So double-shot the guns, my lads, and ram ’em very tight,
And heave a kiss to Bet and Sis, for we’re out on the chase to-night.”
“Chorus! Cap’n Morgan Leroux, hey? Why, your namesake, my old commander, God bless him, would a loved that song like his very own. I mind one day, he—why, now, split me,” said Mr Dawkins, sitting down with a drunken chuckle, “if I rec’lect what in the deep sea I do rec’lect.”
Ensconced in the adjoining cabin, we had our eyes glued to the spy-holes, you may be sure. Morgan Leroux fetched out bottle and glasses from the locker.
“A tot of rum, Mr Dawkins, now, to set you fair for dinner?”
“Spoken like your namesake,” said Dawkins, approvingly. “And you’ll surely join me this time, so I shan’t be ashamed. No? Well, strike me blind if ever I see a thing like this here. A gentleman of fortune, and not drink—why, it ain’t in nature. Well, here’s plate and plunder, full cargoes for every gentleman of fortune!”
Morgan Leroux opened the door between the cabins, and at sight of us her eyes lighted and her cheeks flushed. Brandon caught her hand, as she swiftly slipped the bolt.
“Lass,” he whispered, “I never thought to see you again.”
“All’s well,” said she, giving him both her hands. “I’ve caught the thief for you; he’s properly trepanned. Leave him to me; he’ll drink himself drunk hand to fist before the liquor’s done. Then you can lay him by the heels. But listen,” she added, whispering very low, “Dawkins never sent that boat. I found that out for certain. There’s trouble in the wind; never a ship in sight outside; where could the boat come from? Do you think it was Obeah work? Were they ghosts in the boat, that called out ‘Dead or alive?’”
Morgan had been nurtured, you see, among the black people; she believed in the Obeah magic, and hoodoo, and devils and spirits, quite naturally. But, white or black, Eastern or Western, there are few, indeed, who are not secretly credulous of the supernatural; and for a moment we three stared upon one another in a foolish silence; while Dawkins, in the next cabin, happily oblivious, began singing to himself again.