The pirate captain started on hearing himself thus addressed.
“Who are you?” he asked, looking again hard at Deane.
“One you knew in his youth, and who has never ceased to wish you well,” answered Jack. “You have served one sovereign—I have fought under the flag of another. Do you know me now?”
“Yes, indeed I do; though you are greatly changed from the stripling you were when I knew you,” answered Pearson, stretching out his hand. “I wish you well, for I thought you a brave and honest youth, and I am thankful to find you took your own course. Now, as I believe you to be unchanged, the promise I ask you to make, if I allow you to proceed, is—that you will not give information of my vessel being off the coast.”
Deane was rather perplexed what answer to make.
“No,” he answered at last; “I wish you no harm; at the same time, I cannot allow any honest trader to fall into your hands. Now hear me, Master Pearson. My object in coming out here is to carry home two persons in whom you were once greatly interested: the little Elizabeth whom you protected in her youth, and your own wife, whom I am sure you once loved. I throw myself, therefore, on your generosity.”
Pearson seemed greatly agitated for some minutes.
“I will not interfere with you,” he answered. “I cannot force that poor lady to undergo the hardships into which I once led her, and I will therefore leave her to your kindness and charity. I would that I could accompany you, but I cannot desert my comrades. But the time may come ere long, that I may enable them to secure their own safety, and I will then, if I still have the means, endeavour to visit Pennsylvania.”
Much on the same subject passed between the two former acquaintances. The pirates’ ship towed the boat to the mouth of the Delaware, when the latter cast off and stood up the river, while the pirate proceeded again towards the ocean.