Kate Bonnet: The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter Read online

  KATE BONNET

  The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter

  by

  FRANK R. STOCKTON

  Illustrated by A. J. Keller and H. S. Potter

  "Oh, Kate!" said Dickory, "you should have seen thatwonderful pirate fight." (See page 350.)]

  New YorkD. Appleton and Company1902Copyright, 1901, 1903By D. Appleton and CompanyAll rights reservedFebruary, 1902

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I. TWO YOUNG PEOPLE, A SHIP, AND A FISH

  II. A FRUIT-BASKET AND A FRIEND

  III. THE TWO CLOCKS

  IV. ON THE QUARTER-DECK

  V. AN UNSUCCESSFUL ERRAND

  VI. A PAIR OF SHOES AND STOCKINGS

  VII. KATE PLANS

  VIII. BEN GREENWAY IS CONVINCED THAT BONNET IS A PIRATE

  IX. DICKORY SETS FORTH

  X. CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER VINCE

  XI. BAD WEATHER

  XII. FACE TO FACE

  XIII. CAPTAIN BONNET GOES TO CHURCH

  XIV. A GIRL TO THE FRONT

  XV. THE GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA

  XVI. A QUESTION OF ETIQUETTE

  XVII. AN ORNAMENTED BEARD

  XVIII. I HAVE NO RIGHT; I AM A PIRATE

  XIX. THE NEW FIRST LIEUTENANT

  XX. ONE NORTH, ONE SOUTH

  XXI. A PROJECTED MARRIAGE

  XXII. BLADE TO BLADE

  XXIII. THE ADDRESS OF THE LETTER

  XXIV. BELIZE

  XXV. WISE MR. DELAPLAINE

  XXVI. DICKORY STRETCHES HIS LEGS

  XXVII. A GIRL WHO LAUGHED

  XXVIII. LUCILLA'S SHIP

  XXIX. CAPTAIN ICHABOD

  XXX. DAME CHARTER MAKES A FRIEND

  XXXI. MR. DELAPLAINE LEADS A BOARDING PARTY

  XXXII. THE DELIVERY OF THE LETTER

  XXXIII. BLACKBEARD GIVES GREENWAY SOME DIFFICULT WORK

  XXXIV. CAPTAIN THOMAS OF THE ROYAL JAMES

  XXXV. A CHAPTER OF HAPPENINGS

  XXXVI. THE TIDE DECIDES

  XXXVII. BONNET AND GREENWAY PART COMPANY

  XXXVIII. AGAIN DICKORY WAS THERE

  XXXIX. THE BLESSINGS WHICH COME FROM THE DEATH OF THE WICKED

  XL. CAPTAIN ICHABOD PUTS THE CASE

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  FACING PAGE

  "Oh, Kate!" said Dickory, "you should have seen that wonderful piratefight" _Frontispiece_

  "If you talk to me like that I will cut you down where you stand!" 46

  "He is my father!" said Kate 124

  "Haste ye! haste ye," cried Dickory, "they will leave you behind" 155

  "Take that," he feebly said, "and swear that it shall be delivered" 241

  Kate and her father in the warehouse 260

  Lucilla rescues Dickory 337

  In an instant Dickory was there 403

  KATE BONNET

  CHAPTER I

  TWO YOUNG PEOPLE, A SHIP, AND A FISH

  The month was September and the place was in the neighbourhood ofBridgetown, in the island of Barbadoes. The seventeenth century was notseventeen years old, but the girl who walked slowly down to the riverbank was three years its senior. She carried a fishing-rod and line, andher name was Kate Bonnet. She was a bright-faced, quick-moving youngperson, and apparently did not expect to catch many fish, for she had nobasket in which to carry away her finny prizes. Nor, apparently, did shehave any bait, except that which was upon her hook and which had beenaffixed there by one of the servants at her home, not far away. In fact,Mistress Kate was too nicely dressed and her gloves were too clean tohave much to do with fish or bait, but she seated herself on a littlerock in a shady spot not far from the water and threw forth her line.Then she gazed about her; a little up the river and a good deal down theriver.

  It was truly a pleasant scene which lay before her eyes. Not half a mileaway was the bridge which gave this English settlement its name, andbeyond the river were woods and cultivated fields, with here and there alittle bit of smoke, for it was growing late in the afternoon, whensmoke meant supper. Beyond all this the land rose from the lower groundnear the river and the sea, in terrace after terrace, until the upperstretches of its woodlands showed clear against the evening sky.

  But Mistress Kate Bonnet now gazed steadily down the stream, beyond thetown and the bridge, and paid no more attention to the scenery than thescenery did to her, although one was quite as beautiful as the other.

  There was a bunch of white flowers in the hat of the young girl; not avery large one, and not a very small one, but of such a size as might beeasily seen from the bridge, had any one happened to be crossing aboutthat time. And, in fact, as the wearer of the hat and the white flowersstill continued to gaze at the bridge, she saw some one come out upon itwith a quick, buoyant step, and then she saw him stop and gaze steadilyup the river. At this she turned her head, and her eyes went out overthe beautiful landscape and the wide terraces rising above each othertowards the sky.

  It is astonishing how soon after this a young man, dressed in a brownsuit, and very pleasant to look upon, came rapidly walking along theriver bank. This was Master Martin Newcombe, a young Englishman, not twoyears from his native land, and now a prosperous farmer on the otherside of the river.

  It often happened that Master Newcombe, at the close of his agriculturallabours, would put on a good suit of clothes and ride over the bridge tothe town, to attend to business or to social duties, as the case mightbe. But, sometimes, not willing to encumber himself with a horse, hewalked over the bridge and strolled or hurried along the river bank.This was one of the times in which he hurried. He had been caught by thevision of the bunch of white flowers in the hat of the girl who wasseated on the rock in the shade.

  As Master Newcombe stepped near, his spirits rose, as they had notalways risen, as he approached Mistress Kate, for he perceived that,although she held the handle of her rod in her hand, the other end of itwas lying on the ground, not very far away from the bait and the hookwhich, it was very plain, had not been in the water at all. She musthave been thinking of something else besides fishing, he thought. But hedid not dare to go on with that sort of thinking in the way he wouldhave liked to do it. He had not too great a belief in himself, though hewas very much in love with Kate Bonnet.

  "Is this the best time of day for fishing, Master Newcombe?" she said,without rising or offering him her hand. "For my part, I don't believeit is."

  He smiled as he threw his hat upon the ground. "Let me put your line alittle farther out." And so saying, he took the rod from her hand andstepped between her and the bait, which must have been now quite hotfrom lying so long in a bit of sunshine. He rearranged the bait andthrew the line far out into the river. Then he gave her the rod again.He seated himself on the ground near-by.

  "This is the second time I have been over the bridge to-day," he said,"and this morning, very early, I saw, for the first time, your father'sship, which was lying below the town. It is a fine vessel, so far as Ican judge, being a landsman."

  "Yes," said she, "and I have been on board of her and have gone all overher, and have seen many things which are queer and strange to me. Butthe strangest thing about her, to my mind, being a landswoman, is, thatshe should belong to my father. There are many things which he has not,which it would be easy to believe he would like to have, but that aship, with sails and anchors and hatchways, should be one of thesethings, it is hard to imagine."

  Young Newcombe thought it was impossible to imagine, but he expressedhimself discreetly.

  "It must be th
at he is going to engage in trade," he said; "has he nottold you of his intentions?"

  "Not much," said she. "He says he is going to cruise about among theislands, and when I asked him if he would take me, he laughed, andanswered that he might do so, but that I must never say a word of it toMadam Bonnet, for if she heard of it she might change his plans."

  The wicked young man found himself almost wishing that the somewhatbad-tempered Madam Bonnet might hear of and change any plan which mighttake her husband's daughter from this town, especially in a vessel; forvessels were always terribly tardy when any one was waiting for theirreturn. And, besides, it often happened that vessels never came back atall.

  "I shall take a little trip with him even if we don't go far; it wouldbe ridiculous for my father to own a ship, and for me never to sail inher."

  "That would not be so bad," said Master Martin, feeling that a shortabsence might be endured. Moreover, if a little pleasure trip were to bemade, it was reasonable enough to suppose that other people, notbelonging to the Bonnet family, might be asked to sail as guests.

  "What my father expects to trade in," said she contemplatively gazingbefore her, "I am sure I do not know. It cannot be horses or cattle, forhe has not enough of them to make such a venture profitable. And as tosugar-cane, or anything from his farm, I am sure he has a good enoughmarket here for all he has to sell. Certainly he does not produce enoughto make it necessary for him to buy a ship in order to carry them away."

  "It is opined," said Martin, "by the people of the town, that MajorBonnet intends to become a commercial man, and to carry away to theother islands, and perhaps to the old country itself, the goods of otherpeople."

  "Now that would be fine!" said Mistress Kate, her eyes sparkling, "for Ishould then surely go with him, and would see the world, and perhapsLondon." And her face flushed with the prospect.

  Martin's face did not flush. "But if your father's ship sailed on a longvoyage," he said, with a suspicion of apprehension, "he would not sailwith her; he would send her under the charge of others."

  The girl shook her head. "When she sails," said she, "he sails in her.If you had heard him talking as I have heard him, you would not doubtthat. And if he sails, I sail."

  Martin's soul grew quite sad. There were very good reasons to believethat this dear girl might sail away from Bridgetown, and from him. Shemight come back to the town, but she might not come back to him.

  "Mistress Kate," said he, looking very earnestly at her, "do you knowthat such speech as this makes my heart sink? You know I love you, Ihave told you so before. If you were to sail away, I care not to whatport, this world would be a black place for me."

  "That is like a lover," she exclaimed a little pertly; "it is like themall, every man of them. They must have what they want, and they musthave it, no matter who else may suffer."

  He rose and stood by her.

  "But I don't want you to suffer," he said. "Do you think it would besuffering to live with one who loved you, who would spend his whole lifein making you happy, who would look upon you as the chief thing in theworld, and have no other ambition than to make himself worthy of you?"

  She looked up at him with a little smile.

  "That would, doubtless, be all very pleasant for you," she said, "and inorder that you might be pleased, you would have her give up so much.That is the way with men! Now, here am I, born in the very end of thelast century, and having had, consequently, no good out of that, andwith but seventeen years in this century, and most of it passed ingirlhood and in school; and now, when the world might open before me fora little, here you come along and tell me all that you would like tohave, and that you would like me to give up."

  "But you should not think," said he, and that was all he said, for atthat moment Kate Bonnet felt a little jerk at the end of her line, andthen a good strong pull.

  "I have a fish!" she cried, and sprang to her feet. Then, with a swoop,she threw into the midst of the weeds and wild flowers a struggling fishwhich Martin hastened to take from the hook.

  "A fine fellow!" he cried, "and he has arrived just in time to make adainty dish for your supper."

  "Ah, no!" she said, winding the line about her rod; "if I were to takethat fish to the house, it would sorely disturb Madam Bonnet. She wouldobject to my catching it; she would object to having it prepared for thetable; she would object to having it eaten, when she had arranged thatwe should eat something else. No, I will give it to you, MasterNewcombe; I suppose in your house you can cook and eat what you please."

  "Yes," said he; "but how delightful it would be if we could eat ittogether."

  "Meaning," said she, "that I should never eat other fish than those fromthis river. No, sir; that may not be. I have a notion that the firstforeign fish I shall eat will be found in the island of Jamaica, for myfather said, that possibly he might first take a trip there, where livesmy mother's brother, whom we have not seen for a long time. But, as Itold you before, nobody must know this. And now I must go to my supper,and you must take yours home with you."

  "And I am sure it will be the sweetest fish," he said, "that was evercaught in all these waters. But I beg, before you go, you will promiseme one thing."

  "Promise you!" said she, quite loftily.

  "Yes," he answered; "tell me that, no matter where you go, you will notleave Bridgetown without letting me know of it?"

  "I will not, indeed," said she; "and if it is to Jamaica we go, perhapsmy father--but no, I don't believe he will do that. He will be too muchwrapped up in his ship to want for company to whom he must attend andtalk."

  "Ah! there would be no need of that!" said Newcombe, with a lover'ssmile.

  She smiled back at him.

  "Good-night!" she said, "and see to it that you eat your fish to-nightwhile it is so fresh." Then she ran up the winding path to her home.

  He stood and looked after her until she had disappeared among theshrubbery, after which he walked away.

  "I should have said more than I did," he reflected; "seldom have I hadso good a chance to speak and urge my case. It was that confounded ship.Her mind is all for that and not for me."