About a quarter of an hour later he returned, comparatively sober, and, saluting again, stood in the doorway, waiting for me to question him.
“So there you are again, eh?” remarked I. “Very well. Now, Peter, if you are sober enough to speak plainly, I should like to know what you meant by saying that you have ‘got’ Morillo, the pirate. Do you mean that you have actually found and captured the fellow?”
“Well, no, Mistah Courtenay, I don’t dissactly mean that; no such luck, sah! But I’se got de next best t’ing, sah; I’se got a man who says he knows where Morillo’s to be foun’,” answered Peter.
“Um! well that is better than nothing—if your friend is to be trusted,” said I. “Who is he, and where did you run athwart him?”
“He ain’t no friend ob mine,” answered Peter, virtuously indignant at so insulting an insinuation; “he’s jus’ a yaller man—a half-breed—dat I met at a rum shop up in Kingston. I heard him mention Morillo’s name, so I jined him in a bottle ob rum,—which I paid for out ob my own pocket, Mistah Courtenay,—and axed him some questions. He wouldn’t say much, but he kep’ on boastin’ dat he knew where Morillo could be found any time—excep’ when he was at sea. So I made him drunk wid my rum, Mistah Courtenay, and den brought him aboard here instead ob puttin’ him aboard his own footy little felucca in Kingston harbour.”
“I see. And where is the fellow now, Peter?” inquired I.
“Where is he now, sah?” repeated Peter. “Why, sah, he is on deck, comfortably asleep between two ob de guns, where I put him when I come aboard.”
“Very good, Peter; I begin to think you were not so very drunk after all,” answered I, well pleased. “But it will not do to leave him on deck all night,” I continued; “he will get sober, and give us the slip. So, to make quite sure of him, stow him away down below, and have a set of irons clapped on him. When we are fairly at sea to-morrow, I will have him up on deck, and see what can be made of him. Meanwhile, Peter, he is your prisoner, remember, and I shall hold you responsible for him. Now go and turn in, and beware how you appear before me drunk again.”
Early next morning I presented myself at the admiral’s office, timing myself so as to catch the old gentleman immediately upon his arrival from Kingston, when, having reported the Tern as ready for sea, I received my orders to sail forthwith, and also written instructions in reference to the especial object of my cruise. These, I was by no means surprised to find, indicated that, while doing my utmost to harass the enemy, I was to devote myself especially to the task of hunting down and cutting short the career of Morillo the pirate and his gang of cut-throats.
We weighed shortly before noon, beating out against a sea breeze that roared through our rigging with the strength of half a gale; and when we were fairly clear of the shoals I gave orders for Black Peter’s prisoner of the previous night to be brought on deck. A minute or two later the fellow—a half-caste Spanish negro—stood before me; and when I beheld what manner of man he was, I could readily believe him to be on terms of friendly intimacy not only with Morillo but with all the human scum of the Caribbean. The rascal presented a not altogether unpicturesque figure, as he stood in the brilliant sunlight, poising himself with the careless, easy grace of the practised seaman upon the heaving, lurching deck of the plunging schooner; for he was attired in a white shirt, with broad falling collar loosely confined at the neck by a black silk handkerchief, blue dungaree trousers rolled up to the knee and secured round the waist by a knotted crimson silk sash, and his head was enfolded in a similar sash, the fringed ends of which drooped upon his left shoulder. But it was the fellow’s countenance that riveted my attention despite myself; it was of itself ugly enough to have commanded attention anywhere, but to its natural ugliness there was added the further repulsiveness of expression that bespoke a character notable alike for low, unscrupulous cunning and the most ferocious cruelty. But for the fact that he had been encountered upon ground whereon neither Morillo nor any of his gang would have dared to show themselves, I could readily have believed that he not only had a pretty intimate knowledge of the movements and haunts of the pirates, but that he was probably a distinguished member of the gang.