The Jolly Roger Tales: 60+ Pirate Novels, Treasure-Hunt Tales & Sea Adventures. Лаймен Фрэнк Баум

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СКАЧАТЬ forward, with the purpose of mingling with the pirates, and availing themselves of the crowd in the narrow entrance, to secure as many as they could, without allowing them room for the free use of their weapons. But this also had Cleveland foreseen, and, ere entering the Council-room, he caused the entrance to be cleared and secured, commanding four of his men to face down the street, and as many to confront the crowd who were thrusting each other from above. The burghers recoiled back from the ferocious, swarthy, and sunburnt countenances, as well as the levelled arms of these desperadoes, and Cleveland, with the rest of his party, entered the Council-room, where the Magistrates were sitting in council, with very little attendance. These gentlemen were thus separated effectually from the citizens, who looked to them for orders, and were perhaps more completely at the mercy of Cleveland, than he, with his little handful of men, could be said to be at that of the multitude by whom they were surrounded.

      The Magistrates seemed sensible of their danger; for they looked upon each other in some confusion, when Cleveland thus addressed them: —

      “Good morrow, gentlemen, — I hope there is no unkindness betwixt us. I am come to talk with you about getting supplies for my ship yonder in the roadstead — we cannot sail without them.”

      “Your ship, sir?” said the Provost, who was a man of sense and spirit, — ” how do we know that you are her Captain?”

      “Look at me,” said Cleveland, “and you will, I think, scarce ask the question again.”

      The Magistrate looked at him, and accordingly did not think proper to pursue that part of the inquiry, but proceeded to say — ” And if you are her Captain, whence comes she, and where is she bound for? You look too much like a man-of- war’s-man to be master of a trader, and we know that you do not belong to the British navy.”

      “There are more men-of-war on the sea than sail under the British flag,” replied Cleveland; “but say that I were commander of a freetrader here, willing to exchange tobacco, brandy, gin, and such like, for cured fish and hides, why, I do not think I deserve so very bad usage from the merchants of Kirkwall as to deny me provisions for my money?”

      “Look you, Captain,” said the Townclerk, “it is not that we are so very strait-laced neither — for, when gentlemen of your cloth come this way, it is as weel, as I tauld the Provost, just to do as the collier did when he met the devil, — and that is, to have naething to say to them, if they have naething to say to us; — and there is the gentleman,” pointing to Goffe, “ that was Captain before you, and may be Captain after you “ — (“The cuckold speaks truth in that,” muttered Goffe), — ”he knows well how handsomely we entertained him, till he and his men took upon them to run through the town like hellicat devils. — I see one of them there! — that was the very fellow that stopped my servant-wench on the street, as she carried the lantern home before me, and insulted her before my face!”

      “If it please your noble Mayorship’s honour and glory,” said Derrick, the fellow at whom the Townclerk pointed, “ it was not I that broughtto the bit of a tender that carried the lantern in the poop — it was quite a different sort of a person.”

      “Who was it, then, sir?” said the Provost.

      “Why, please your majesty’s worship,” said Derrick, making several sea bows, and describing as nearly as he could, the exterior of the worthy Magistrate himself,-”he was an elderly gentleman, — Dutch-built, round in the stern, with a white wig and a red nose — very like your majesty, I think;” then, turning to a comrade, he added, “ Jack, don’t’you think the fellow that wanted to kiss the pretty girl with the lantern t’other night, was very like his worship?”

      “By G — , Tom Derrick,” answered the party appealed to, “ I believe it is the very man!”

      “This is insolence which we can make you repent of, gentlemen!” said the Magistrate, justly irritated at their effrontery; “ you have behaved in this town, as if you were in an Indian village at Madagascar. You yourself, Captain, if captain you be, were at the head of ariother riot, no longer since than yesterday. We will give you no provisions till we know better whom we are supplying. And do not think to bully us; when I shake this handkerchief out at the window, which is at my elbow, your ship goes to the bottom. Remember she lies under the guns of our battery.”

      “And how many of these guns are honeycombed, Mr. Mayor? “ said Cleveland. He put the question by chance; but instantly perceived, from a sort of confusion which the Provost in vain endeavoured to hide, that the artillery of Kirkwall was not in the best order. “Come, come, Mr. Mayor,” he said, “bullying will go down with us as little as with you. Your guns yonder will do more harm to the poor old sailors who are to work them than to our sloop; and if we bring a broadside to bear on the town, why, your wives’ crockery will be in some danger. And then to talk to us of seamen being a little frolicsome ashore, why, when are they otherwise? You have the Greenland whalers playing the devil among you every now and then; and the very Dutchmen cut capers in the streets of Kirkwall, like porpoises before a gale of wind. I am told you are a man of sense, and I am sure you and I could settle this matter in the course of a five-minutes’ palaver.”

      “Well, sir,” said the Provost, “ I will hear what you have to say, if you will walk this way.”

      I Cleveland accordingly followed him into a small interior apartment, and, when there, addressed the Provost thus: “ I will lay aside my pistols, sir, if you are afraid of them.”

      “D — n your pistols!” answered the Provost, “I have served the King, and fear the smell of powder as little as you do!v “So much the better,” said Cleveland, “ for you will hear me the more coolly. — Now, sir, let us be what perhaps you suspect us, or let us be anything else, what, in the name of Heaven, can you get by keeping us here, but blows’ and (bloodshed? For which, believe me, we are much better provided than you can pretend to -be. The point is a plain one — you are desirous to be rid of us — we are desirous to be gone. Let us have the means of departure, and we leave you instantly.”

      “Look ye, Captain,” said the Provost, “ I thirst for no man’s blood. You are a pretty fellow, as there were many among the buccaneers in my time — but there is no harm in wishing you a better trade. You should have the stores and welcome, for your money, so you would make these seas clear of you. But then, here lies the rub. The Halcyon frigate is expected here in these parts immediately; when she hears of you she will be at you; for there is nothing the white lapelle loves better than a rover — you are seldom without a cargo of dollars. Well, he comes down, gets you under his stern”

      “Blows us into the air, if you please,” said Cleveland.

      “Nay, that must be as you please, Captain,” said the Provost; “ but then what is to come of the good town of Kirkwall, that has been packing and peeling with the King’s enemies? The burgh will be laid under a round fine, and it may be that the Provost may not come off so easily.”

      “Well, then,” said Cleveland, “ I see where your pinch lies. Now, suppose that I run round this island of yours, and get into the roadstead at Stromness? We could get what we want put on board there, without Kirkwall or the Provost seeming to have any hand in it; or, if it should be ever questioned, your want of force, and our superior strength, will make a sufficient apology.”

      “That may be,” said the Provost; “but if I suffer you to leave your present station, and go elsewhere, I must have some security that you will not do harm to the country.”

      “And we,” said Cleveland, “ must have some security on our side, that you will not detain us, by dribbling out our time till the Halcyon is on the coast. Now, I am myself perfectly willing to continue on shore as a hostage, on СКАЧАТЬ