"And you think I am not that kind of a man, do you?" shouted the pirate. "But let me tell you this. I am sailing now for Topsail Inlet, on the North Carolina coast, and I am going to run in there, disperse this fleet, sell my goods, and--"
"Be hanged?" interpolated Greenway in surprise.
"Not a bit of it, you croaking crow!" roared the pirate. "Not a bit of it. Don't you know, you dull-head, that our good King George has issued a proclamation to the Brethren of the Coast to come in and behave themselves like honest citizens and receive their pardon? I have done that once, and so I know all about it; but I backslid, showing that my conversion was badly done."
"It must hae been a poor hand that did the job for ye," said Greenway, "for truly the conversion washed off in the first rain."
The pirate laughed a great laugh. "The fact is," he said, "I did the work myself, and knowing nothing about it made a bad botch of it, but this time it will be different. I am going to give the matter into your hands, and I shall expect you to do it well. If I become not an honest gentleman this time you shall pay for it, first with your ears and then with your head."
"An' ye're goin' to keep me by ye?" said Greenway, with an expression not of the best.
"Truly so," said Blackbeard. "I shall make you my clerk as long as I am a pirate, for I have much writing and figuring work to be done, and after that you shall be my chaplain. And whether or not your work will be easier than it is now, it is not for me to say."
The Scotchman was about to make an exclamation which might not have been complimentary, but he restrained himself.
"An' Master Bonnet?" he asked. "If ye go out o' piracy he may go too, and take the oath."
"Of course he may," cried the pirate, "and of course he shall; I will see to that myself. Then I will give him back his ship, for I don't want it, and let him become an honest merchant."
"Give him back his ship!" exclaimed Greenway, his countenance downcast.
"That will be puttin' into his hands the means o' beginnin' again a life o' sin. I pray ye, don't do that."
Blackbeard leaned back and laughed. "I swear that I thought it would be one of the very first steps in conversion for me to give back to the fellow the ship which is his own and which I have taken from him. But fear not, my noble pirate's clerk; he is not the man that I am; he is a vile coward, and when he has taken the oath he will be afraid to break it. Moreover--"