d by him until
some good reason came for their changing their minds. So with floggings
and irons, on deck and below, and with fair winds filling the sails
above, the Revenge kept on her way; and, in spite of the curses and
quarrels and threats which polluted the air through which the stout ship
sailed, there was always good-natured companionship wherever the
captain, Dickory, and Ben Greenway found themselves together. There
seemed to be no end to the questions which Bonnet asked about his
daughter, and when he had asked them all he began over again, and
Dickory made answer, as he had done before.

The young fellow was growing very anxious at this northern voyage, and
when he asked questions they always related to the probability of his
getting back to Jamaica with news from the father of Mistress Kate
Bonnet. The captain encouraged the hopes of an early return, and vowed
to Dickory that he would send him to Spanish Town with a letter to his
daughter just as soon as an opportunity should show itself.

When the Revenge reached the mouth of Charles Town harbour she stationed
herself there, and in four days captured three well-laden merchantmen;
two bound outward, and one going in from England.

Thus all went well, and with willing hands to man her yards and a
proudly strutting captain on her quarter-deck, the pirate ship renewed
her northward course, and spread terror and made prizes even as far as
the New England coast; and if Dickory had had any doubts that the late
reputable planter of Bridgetown had now become a veritable pirate he had
many opportunities of setting himself right. Bonnet seemed to be growing
proud of his newly acquired taste for rapacity and cruelty. Merchantmen
were recklessly robbed and burned, their crews and passengers, even
babes and women, being set on shore in some desolate spot, to perish or
survive, the pirate cared not which, and if resistance were offered,
bloody massacres or heartless drownings were almost sure to follow, and,
as his men coveted spoils and delighted in cruelty, he satisfied them to
their heart's content.

"I tell you, Dickory Charter," said he, one day, "when you see my
daughter I want you to make her understand that I am a real pirate, and
not playing at the business. She's a brave girl, my daughter Kate, and
what I do, she would have me do well and not half-heartedly, to make her
ashamed of me. And then, there is my brother-in-law, Delaplaine. I don't
believe that he