Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
[Illustration: THIS LEAN, STRAIGHT ROVER LOOKED THE PART OF A COMPETENT SOLDIER]
COPYRIGHT 1922 BY THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
I. THAT COURTEOUS PIRATE, CAPTAIN BONNET 7
II. THE MERCHANT TRADER, _PLYMOUTH ADVENTURE_ 21
IV. THE CAPTIVE SEAMEN IN THE FORECASTLE 62
VIII. THE EPISODE OF THE WINDING CREEK 132
IX. BLACKBEARD'S ERRAND IS INTERRUPTED 147
X. THE SEA URCHIN AND THE CARPENTER'S MATE 161
XIV. BLACKBEARD APPEARS IN FIRE AND BRIMSTONE 217
XV. MR. PETER FORBES MOURNS HIS NEPHEW 232
XVI. NED RACKHAM'S PLANS GO MUCH AMISS 248
XVII. THE GREAT FIGHT OF CAPTAIN TEACH 260
THIS LEAN, STRAIGHT ROVER LOOKED THE PART OF A COMPETENT SOLDIER _Frontispiece_
THE BRAWN OF THESE LADS MADE THE PIKE A MATCH FOR A PIRATE'S CUTLASS 83
THE FIRST MATE LEAPED UP WITH A HORRIBLE YELL 120
JACK ALMOST BUMPED INTO THE DUGOUT CANOE 129
HE LOOMED LIKE THE BELIAL WHOM HE WAS SO FOND OF CLAIMING AS HIS MENTOR 224
THE year of 1718 seems very dim and far away, but the tall lad who sauntered down to the harbor of Charles Town, South Carolina, on a fine, bright morning, was much like the youngsters of this generation. His clothes were quite different, it is true, and he lived in a queer, rough world, but he detested grammar and arithmetic and loved adventure, and would have made a sturdy tackle for a modern high-school football team. He wore a peaked straw hat of Indian weave, a linen shirt open at the throat, short breeches with silver buckles at the knees, and a flint-lock pistol hung from his leather belt.
He passed by scattered houses and stores which were mere log huts loopholed for defense, with shutters and doors of hewn plank heavy enough to stop a musket ball. The unpaved lanes wandered between mud holes in which pigs wallowed enjoyably. Negro slaves, half-naked and bearing heavy burdens, jabbered the dialects of the African jungle from which they had been kidnapped a few months before. Yemassee Indians clad in tanned deer-skins bartered with the merchants and hid their hatred of the English. Jovial, hard-riding gentlemen galloped in from the indigo plantations and dismounted at the tavern to drink and gamble and fight duels at the smallest excuse.