said he, "an'
I'll follow ye to the vera gates o' hell, but farther than that, Master
Bonnet, I willna go; at the gates o' hell I leave ye!"

CHAPTER XXXV

A CHAPTER OF HAPPENINGS

For happiness with a flaw in it, it was a very fair happiness which now
hung over the Delaplaine home near Spanish Town. Kate Bonnet's father
was still a pirate, but there was no Captain Vince in hot pursuit of
him, seeking his blood. Kate could sing with the birds and laugh with
Dickory whenever she thought of the death of the wicked enemy. This was
not, it may be thought, a proper joy for a young maiden's heart, but it
came to Kate whether she would or not; the change was so great from the
fear which had possessed her before.

The old home life began again, although it was a very quiet life.
Dickory went into Mr. Delaplaine's counting-house, but it was hard for
the young man to doff the naval uniform which had been bestowed upon him
by Blackbeard, for he knew he looked very well in it, and everybody else
thought so and told him so; but it could not be helped, and with all
convenient speed he discarded his cocked hat and all the rest of it,
and clothed himself in the simple garb of a merchant's clerk, although
it might be said, that in all the West Indies, at that day, there was no
clerk so good-looking as was Dickory. Dame Charter was so thankful that
her boy had come safely through all his troubles, so proud of him, and
so eminently well satisfied with his present position, that she asked
nothing of her particular guardian angel but that Stede Bonnet might
stay away. If, after tiring of piracy, that man came back, as his
relatives wished him to do, the good dame was sure he would make
mischief of some sort, and as like as not in the direction of her
Dickory. If this evil family genius should be lost at sea or should
disappear from the world in some equally painless and undisgraceful
fashion, Dame Charter was sure that she could in a reasonable time quiet
the grief of poor Kate; for what right-minded damsel could fail to
mingle thankfulness with her sorrow that a kind death should relieve a
parent from the sins and disgraces which in life always seemed to open
up in front of him.

About this time there came a letter from Barbadoes, which was of great
interest to everybody in the household. It was from Master Martin
Newcombe, and of course was written to Kate, but she read many portions
of it to the others. The first part of th