The sea was calming as he spoke, so that we now got uninterrupted views of each other, and then to our affright we did see Alderly fastening of a cord to the rough-tree-rail at one end, and at the other round the casket, and then lowering it over the side till it swung three feet from the top of the waves, which sometimes, as they burst against the Snow, hurled the box backwards and forwards like unto a shuttlecock. Then, next, he drew his knife, and making signs to us of what he would do by laying of the blade on the cord, he stood by defiantly regarding us. Also the drunken scoundrel and fool had made up his mind to defy us to the utmost and to be plain with us, as it was very evident to see. He had run up his colours, so that there should be no doubt left in our minds about him; on his mizen peak there flew a black silk flag, with on it a skeleton, or "death," with cross bones in one hand, and in the other a heart with drops of blood dripping from it, and also a jack of the same, with a man having a sword thrust through his body, as later I saw plainly. So he stood proclaimed a pirate.
But what was, perhaps, more truly a sign of what this reckless creature was in reality, was the fact that--doubtless before the storm came on--he had abandoned the work-a-day dress of the "honest man" which he wore when first he came alongside of the Furie, and was now bedizened in a lot of finery, none the better for the assaults of the winds and waves. He was dressed in a rich blue damask waistcoat and breeches, in his hat a feather dyed red; around his neck was coiled half a dozen times a gold chain with a great diamond cross on to it--perhaps he had stolen it from the wreck!--hanging over his shoulders was a silk sling, with, thrust into it, three pistols on each side. All this we saw afterwards more plainly than now.
"I cannot endure this defiance," said I to Cromby; "let him sink his casket and be damned to him! I have been a King's officer, and will never submit to the insults of a blackguard scoundrelly pirate. Up with the mainsail, my lads, haul away, and at him;" and as I spoke I whipped out my pistol, and, sighting him, fired.
That I miss't him was none too strange, seeing how both of us were tumbling about and rolling in the water, no more than that he miss't me, as, pulling two pistols out of his sash, he fired, one in each hand.
Then, when he saw our mainsail go up, he made as though he would cut the cord to which hung the casket--only a moment afterwards he altered his mind, and bellowing of an order, which we could very well hear, since now the waves and winds had abated, soon had his own sail up; and in a moment his ship had caught the wind and was away.
That we should ever have catched them sufficient to come alongside and board, I cannot think, even under the best of circumstances, but this chance was not to be ours, for our ropes had fouled, so that they could not be run, and ere we could get them disentangled, the Etoyle was well off from us. But since again, with the coming of fairer weather, the wind had northed, we could very well see they were running for the south. They were bound for the islands!
But at last we got our ropes free, and away we went too. The morn was breaking now and the waves abating, so that, though still we tossed up and down, we could see their horrid black silk flag a-flying on the mizen peak whenever we rose to the crest; and, with the white spume of the water dashed in our faces, and reckless now of what might happen so that we did but keep them in sight, we set all our galliot's sails--main, mizen, and gaff main sail--and tore after them.
"We will follow them, my lads," I said now, with my blood up to boiling heat; "we will follow them to the death! There shall be but one crew left alive to tell this story."
And as I spake my men gave three hearty cheers.
So, having got thus far in my account, I will now rest again for a while.