The great pirate Blackbeard, inactive and taking his ease, was seated on the quarter-deck of his fine vessel, on which he had lately done some sharp work off the harbour of Charles Town. He was now commanding a small fleet. Besides the ship on which he sailed, he had two other vessels, well manned and well laden with supplies from his recent captures. Satisfied with conquest, he was sailing northward to one of his favourite resorts on the North Carolina coast.
To this conquering hero now came Ben Greenway, the Scotchman, touching his hat.
"And what do you want?" cried the burly pirate. "Haven't they given you your prize-money yet, or isn't it enough?"
"Prize-money!" exclaimed Greenway. "I hae none o' it, nor will I hae any. What money I hae--an' it is but little--came to me fairly."
"Oho!" cried Blackbeard, "and you have money then, have you? Is it enough to make it worth my while to take it?"
"Ye can count it an' see, whenever ye like," said Ben. "But it isna money that I came to talk to ye about. I came to ask ye, at the first convenient season, to put me on board that ship out there, that I may be in my rightful place by the side o' Master Bonnet."
"And what good are you to him, or he to you," asked the pirate, with a fine long oath, "that I should put myself to that much trouble?"
"I have the responsibeelity o' his soul on my hands," said Ben, "an' since we left Charles Town I hae not seen him, he bein' on ane ship an' I on anither."
"And very well that is too," said Blackbeard, "for I like each of you better separate. And now look ye, me kirk bird, you have not done very well with your 'responsibeelities' so far, and you might as well make up your mind to stop trying to convert that sneak of a Nightcap and take up the business of converting me. I'm in great need of it, I can tell you."
"You!" cried Ben.
"I tell you, yes," shouted Blackbeard, "it is I, myself, that I am talking about. I want to be converted from the evil of my ways, and I have made up my mind that you shall do it. You are a good and a pious man, and it is not often that I get hold of one of that kind; or, if I do, I slice off his head before I discover his quality."
"I fear me," said the truthful Scotchman, "that the job is beyond my abeelity."
"Not a bit of it, not a bit of it," shouted the pirate. "I am fifty times easier to work upon than that Nightcap man of yours, and a hundred times better worth the trouble. I put no trust in that downfaced farmer.