"I shall be ever so glad, if Captain Avery'll let me," answered Guert. "He says we're likely to be in port quite a while. I'll ask him."
Captain Avery was near enough to hear, and he replied for himself. "It's all right, Guert," he said. "You may go. I want you to, even if we sail and come back while you're ashore. You see, my boy, you know a little Spanish now. Here's a chance for you to get ahead so you can begin to speak and read it. Every American sea-captain ought to know Spanish."
"Yes, sir, I'd like it first-rate," said Guert; "but I wouldn't like to have the Noank sail without me on board."
"We'll see 'bout that," replied the captain. "You'll obey orders, anyhow."
"I guess I'll have to," almost grumbled Guert, as he was compelled to get away from his friends and hasten back in the boat to the schooner; "but I didn't come to loaf on shore. I'd rather be a gunner."
There was a great deal of talk and excitement upon both vessels, but things were rapidly getting back into order. The sails were spread, and both were quickly in motion. The wind was fair, and night was coming on. As for the Noank, in particular, all that she had done for either pirates or Spaniards could not diminish the necessity she was under for keeping up a sharp lookout for anything sailing under the British flag. That banner might be fluttering nearer at any hour, and it might be upon a "sugar-boat," or it might be streaming out from the dangerous rigging of a cruiser.
Once the schooner was under way, Guert found himself more at liberty than usual, for all kinds of his sea schooling were given a vacation. His head was even more full than ordinary, however, and he had an especial reason for getting away with Sam Prentice during their next watch on deck. He had several times heard the mate talk about pirates. He had also heard something about them from Up-na-tan and Coco and the crew. Until now, however, all that he had heard at any time had been listened to as if it were unreal. He had never read a novel, and so he did not know that all of it had seemed to him a kind of pretty, interesting story of fiction, and not anything more. It was very different, now that he had seen a black flag and sent a heavy shot into the hull under it, and had watched while that hull went down.
"About the buccaneers, eh?" said Sam, as they leaned over the quarter-rail and looked out into the darkness. "Well! I s'pose there are books about 'em. You can learn a good deal from books, but I don't know any that'll tell you all there is 'bout those islands. There's too many of 'em, hundreds, mebbe, with outlyin' reefs and ledges. Then there are any number o' bays and inlets and lagoons. That's why it's so hard to follow up and ketch light draft pirate vessels. They can hide in a thousand out o' the way places until they git ready to run out and make a strike. One o' their biggest helps is the caves on some o' the islands. Safest kind o' places for men to hide plunder in, too. Some of 'em open right down at the water line, and some of 'em have deep water for quite a way in from the mouth. You can row a boat right on in at high tide, or even at low water, I've heard tell. Big cruisers ain't of any use 'mong the shoals and ledges and lagoons. Somehow the governments have been too busy 'bout other matters to build and arm the right pattern o' gunboats. That there picaroon that we sunk to-day was as large a craft as I ever heard o' their usin'. Oftener, they go out in canoes and rowboats and sailboats, and make surprises in light winds or calms, or in the night. All the shore people are afraid to tell on 'em, and they're good friends with the Caribs and the slaves. Of course, they've got to be all rooted out, some day, but it's goin' to be a tough job, I tell ye."
Many more things he had to tell, as Guert questioned him. Before he got through, it almost seemed as if all the nations of the world had once been pirates, of one kind or another, each nation thinking it right to capture ships of other nations on sight, if opportunity made it safe to do so.
"I tell you what," said Guert, at last, "I want to read books! I never had a chance at 'em. Rachel Tarns lent me a few, long ago, when we were at home in New York, before the British came. The war drove us out, you know, and we can't guess when we're to get back. I want to read."