I see you again speaking to my
lieutenant, I'll slash your ears for you. In the next boat which leaves
this ship I shall send you to one of the others; I will have no
sneaking schemer on board the Revenge. Get ye for'ad, get ye for'ad, or
I shall help ye with my cutlass!"

And the man who had safely brought two good ships, richly laden, into
the harbour of Belize, and who had given Blackbeard the information
which made him understand the character of Captain Bonnet and how easy
it would be to take possession of his person and his vessels, and who
had done everything in his power to enable the black-hearted pirate to
secure to himself Bonnet's property and crews, and who had only asked in
return an actual command where before he had commanded in fact though
not in name, fled away from the false confederate to whom he had just
given wealth and increased prestige.

The last words of the unfortunate Bittern sunk quickly and deeply into
the heart of Dickory. If he should really go overboard with a bullet in
his brain, farewell to Kate Bonnet, farewell to his mother! He was yet a
very young man, and it had been but a little while since he had been
wandering barefooted over the ships at Bridgetown, selling the fruit of
his mother's little farm. Since that he had loved and lived so long that
he could not calculate the period, and now he was a man and stood
trembling at the point where he was to decide to begin life as a pirate
or end everything. Before Blackbeard had turned his lowering visage
from his retreating benefactor, Dickory had decided that, whatever might
happen, he would not of his own free-will leave life and fair Kate
Bonnet.

"And so you are to be my first lieutenant," said Blackbeard, his face
relaxing. "I am glad of that. There was nothing needed on this ship but
a decent man. I have put one on my old vessel, and if there were another
to be found in the Gulf of Honduras, I'd clap him on that goodly bark.
Now, sir, down to your berth, and don your naval finery. You're always
to wear it; you're not fit to wear the clothes of a real sailor, and I
have no landsman's toggery on this ship."

Dickory bowed--he could not speak--and went below. When next he appeared
on deck he wore the ex-Captain Bonnet's uniform and the tall plumed hat.

"It is for Kate's sweet sake," he said to himself as he mounted the
companion-way; "for her sake I'd wear anything, I'd do anything, if only
I may see her again."

When the new