Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 169: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

On the Account piratical ditty. Bane’s men were ashore with gold to spend and ardent appetites to be appeased. That morning they had sight- ed a man-of-war sailing north through the Windward Passage between Santo Domingo and Cuba, scouring the Caribbean on false information, and they were secure in their revels. Women cajoled the freebooters, returning rough caresses with rude blows of affected coyness, there was a constant call to the uneasy landlord and his staff for more liquor, the place was foul with the reek of rum and tobacco and, as the song ceased, a discordant babble of screams and laughter, rough entreaties and shrill protestations took its place. | A fiddler was dragged forward and set in a chair upon a table. A clear space was made for unwieldy dancers. The fiddler scraped until his last string snapped and some one plucked the chair from under him, sending him toppling to the floor amid shrieks and guffaws as he scrambled for the broad pieces that were flung to him. ‘At a table by the open staircase that led to the upper story sat the one-eyed buc- caneer, tankard in hand, spinning his tedi- ous yarn to a tall fellow whose dress held none of the splashes of finery distinguishing the buccaneers from the half-fearful, curious natives. | “Aye, ’tis the only life,” said the free- booter. “Never have I seen the time when I could not rub one gold piece against an- other, and that, mark you, means every- thing. Show me a wench here that I can not cajole, ugly and old and lop-eyed though I be. That for the land. As for the sea, an ye are a seaman and no qualmy- stomached landsman, show me a better sport. ‘““Ye seem a man of mettle. Look ye, the captain runs the ship, ’tis true, but the quartermaster, Scarry-Dick Denton, he is our tribune. The captain can undertake nothing that we, through Denton, do not approve. ‘Thirty shares for Bane, the rest for us, divided man for man with an extra share for Scarry-Dick. Why, lad, ’tis the life! “I was with Kidd in the Adventure Gal- ley, thirty guns and eighty men, when he sailed out of Plymouth in May, sixteen- ninety-six. Soon we were a hundred and fifty-five. To New York we sailed, then to Madeira and Cape Verd and so to Mada- gascar, Malabar and Johanna, © >] 167 “Two hundred pounds apiece we got out of the Queda Merchant alone. I left him at Amboyna and so saved my neck, I grant ye, for they took him at New York and sent him back to England with his lads. Buta man must take a chance and I am sixty. Aye, ’tis the life. Easy come and easy go. The lasses love ye and the rest, blast them, toady to ye. Boy! Bring more o’ that rum!” “I pay for this shot,” said the other. ‘“‘Nay, man, I insist. I am half-seas over now with your bounty. I like your talk.” His eyes narrowed and he nudged the pi- rate’s elbow. “Ye spoke of women, now. Do ye meet with any that are young—not these painted bawds—but fresh and dainty. Eh, tell me that?” The one-eyed buccaneer slapped him on the back. “Aye, ’twill be the girls for you and the gold for me. Yet one is gone as soon as the ether. But with Bane ’tis business at sea and lasses left for shore. Fresh and dainty, ask ye? They come not willingly to our net which makes them the greater prizes if ye gill them. ‘“‘There was one lass on Green Key who took her own life, mark ye, rather than join and share the captain’s cabin. She had a husband, she said. She could have had her choice of a dozen out of all the crew. A plucked one she was, with red-gold curls and a skin as white as foam.” He checked his drunken maundering at the quickly arrested exclamation of the other. ‘What ails ye, mane Is the rum not to your liking?” “Nay, it tastes well enough. Green Key, said ye? I know theplace. I have piloted and turtled amid the Bahamas from Little Abaco to Turks Islands. I know them all. I could tell your skipper of a passage through the Jumento Cays, a passage from the northwest to a lagoon with an islet in the center. *Iwas shown to me by a Carib Indian for a turtling ground. I dare swear ’tis known to no white man but me. And, to the south and east, an outlet.” “A passage through the Jumentos from the northwest! Now, you are the lad for us! Bane drinks above with Denton and the mates. They are set in gambling but they will listen to such a tale. Will ye go, cully? Will ye join us. Will ye go on the account?” CoOMmiclsoo C©