. There were wealth and wine and women, there the fringing
islets where booty might be hidden, and there the deep caves where
foregathered many small craft misnamed piratical. "Lord! the _Sea
Wraith_ would soon make herself Admiral of that brood, leading them
forth from those hidden places to pounce upon Santo Domingo, that was
the seat of government and as wealthy a place as any in the Indies!--the
_Sea Wraith_ and her Captain, that was a good Captain and a tall!--ay,
ay, that would they maintain despite all land talk--a good Captain and a
tall, 'spite of Dick Carpenter's dream--"

"What was Dick Carpenter's dream?" asked the Captain, seated, sword in
hand and hat on head, before a deputation from the forecastle.

The speaker fidgeted, then out came the clumsy taunt, the carpenter's
dream. "Why, sir, he dreamed he saw the women of the islands, sitting by
the shores, a-sifting gold-dust and a-weighing of pearls;--and then he
dreamed that he looked along the sea-floor, leagues and leagues to the
south'ard, until he saw the very roots of the mainland, and the great
fish swimming in and out. And a many and a many dead men were there,
drawn into ranks, very strange to see, for their swollen flesh yet hung
to their bones, and they beckoned and laughed; and Captain Robert
Baldry, that was once, on a Guinea voyage, Dick Carpenter's Captain, he
laughed the loudest and beckoned the fastest. And, Sir Mortimer Ferne,
an it please you, we've no longing to follow that beckoning."

"Thou dog!" said the Captain, with no change of mien. "Presently Dick
Carpenter and thou shall have food for dreams--bad dreams, bad dreams,
man! Thou fool, have I set thee quaking who, forsooth, would mutiny!
Bego