Latest / Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Stories of Pirates / 04 - Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Stories of Pirates by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Transcript

04 - Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Stories of Pirates by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle · Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Stories of Pirates

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: How Copley Banks slew Captain Sharky. The Buccaneers were something
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: higher than a mere band of marauders. They were a
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: floating republic, with laws, usages, and discipline of their own.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: In their endless and remorseless quarrel with the Spaniards, they
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: had some semblance of right upon their side. Their bloody
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: harryings of the cities of the main were not more
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: barbarous than the inrods of Spain upon the Netherlands or
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: upon the Caribs in these same American lands. The chief
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: of the Buccaneers, were he English or French, of Morgan
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: or a Grandmont, was still a responsible person, whose country
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: might countenance him, or even praise him, so long as
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: he refrained from any deed which might shock the leathery
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: seventeenth century conscious too outrageously. Some of them were touched
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: with religion, and it is still remembered how Sawkins threw
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the dice overboard upon the sabbath, and Daniel pistoled a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: man before the altar for irreverence. But there came a
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: day when the fleets of the Buccaneers no longer mustered
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: at the Tortugas, and the solitary and outlawed pirate took
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: their place. Yet even with him, the tradition of restraint
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and of a discipline still lingered, and among the early pirates,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the Averies, the Englands and the Robertses, there remained some
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: respect for human sentiment. They were more dangerous to the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: merchant than to the seamen. But they, in turn were
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: replaced by more savage and desperate men, who frankly recognized
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that they would get no quarter in their war with
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the human race, and who swore that they would give
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: as little as they got. Of their histories, we know
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: little that as trustworthy they wrote no memoirs and left
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: no trace save an occasional blackened and bloodstained derelict adrift
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: upon the face of the Atlantic. Their deeds could only
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: be surmised from the long roll of ships which never
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: made their port. Searching the records of history. It is
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: only here and there, in an old World trial, that
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the veil that shrouds them seems for an instant to
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: be lifted, may catch a glimpse of some amazing and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: grotesque brutality behind. Such was the breed of Nedlough, of Gao,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the Scotchmen, and of the infamous Sharky, whose cold black
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: bark the happy Delivery, was known from the New Fountain
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Banks to the mouths of the orinalco as the dark
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: forerunner of misery and of death. There were many men,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: both among the islands and on the main who had
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a blood feud with the Sharky, but not one who
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: had suffered more bitterly than Copley Banks of Kingston. Banks
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: had been one of the leading sugar merchants of the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: West Indies. He was a man of position, a member
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of the Council, the husband of Perceval, and the cousin
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: of the Governor of Virginia. His two sons had been
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: sent to London to be educated, and their mother had
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: gone over to bring them back. On their return voyage,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the ship the Duchess of Cornwall, fell into the hands
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: of Sharky, and the whole family met with an infamous death.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Copley Banks said little when he heard the news, but
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: he sank into a morose and enduring melancholy. He neglected
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: his business, avoided his friends, and spent much of his
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: time than the low taverns of the fishermen and seamen
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: there amidst riot and devilry. He sat silently, puffing at
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: his pipe, with a set face and a smoldering eye.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: It was generally supposed as misfortunes had shaken his wits,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: as old friends looked at him aisconce for the company
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: which he kept was enough to bar him from honest men.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: From time to time there came rumors of sharky over
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the sea. Sometimes it was from some schooner which had
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: seen a great flame upon a horizon, and approaching to
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: offer help to the burning ship, had fled away at
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the sight of the sleek black bark lurking like a
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: wolf near a mangled sheep. Sometimes it was a frightened
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: trader which had come tearing in with her canvas curled
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: like a lady's bodice, because she had seen a patch
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to fore topsail rising slowly above the violet water line.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it was from a coaster which had found a
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: waterless Bahama city littered with sun dried bodies. Once there
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: came a man who had been made of a guineaman,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and who had escaped from the pirate's hands. He could
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: not speak for reasons which Sharvey could best supply, but
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: he could write, and he did write to the very
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: interest of Copley Banks. For hours they sat together over
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the map, and the dumb man pointed here and there
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to outlying reefs and tortuous inlets, while his companion sat
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: smoking in silence, with his unvarying face and his fiery eyes.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: One morning, some two years after his misfortune, mister Copley
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Banks strode into his own office with an old air
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: of energy and alertness. The manager stared at him in surprise,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: for it was months since he had shown any interesting business.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Good morning, mister Banks, said he. Good morning, Freeman. I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: see that Ruffling Harry is in the bay. Yes, sir,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: she clears for the Windward Islands on Wednesday. I have
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: other plans for a Freeman. I have determined upon a
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: slaving venture to Waida. But her cargo is ready, sir.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Then it must come out again, Freeman. My mind is
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: made up, and the Ruffling Harry must go slaving to Wida.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: All argument and persuasion were vain, so the manager had
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: dolefully to clear the ship once more, and then Copleie
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Banks began to make preparations for his African voyage. It
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: appeared that he relied upon force rather than border for
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the filling of his hold, for he carried none of
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: those showy trinkets which savages love. But the brig was
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: fitted with eight nine pounder guns and racks full of
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: muskets and cutlasses. The after sale room next to the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: cabin was transformed into a powder magazine, and she carried
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: as many round shot as a well found privateer. Water
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and provisions were shipped for a long voyage, but the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: preparation of his ship's company was most surprising. It made
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Freeman the manager realize that there was truth in the
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: rumor of that his master had taken a leave of
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: his senses for under one pretext for another, he began
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to dismiss the old and tried hands who had served
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the firm for years, and in their place he embarked
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the scum of the port men, whose reputations were so
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: vile that the lowest crimp would have been ashamed to
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: furnish them. There was Berthman Sweetlocks, who was known to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: have been present at the killing of the logwood cutters,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: so that his hideous scarlet disfigurement was put down by
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the fanciful as being a red afterglow from his great cry.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: He was first mate and under him was Israel Martin,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a little sunwilted fellow who had served with Howell Davies
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: at the taking of Cape Coat Castle. The crew were
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: chosen from among those whom Banks had met and known
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: in their own infamous haunts and his own table. Steward
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: was a haggard faced man who gobbled at you when
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: he tried to talk. His beard had been shaved, and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: it was impossible to recognize him as the same man
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: whom Sharky had placed under the knife, and who had
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: escaped to tell his experiences to Coplete Banks. These doings
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: were not unnoticed nor yet uncommented upon. In the town
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of Kingston. The commandant of the troops, Major Harvey of
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: the artillery, made serious representations to the governor. She is
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: a t but a small warship, said he. I think
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: it would be well to arrest Copleie Banks and seize
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the vessel. What do you, suspect, asked the governor, who
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: was a slow waded man, broken down with fevers and
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: port mind, I, suspect, said the soldier. That is Steve
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Bonnet over again. Now. Steve Bonnet was a planter of
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: high reputation and religious character. Who from some sudden and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: overpowering freshet of wildness in his blood, had given up
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: everything in order to start off pirrating in the Caribbean Sea.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: The example was a recent one and had caused the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: utmost consternation in the islands. Governors had before now been
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: accused of being in league with pirates and of receiving
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: commissions upon their plunder, so that any want of vigilance
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: was opened to its sinister construction. Well, Major Harvey said,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: he I am vastly sorry to do anything which may
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: offend my friend Copley Banks. For many a time have
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: my knees been under his mahogany. But in face of
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: what you say, there is no choice for me but
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to order you to board the vessel and to satisfy
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: yourself as to her character and destination. So at one
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: in the morning Midjor Harvey, with a launchful of his soldiers,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: paid a surprise visit to the harry, with the result
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: that they picked up nothing more solid than hemp and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: cable floating. At the morning it had been slipped by
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the brig whose owner had scented danger. She had already
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: passed the palisades and was beating out against the northeast trades,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: on a course for the windward passage. When upon the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: next morning the brig had left Morant Point, a mere
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: haze upon the southern horizon. The men were called aft
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and Copleie Banks revealed his plants to them. He had
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: chosen them, he said, as brick squoys, and the lads
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: of spirit would rather run some risk upon the sea
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: than starve for a living upon the shore. King's ships
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: were few and weak, and they could master any trader
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: who can come their way. Others had done well at
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: their business, and with a handy, well founded vessel, there
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was no reason why they should not turn their tarry
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: jackets into velvet coats. If they were prepared to sail
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: into the black flag, he was ready to command them,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: but if any wished to withdraw, they might have a
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: gig and rowe back to Jamaica. Four men out of
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: sixty four asked for their discharge, went over the ship's
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: side into the boat, and rowed away. Amidst the jeers
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: and howlings of the crew. The rest assembed and drew
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: up the articles of their association. A square of black
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: tarpaulin hadded the white skull painted upon it and was
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: hoisted amidst cheering at the main officers were elected and
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the limits of their authority fixed. Copeleiue Banks was chosen captain,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: but as there were no mates upon a private craft,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Birthmark sweet Locks came quartermaster, and Israel Martin de Bosen.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: There was no difficulty in knowing what was the custom
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: of the brotherhood. For half the men at least had
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: served upon pirates before. Food should be the same for all,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and no man should interfere with another man's drink. The
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: captain should have a captain, but all hands should be
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: welcome to enter it when they choose. All should share
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: and share alike, save only the captain, quartermaster, bosun, carpenter,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and master gunner, who had from a quarter to a
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: whole extra share. He who saw prize first should have
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the best weapon taken out of her. He who boarded
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: her first should be the richest suit of clothes aboard
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: of her. Every man may treat his own prisoner be
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a mannered woman after his own fashion. If a man
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: flinched from his gun, the quartermaster should pistol him. These
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: were some of the rules which accruve of the Ruffling
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Harry so subscribed by putting forty two crosses at the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: foot of the paper upon which they had been drawn.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: So a new rover was afloat upon the seas, and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: her name, before a year was over, became as well
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: known as that of the Happy Delivery. From the Bahamas
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: to the Leewards, and from the lee Words to the Windwards.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Copley Banks became the rival of Sharky and the terror
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: of traders. For a long time, the bark and the
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: brig never met, which was the most singular, as the
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: ruffling Harry was forever looking in at Sharky's resorts. But
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: at last one day, when she was passing down the
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: inlet of Coxon's Hole at the east end of Cuba,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: with the intent of careening, there was Happy Delivery, with
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: their blocks and tackle falls already rigged for the same purpose.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Copley Banks fired a shotted salute and hoisted the green
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: trumpeter ensign, as the custom was among gentlemen of the sea.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Then he dropped his boat and went aboard. Captain Sharky
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: was not a man of genial mood, nor had he
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: any kindly sympathies for those who were of the same
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: traders himself. Copley Banks had seated the stride upon one
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: of the after guns, with his new England Or Quartermaster
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Ned Galloway, and a crowd of roaring ruffianstad any about him.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Yet none of them roared with quite such assurance. When
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Sharky's pale face and filming blue eyes were turned upon him.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: He was in his shirt sleeves and his cambric frills
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: breaking through these open red satin long flapped the vest.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: The scorching sun seemed to have no power upon his
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: fleshless frame, for he wore a low fur cap, as
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: though it had been winter. A many colored band of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: silk passed across his body and supported a short, murderous sword,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: while his broad brass buckled belt was stuffed with pistols.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Sink you for a preacher, he cried, as Coplete Banks
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: passed over the bulwarks. I will drub you with an
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: inch of your life in that inch. Also, what mean
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: you by fishing in my waters? Coplete Banks looked at him,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and his eyes were like those of a traveler who
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: seized his home at last. I am glad we are
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: of one mind, said he, for I myself of another
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: opinion that the seas are not large enough for the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: two of us. But if you will take your sword
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and pistols and come upon the sand bank with me,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: then the world will be rid of a damned villain,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: whichever way it goes. Now this is talking, cried Sharky,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: jumping off the gun and holding out his hand. I
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: have not yet met many who would look upon John
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Sharky in the eyes and speak with a full breath
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and a devil seize me if I did not choose
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you as a consort. But if you play me false,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: then I will come a board of you and gut
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: you upon your own poop. And I pledge you the same,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: said complete Banks, And so the two pirates became sworn
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: comrades to each other. That summer they went north as
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: far as the Newfoundland banks and harried the New York
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: traders and the whale ships from New England. It was
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Coplete Banks who captured the Liverpool ship house of Hanover,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: but it was Sharkis who fastened her masters to the
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: windlass and pelted him to death with empty claret bottles.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Together they engaged the kingship Royal Fortune, which had been
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: sent in search of them, and beat her off. After
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: a night's action of five hours. The drunken braving cruise,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: fighting naked in the light of the battle lanterns, with
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: a bucket of rahm and a pannikin laid by the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: tackles of every gun. They ran to topsail Inlet in
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: North Carolina to refit, and then in the spring they
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: were at the Grand Caicos, ready for the long cruise
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: down to the West Indies. By this time Sharky and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Copley Banks had become very excellent friends. For SHARKI loved
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the wholehearted villain, he loved a man of metal, and
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: it seemed to him that the two met in the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: captain of the Ruffling Harry. It was long before he
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: gave his confidence to him, for cold suspicion lay deep
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: in his character. Never once would he trust himself outside
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: his own ship and away from his own men. But
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Copleue Banks came often on board the Happy Delivery and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: joined Sharky in many of his moros debauches, so that
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: at last any lingering misgivings to the latter were set arrest.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: He knew nothing of the evil which he had done
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to his new boon companion, for of as many victims,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: how could he remember the woman and the two boys
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: who had slain with such levity so long ago. When
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: therefore he received a challenge to himself and to his
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: quartermaster for a caress upon the last evening of their
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: stay at the Keegos Bank, he saw no reason to refuse.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: A well found passenger ship had been rifled the week before,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: so their fare was of the best, and after supper
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: five of them drank deeply together. There were the two captains,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: birth Mark Sweetlocks, Ned Galloway and Israel Martin. The old
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: buccaneersman to wait upon them was the dumb steward whose
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: head SHARKI split with his glass because he had been
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: too slow in the filling of it. The quartermaster had
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: slipp Sharky's pistols away from him, for it was an
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: old joke with him to fire them cross handed under
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the table and see who was the luckiest man. It
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: was a pleasantry which had caused his bows in his leg.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: So now then the table was cleared, they would coach
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Sharky's weapons away from him on the excuse of the
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: heat and lay them out of his reach. The captain's
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: cabin of the Ruffling Harry was in a deck house
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: upon the poop, and a stern chaser gun was mounted
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: at the back of it. Round shot were racked around
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the wall, and three great hawks head of powder made
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: a stand for dishes and for bottles. In this grim room,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the five pirates sang and roared and drank, while the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: silent stewards still filled up their glasses and passed the
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: box and the candle around for the tobacco pipes. Hour
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: after hour, the talk became foutler, the voices hoarser, the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: curses and shoutings more incoherent, until three of the five
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: had closed their bloodshot eyes and dropped their swimming heads
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: to the table. Kopi, Banks and Sharki were left face
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: to face, the one because he had drunk the least,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the other because no amount of liquor would ever shake
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: his iron nerve or warm his sluggish blood. Behind him
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: stood the watchful steward, forever filling up his waning glass.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: From without came the low lapping of the tide, and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: from over the water a sailor's chanty from the bark.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: In the windless tropical night, the words came clearly to
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: their ears. A trader sailed from step knee town. Wake
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: her up, Shake her up, try her with the main sail.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: A trade or sailed from step knee down with a
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: keg full of gold, den of velvet gown.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Ho the bully rover jack waiting with his yard up
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: back out upon the low Land sea.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: The two boon companions sat listening in silence. Then Copley
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Banks glanced at Steward, and the man took a coil
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: of rope from the shot back behind him. Captain Sharky said,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Copley Banks, do you remember the Duchess of Cornwall, hailing
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: from London, which he took and sank three years off
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the Statira Shoal curse me if I can bear their
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: names in mind, said Sharky. We did as many as
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: ten ships a week about that time. There were a
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and two sons among the passengers. Maybe that'll bring it
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: back to your mind. Captain Sharky leant back in thought,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: with his huge thin beak of a nose jutting upwards.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Then he burst suddenly into a high trouble neighing laugh.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: He remembered it, he said, and he added details to
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: prove it. But burn me if it did not slip
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: from my mind, He cried, How came you to think
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: of it? It was of interest to me, said Coplete Banks,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: for the woman was my wife, and the lads were
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: my only sons. Sharki stared across at his companion and
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: saw that the smoldering fire which lurked always in his eyes,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: had burned up in a lurid flame. He read their menace,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and he clapped his hands to his empty belt. Then
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: he turned to seize weapon, but the bite of rope
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: was cast around him, and an instant his arms were
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: bound to his sides. He fought like a wild cat
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and screamed for hell. Ned. He yelled, ned, wake up,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: here's damn villainy, Help, Ned, Help, But the three men
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: were far too deeply sunk in their swinish sleep for
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: any voice to wake them. Round and round went the
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: rope until Sharki was swathed like a mummy from angle
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to neck. They propped him, stiff and helpless against the
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: powder bar, and they gagged him with the handkerchief, But
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: his filmy, red rimmed eyes still looked curses at them.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: The dumb man chattered in his exultation and Sharky winced
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: for the first time when he saw the empty mouth
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: before him. He understood that vengeance, slow, impatient, had dogged
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: him long, and clutched him at last. The two captors
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: had their plans all arranged, and they were somewhat elaborate.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: First of all, they stove the heads of two of
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the great powder barrels, and they heaped the contents out
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: upon the table and floor. They piled it round under
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: the three drunken men until each sprawled in the heap
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: of it. Then they carried SHARKI to the gun, and
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: they triced him, sitting over the porthole with his body
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: about a foot from the muzzle. Wriggling as he would,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: he could not move an inch either to right or left,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: and the dumb man trussed him up with the sailor's cunning,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: so that there was no chance that they should work free. Now,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: you bloody devil, said complete Banks softly. You must listen
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: to what I have to say to you, for they
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: are the last words that you will hear. You are
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: my man now, and I have bought you at a price,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: For I've given all that a man can give here below,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: and I have given my soul as well. To reach you,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I've had to sink to your level. For two years.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I strove against it, hoping that some other way might come.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: But I learned that there was no other way. I've robbed,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: and I have murdered, war still I have laughed and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: lived with you and all for the one end. And
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: now my time has come, and you will die as
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I would have you die. See in the shadow creeping
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: slowly upon you, and the devil waiting for you in
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the shadow. Sharky could hear the hoarse voices of his
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: rover singing their chanty over the water. Where is the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: trader of Stepney Town? Wake her up? Shake her up?
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Every stick to bend? Where is the trader of Stepney Town?
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: His gold's on the cap, stand, his blood's on his gown,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: All for bully Rover.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Jack Reaching on the weather deech right across the Lowland sea.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: The words came clear to his ear. And just outside
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: he can hear two men pacing backwards and forwards upon
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the deck. And yet he was helpless, staring down the
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: mouth of the nine pounder, unable to move an inch
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: or so, to utter as much as a groan. Again,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: there came the burst of voices from the deck of
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the bark.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: So it's up and it's over the storm Away Bay.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Pack it on, crack it on trire with the stunton sails.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: It's off on a bowl land the storm Away Bay
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: with a liquor as good. And the lastsar gay waiting
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: for their bully Jack watching for him, sailing Beck right
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: across the low Land Sea.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: To the dying pirate. The jovial words and rocking tune
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: made his own fate seem the harsher, but there was
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: no softening in his venomous blue eyes. Coplete Banks had
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: brushed away the priming of the gun, and it sprinkled
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: fresh powder over the touch hole. Then he had taken
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: up the candle and cut it to the length of
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: about an inch. This he placed upon a loose powder
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: at the breech of the gun. Then he scattered powder
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: thickly over the floor beneath, so that when the candle
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: fell at the recoil, it must explode the huge pile
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: which to three drunkards were wallowing. You've made others look
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: death in the face, SHARKI said he. Now it has
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: come to be your own turn. You and these swine
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: here shall go together. He let the candle end as
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: he spoke, and blew out the other lights upon the table.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Then he passed out with the dumb man, and he
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: locked the cabin door upon the outer side. But before
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: he closed it, he told an exultant look backwards and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: received one last curse from the unconquerable eyes. In the
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: single dim circle of light, the ivory white face, with
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the gleam of moisture upon the high bald forehead, was
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the last he had ever seen of Sharky. There was
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a skiff alongside, and in it. Kochi Banks and the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: dumb Steward made their way to the beach and looked
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: back upon the brig riding in the moonlight, just outside
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: the shadow of the palm trees. They waited and waited,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: watching the dim light which shone through the stern port,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and then at last there came a dull thud of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: a gun, and an instant later the shattering crash of
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: the explosion. The long, sleek black bark, the sweep of
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: white sand, and the fringe of nodding feathery palm trees
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: sprang with the dazzling light, and back in the darkness again.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Voices screamed and called upon the bay. Then Coplei Banks,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: his heart singing with him, touched his companion upon the shoulder.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: They plunged together into the lonely jungle of the Kikos
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: end of Chapter four