oud: "No, let him go. Let us profit by our good
treatment as long as it lasts, and then we will talk about the
money-box."

Thus Big Sam found that his time had not arrived, and he swore in his
soul that his old shipmate would some day rue that he had not earlier
stood by him in his treacherous schemes.

So all went on without open discontent, and Bonnet, having sailed
northward for some days, set his course to the southeast, with some
hundred and fifty eyes wide open for the sight of a heavy-sailing
merchantman.

One morning they sighted a brig sailing southward, but as she was of no
great size and not going in the right direction to make it probable that
she carried a cargo worth their while, they turned westward and ran
towards Cuba. Had Captain Bonnet known that his daughter was on the brig
which he thus disdained, his mind would have been far different; but as
it was, not knowing anything more than he could see, and not
understanding much of that, he kept his westerly course, and on the next
day the lookout sighted a good-sized merchantman bearing eastward.

Now bounded every heart upon the swiftly coursing vessel of the
planter-pirate. There were men there who had shared in the taking of
many a prize; who had shared in the blood and the cruelty and the booty;
and their brawny forms trembled with the old excitement, of the
sea-chase; but no man's blood ran more swiftly, no man's eyes glared
more fiercely, than those of Captain Bonnet as he strapped on his
pistols and felt of his sword-hilt.

"Ah, ye needna glare so!" said Ben Greenway, close at his side. "Ye are
no pirate, an' ye canna make yoursel' believe ye are ane, an' that ye
shall see when the guns begin to roar an' the sword-blades flash. Better
get below an' let ane o' these hairy scoundrels descend into hell in
your place."

Captain Bonnet turned with rage upon Ben Greenway, but the latter,
having spoken his mind and given his advice, had retired.

Now came Big Sam. "'Tis an English brig," he said, "most likely from
Jamaica, homeward bound; she should be a good prize."

Bonnet winced a little at this. He would have preferred to begin his
career of piracy by capturing some foreign vessel, leaving English
prizes for the future, when he should have become better used to his new
employment. But sensitiveness does not do for pirates, and in a moment
he had recovered himself and was as bold and bloody-minded as he had
been when he first saw the now rap