Captain in Calico Read Online Free PDF Page B

cap’n?’ Malloy came round the table.
    Rackham leaned his shoulders on the door and looked round at the three faces. He shook his head, and speaking softly so as not to be overheard in the outer room, told them what had befallen at the Governor’s house – told them, that is, all but the plan that Woodes Rogers had concerted. He embroidered, for their benefit, the account of his own escape, and painted a picture of Woodes Rogers which was perhaps more severe than the Governor deserved. They heard him out, Malloy with unconcealed disappointment, Bull with occasional angry rumblings in his throat and muttered imprecations, and Ben with unmoved attention. But there was no question that they believed him.
    When he had done Bull flung down on a bench and cursed Woodes Rogers with vicious fury. Malloy sat dejected, and Ben went over to the table and poured out a drink for Rackham. Holding out the pannikin he said: ‘You was lucky.’
    Rackham took the pannikin. ‘Lucky enough. As close to hanging as I ever hope to be.’ That at least was true.
    â€˜Aye, well, and now what?’ Bull’s tone challenged him. ‘What’s to be done?’
    Rackham applied himself to his drink before surveying his questioner.
    â€˜What else but to go back aboard the
Kingston
? To-night, when Bennett brings her in.’
    â€˜Hell, and is that all? And we’re to sit here in this poxy kennel all day and wait for the sojers to nab us? Mebbe they’ll find our boat, by God, and then we’ll be on a lee shore proper.’ He swore and slapped the table. ‘We should never ha’ come: I knew it when there was first talk o’ this pardon. Pardon! What bloody hope was there we’d ever smell pardon?’
    Ben turned contemptuous eyes on the speaker but said nothing. Rackham answered calmly.
    â€˜There was hope until we knew what manner of man this Governor was: others had been pardoned, and so might we if we had not carried such a wealth of silver in the
Kingston
. Now we know where we stand, and ye’ll remember it was I who found out, and came near paying for it with my neck while you sat snug here.’
    â€˜Snug?’ Bull rose in a towering rage. ‘Ye’ll tell me, perhaps—’
    â€˜Be still,’ said Rackham coldly. ‘The thing’s done and there’s an end. We’re no worse off than we were before, the soldiers won’t find us here if they hunt till doomsday, and there’s a boat-load of silver out yonder to play with when we’re clear away from here. So sleep on that and think yourself lucky.’
    Bull was silenced; as Rackham said, they had lost nothing and the risk had been his. While the three others might be disappointed they could accept the situation with the fatalism of their kind. It was the code by which they lived; gentlemen of fortune they styled themselves, and sudden success or failure were no more than tricks won or lost in a game which was unpredictable and in which there was no ultimate goal.
    To-morrow was another day, and would find them back at sea again. And they still had the silver. So the three slept soundly enough, while Rackham lay on the hard boards, staring up into the darkness, contemplating his treachery and finding that he felt not the least qualms about what he intended to do. As Rogers had said, his followers would never have hesitated to betray him, if their interests had demanded it. He had only to think of Kate, and the plot he had concerted with Rogers seemed morally right enough. So presently he too slept, while the eastern sky lightened outside, and the patrols which scoured the town left them undisturbed.
    They slipped out of a side door of the inn that evening, and made their ways separately to a little alley on the edge of the town. Before them spread the broad silver sweep of the beach, as smooth and dazzling as a snow-field. To the right it was washed gently by the surf; to the left it