章节正文
held on the shore. A number of men and women came up the beach
in oxcarts and sledges; others had come in boats from more
distant points and across the water.
The captain of the New Yorker and Blackbeard went ashore together
a little after dark. The New Yorker had been aboard of the
pirate's sloop for all the latter part of the afternoon, and he
and Blackbeard had been drinking together in the cabin. The New
York man was now a little tipsy, and he laughed and talked
foolishly as he and Blackbeard were rowed ashore. The pirate sat
grim and silent.
It was nearly dark when they stepped ashore on the beach. The New
York captain stumbled and fell headlong, rolling over and over,
and the crew of the boat burst out laughing.
The people had already begun to dance in an open shed fronting
upon the shore. There were fires of pine knots in front of the
building, lighting up the interior with a red glare. A negro was
playing a fiddle somewhere inside, and the shed was filled with a
crowd of grotesque dancing figures--men and women. Now and then
they called with loud voices as they danced, and the squeaking of
the fiddle sounded incessantly through the noise of outcries and
the stamp and shuffling of feet.
Captain Teach and the New York captain stood looking on. The New
York man had tilted himself against a post and stood there
holding one arm around it, supporting himself. He waved the other
hand foolishly in time to the music, now and then snapping his
thumb and finger.
The young woman who had just been married approached the two. She
had been dancing, and she was warm and red, her hair blowzed
about her head. "Hi, Captain, won't you dance with me?" she said
to Blackbeard.
Blackbeard stared at her. "Who be you?" he said.
She burst out laughing. "You look as if you'd eat a body," she
cried.
Blackbeard's face gradually relaxed. "Why, to be sure, you're a
brazen one, for all the world," he said. "Well, I'll dance with
you, that I will. I'll dance the heart out of you."
He pushed forward, thrusting aside with his elbow the newly made
husband. The man, who saw that Blackbeard had been drinking,
burst out laughing, and the other men and women who had been
standing around drew away, so that in a little while the floor
was pretty well cleared. One could see the negro now; he sat on a
barrel at the end of the room. He grinned with his white teeth
and, without stopping in his fiddling, scraped his bow harshly
across the strings, and then instantly changed the tune to a
lively jig. Blackbeard jumped up into the air and clapped his
heels together, giving, as he did so, a sharp, short yell. Then
he began instantly dancing grotesquely and violently. The woman
danced opposite to him, this way and that, with her knuckles on
her hips. Everybody burst out laughing at Blackbeard's grotesque
antics. They laughed again and again, clapping their hands, and
the negro scraped away on his fiddle like fury. The woman's hair
came tumbling down her back. She tucked it back, laughing and
panting, and the sweat ran down her face. She danced and danced.
At last she burst out laughing and stopped, panting. Blackbeard
again jumped up in the air and clapped his heels. Again he
yelled, and as he did so, he struck his heels upon the floor and
spun around. Once more everybody burst out laughing, clapping
their hands, and the negro stopped fiddling.
Near by was a shanty or cabin where they were selling spirits,
and by and by Blackbeard went there with the New York captain,
and presently they began drinking again. "Hi, Captain!" called
one of the men, "Maynard's out yonder in the inlet. Jack Bishop's
just come across from t'other side. He says Mr. Maynard hailed
him and asked for a pilot to fetch him in."
"Well, here's luck to him, and he can't come in quick enough for
me!" cried out Blackbeard in his hoarse, husky voice.
"Well, Captain," called a voice, "will ye fight him to-morrow?"
"Aye," shouted the pirate, "if he can get in to me, I'll try to
give 'em what they seek, and all they want of it into the
bargain. As for a pilot, I tell ye what 'tis--if any man
hereabouts goes out there to pilot that villain in 'twill be the
worst day's work he ever did in all of his life. 'Twon't be fit
for him to live in these parts of America if I am living here at
the same time." There was a burst of laughter.
"Give us a toast, Captain! Give us something to drink to! Aye,
Captain, a toast! A toast!" a half dozen voices were calling out
at the same time.
"Well," cried out the pirate captain, "here's to a good, hot
fight to- morrow, and the best dog on top! 'Twill be, Bang!
bang!--this way!"
He began pulling a pistol out of his pocket, but it stuck in the
lining, and he struggled and tugged at it. The men ducked and
scrambled away from before him, and then the next moment he had
the pistol out of his pocket. He swung it around and around.
There was perfect silence. Suddenly there was a flash and a
stunning report, and instantly a crash and tinkle of broken
glass. One of the men cried out, and began picking and jerking
at the back of his neck. "He's broken that bottle all down my
neck," he called out.
"That's the way 'twill be," said Blackbeard.
"Lookee," said the owner of the place, "I won't serve out another
drop if 'tis going to be like that. If there's any more trouble
I'll blow out the lantern."
The sound of the squeaking and scraping of the fiddle and the
shouts and the scuffling feet still came from the shed where the
dancing was going on.
"Suppose you get your dose to-morrow, Captain," some one called
out, "what then?"
"Why, if I do," said Blackbeard, "I get it, and that's all there
is of it."
"Your wife'll be a rich widdy then, won't she?" cried one of the
men; and there was a burst of laughter.
"Why," said the New York captain,--"why, has a--a bloody p-pirate
like you a wife then--a--like any honest man?"
"She'll be no richer than she is now," said Blackbeard.
"She knows where you've hid your money, anyways. Don't she,
Captain?" called out a voice.
"The civil knows where I've hid my money," said Blackbeard, "and
I know where I've hid it; and the longest liver of the twain will
git it all. And that's all there is of it."
The gray of early day was beginning to show in the east when
Blackbeard and the New York captain came down to the landing
together. The New York captain swayed and toppled this way and
that as he walked, now falling against Blackbeard, and now
staggering away from him.
II
Early in the morning--perhaps eight o'clock--Lieutenant Maynard
sent a boat from the schooner over to the settlement, which lay
some four or five miles distant. A number of men stood lounging
on the landing, watching the approach of the boat. The men rowed
close up to the wharf, and there lay upon their oars, while the
boatswain of the schooner, who was in command of the boat, stood
up and asked if there was any man there who could pilot them over
the shoals.
Nobody answered, but all stared stupidly at him. After a while
one of the men at last took his pipe out of his mouth. "There
ben't any pilot here, master," said he; "we ben't pilots."
"Why, what a story you do tell!" roared the boatswain. "D'ye
suppose I've never been down here before, not to know that every
man about here knows the passes of the shoals?"
The fellow still held his pipe in his hand. He looked at another
one of the men. "Do you know the passes in over the shoals,
Jem?" said he.
The man to whom he spoke was a young fellow with long, shaggy,
sunburnt hair hanging over his eyes in an unkempt mass. He shook
his head, grunting, "Na--I don't know naught about t' shoals."
"'Tis Lieutenant Maynard of His Majesty's navy in command of them
vessels out there," said the boatswain. "He'll give any man five
pound to pilot him in." The men on the wharf looked at one
another, but still no one spoke, and the boatswain stood looking
at them. He saw that they did not choose to answer him. "Why,"
he said, "I believe you've not got right wits--that's what I
believe is the matter with you. Pull me up to the landing, men,
and I'll go ashore and see if I can find anybody that's willing
to make five pound for such a little bit of piloting as that."
After the boatswain had gone ashore the loungers still stood on
the wharf, looking down into the boat, and began talking to one
another for the men below to hear them. "They're coming in,"
said one, "to blow poor Blackbeard out of the water." "Aye," said
another, "he's so peaceable, too, he is; he'll just lay still and
let 'em blow and blow, he will." "There's a young fellow there,"
said another of the men; "he don't look fit to die yet, he don't.
Why, I wouldn't be in his place for a thousand pound." "I do
suppose Blackbeard's so afraid he don't know how to see," said
the first speaker.
At last one of the men in the boat spoke up. "Maybe he don't
know how to see," said he, "but maybe we'll blow some daylight
into him afore we get through with him."
Some more of the settlers had come out from the shore to the end
of the wharf, and there was now quite a crowd gathering there,
all looking at the men in the boat. "What do them Virginny
'baccy-eaters do down here in Caroliny, anyway?" said one of the
newcomers. "They've got no call to be down here in North Caroliny
waters."
"Maybe you can keep us away from coming, and maybe you can't,"
said a voice from the boat.
"Why," answered the man on the wharf, "we could keep you away
easy enough, but you ben't worth the trouble, and that's the
truth."
There was a heavy iron bolt lying near the edge of the landing.
One of the men upon the wharf slyly thrust it out with the end of
his foot. It hung for a moment and then fell into the boat below
with a crash. "What d'ye mean by that?" roared the man in charge
of the boat. "What d'ye mean, ye villains? D'ye mean to stave a
hole in us?"
"Why," said the man who had pushed it, "you saw 'twasn't done a
purpose, didn't you?"
"Well, you try it again, and somebody'll get hurt," said the man
in the boat, showing the butt end of his pistol.
The men on the wharf began laughing. Just then the boatswain
came down from the settlement again, and out along the landing.
The threatened turbulence quieted as he approached, and the crowd
moved sullenly aside to let him pass. He did not bring any pilot
with him, and he jumped down into the stern of the boat, saying,
briefly, "Push off." The crowd of loungers stood looking after
them as they rowed away, and when the boat was some distance from
the landing they burst out into a volley of derisive yells. "The
villains!" said the boatswain, "they are all in league together.
They wouldn't even let me go up into the settlement to look for a
pilot."
The lieutenant and his sailing master stood watching the boat as
it approached. "Couldn't you, then, get a pilot, Baldwin?" said
Mr. Maynard, as the boatswain scrambled aboard.
"No, I couldn't, sir," said the man. "Either they're all banded
together, or else they're all afraid of the villains. They
wouldn't even let me go up into the settlement to find one."
"Well, then," said Mr. Maynard, "we'll make shift to work in as
best we may by ourselves. 'Twill be high tide against one
o'clock. We'll run in then with sail as far as we can, and then
we'll send you ahead with the boat to sound for a pass, and we'll
follow with the sweeps. You know the waters pretty well, you
in oxcarts and sledges; others had come in boats from more
distant points and across the water.
The captain of the New Yorker and Blackbeard went ashore together
a little after dark. The New Yorker had been aboard of the
pirate's sloop for all the latter part of the afternoon, and he
and Blackbeard had been drinking together in the cabin. The New
York man was now a little tipsy, and he laughed and talked
foolishly as he and Blackbeard were rowed ashore. The pirate sat
grim and silent.
It was nearly dark when they stepped ashore on the beach. The New
York captain stumbled and fell headlong, rolling over and over,
and the crew of the boat burst out laughing.
The people had already begun to dance in an open shed fronting
upon the shore. There were fires of pine knots in front of the
building, lighting up the interior with a red glare. A negro was
playing a fiddle somewhere inside, and the shed was filled with a
crowd of grotesque dancing figures--men and women. Now and then
they called with loud voices as they danced, and the squeaking of
the fiddle sounded incessantly through the noise of outcries and
the stamp and shuffling of feet.
Captain Teach and the New York captain stood looking on. The New
York man had tilted himself against a post and stood there
holding one arm around it, supporting himself. He waved the other
hand foolishly in time to the music, now and then snapping his
thumb and finger.
The young woman who had just been married approached the two. She
had been dancing, and she was warm and red, her hair blowzed
about her head. "Hi, Captain, won't you dance with me?" she said
to Blackbeard.
Blackbeard stared at her. "Who be you?" he said.
She burst out laughing. "You look as if you'd eat a body," she
cried.
Blackbeard's face gradually relaxed. "Why, to be sure, you're a
brazen one, for all the world," he said. "Well, I'll dance with
you, that I will. I'll dance the heart out of you."
He pushed forward, thrusting aside with his elbow the newly made
husband. The man, who saw that Blackbeard had been drinking,
burst out laughing, and the other men and women who had been
standing around drew away, so that in a little while the floor
was pretty well cleared. One could see the negro now; he sat on a
barrel at the end of the room. He grinned with his white teeth
and, without stopping in his fiddling, scraped his bow harshly
across the strings, and then instantly changed the tune to a
lively jig. Blackbeard jumped up into the air and clapped his
heels together, giving, as he did so, a sharp, short yell. Then
he began instantly dancing grotesquely and violently. The woman
danced opposite to him, this way and that, with her knuckles on
her hips. Everybody burst out laughing at Blackbeard's grotesque
antics. They laughed again and again, clapping their hands, and
the negro scraped away on his fiddle like fury. The woman's hair
came tumbling down her back. She tucked it back, laughing and
panting, and the sweat ran down her face. She danced and danced.
At last she burst out laughing and stopped, panting. Blackbeard
again jumped up in the air and clapped his heels. Again he
yelled, and as he did so, he struck his heels upon the floor and
spun around. Once more everybody burst out laughing, clapping
their hands, and the negro stopped fiddling.
Near by was a shanty or cabin where they were selling spirits,
and by and by Blackbeard went there with the New York captain,
and presently they began drinking again. "Hi, Captain!" called
one of the men, "Maynard's out yonder in the inlet. Jack Bishop's
just come across from t'other side. He says Mr. Maynard hailed
him and asked for a pilot to fetch him in."
"Well, here's luck to him, and he can't come in quick enough for
me!" cried out Blackbeard in his hoarse, husky voice.
"Well, Captain," called a voice, "will ye fight him to-morrow?"
"Aye," shouted the pirate, "if he can get in to me, I'll try to
give 'em what they seek, and all they want of it into the
bargain. As for a pilot, I tell ye what 'tis--if any man
hereabouts goes out there to pilot that villain in 'twill be the
worst day's work he ever did in all of his life. 'Twon't be fit
for him to live in these parts of America if I am living here at
the same time." There was a burst of laughter.
"Give us a toast, Captain! Give us something to drink to! Aye,
Captain, a toast! A toast!" a half dozen voices were calling out
at the same time.
"Well," cried out the pirate captain, "here's to a good, hot
fight to- morrow, and the best dog on top! 'Twill be, Bang!
bang!--this way!"
He began pulling a pistol out of his pocket, but it stuck in the
lining, and he struggled and tugged at it. The men ducked and
scrambled away from before him, and then the next moment he had
the pistol out of his pocket. He swung it around and around.
There was perfect silence. Suddenly there was a flash and a
stunning report, and instantly a crash and tinkle of broken
glass. One of the men cried out, and began picking and jerking
at the back of his neck. "He's broken that bottle all down my
neck," he called out.
"That's the way 'twill be," said Blackbeard.
"Lookee," said the owner of the place, "I won't serve out another
drop if 'tis going to be like that. If there's any more trouble
I'll blow out the lantern."
The sound of the squeaking and scraping of the fiddle and the
shouts and the scuffling feet still came from the shed where the
dancing was going on.
"Suppose you get your dose to-morrow, Captain," some one called
out, "what then?"
"Why, if I do," said Blackbeard, "I get it, and that's all there
is of it."
"Your wife'll be a rich widdy then, won't she?" cried one of the
men; and there was a burst of laughter.
"Why," said the New York captain,--"why, has a--a bloody p-pirate
like you a wife then--a--like any honest man?"
"She'll be no richer than she is now," said Blackbeard.
"She knows where you've hid your money, anyways. Don't she,
Captain?" called out a voice.
"The civil knows where I've hid my money," said Blackbeard, "and
I know where I've hid it; and the longest liver of the twain will
git it all. And that's all there is of it."
The gray of early day was beginning to show in the east when
Blackbeard and the New York captain came down to the landing
together. The New York captain swayed and toppled this way and
that as he walked, now falling against Blackbeard, and now
staggering away from him.
II
Early in the morning--perhaps eight o'clock--Lieutenant Maynard
sent a boat from the schooner over to the settlement, which lay
some four or five miles distant. A number of men stood lounging
on the landing, watching the approach of the boat. The men rowed
close up to the wharf, and there lay upon their oars, while the
boatswain of the schooner, who was in command of the boat, stood
up and asked if there was any man there who could pilot them over
the shoals.
Nobody answered, but all stared stupidly at him. After a while
one of the men at last took his pipe out of his mouth. "There
ben't any pilot here, master," said he; "we ben't pilots."
"Why, what a story you do tell!" roared the boatswain. "D'ye
suppose I've never been down here before, not to know that every
man about here knows the passes of the shoals?"
The fellow still held his pipe in his hand. He looked at another
one of the men. "Do you know the passes in over the shoals,
Jem?" said he.
The man to whom he spoke was a young fellow with long, shaggy,
sunburnt hair hanging over his eyes in an unkempt mass. He shook
his head, grunting, "Na--I don't know naught about t' shoals."
"'Tis Lieutenant Maynard of His Majesty's navy in command of them
vessels out there," said the boatswain. "He'll give any man five
pound to pilot him in." The men on the wharf looked at one
another, but still no one spoke, and the boatswain stood looking
at them. He saw that they did not choose to answer him. "Why,"
he said, "I believe you've not got right wits--that's what I
believe is the matter with you. Pull me up to the landing, men,
and I'll go ashore and see if I can find anybody that's willing
to make five pound for such a little bit of piloting as that."
After the boatswain had gone ashore the loungers still stood on
the wharf, looking down into the boat, and began talking to one
another for the men below to hear them. "They're coming in,"
said one, "to blow poor Blackbeard out of the water." "Aye," said
another, "he's so peaceable, too, he is; he'll just lay still and
let 'em blow and blow, he will." "There's a young fellow there,"
said another of the men; "he don't look fit to die yet, he don't.
Why, I wouldn't be in his place for a thousand pound." "I do
suppose Blackbeard's so afraid he don't know how to see," said
the first speaker.
At last one of the men in the boat spoke up. "Maybe he don't
know how to see," said he, "but maybe we'll blow some daylight
into him afore we get through with him."
Some more of the settlers had come out from the shore to the end
of the wharf, and there was now quite a crowd gathering there,
all looking at the men in the boat. "What do them Virginny
'baccy-eaters do down here in Caroliny, anyway?" said one of the
newcomers. "They've got no call to be down here in North Caroliny
waters."
"Maybe you can keep us away from coming, and maybe you can't,"
said a voice from the boat.
"Why," answered the man on the wharf, "we could keep you away
easy enough, but you ben't worth the trouble, and that's the
truth."
There was a heavy iron bolt lying near the edge of the landing.
One of the men upon the wharf slyly thrust it out with the end of
his foot. It hung for a moment and then fell into the boat below
with a crash. "What d'ye mean by that?" roared the man in charge
of the boat. "What d'ye mean, ye villains? D'ye mean to stave a
hole in us?"
"Why," said the man who had pushed it, "you saw 'twasn't done a
purpose, didn't you?"
"Well, you try it again, and somebody'll get hurt," said the man
in the boat, showing the butt end of his pistol.
The men on the wharf began laughing. Just then the boatswain
came down from the settlement again, and out along the landing.
The threatened turbulence quieted as he approached, and the crowd
moved sullenly aside to let him pass. He did not bring any pilot
with him, and he jumped down into the stern of the boat, saying,
briefly, "Push off." The crowd of loungers stood looking after
them as they rowed away, and when the boat was some distance from
the landing they burst out into a volley of derisive yells. "The
villains!" said the boatswain, "they are all in league together.
They wouldn't even let me go up into the settlement to look for a
pilot."
The lieutenant and his sailing master stood watching the boat as
it approached. "Couldn't you, then, get a pilot, Baldwin?" said
Mr. Maynard, as the boatswain scrambled aboard.
"No, I couldn't, sir," said the man. "Either they're all banded
together, or else they're all afraid of the villains. They
wouldn't even let me go up into the settlement to find one."
"Well, then," said Mr. Maynard, "we'll make shift to work in as
best we may by ourselves. 'Twill be high tide against one
o'clock. We'll run in then with sail as far as we can, and then
we'll send you ahead with the boat to sound for a pass, and we'll
follow with the sweeps. You know the waters pretty well, you
- ashore [ə´ʃɔ:]
ad.向岸上 (初中英语单词) - aboard [ə´bɔ:d] ad.&prep.在...上 (初中英语单词)
- interior [in´tiəriə] n.&a.内部地(的) (初中英语单词)
- instantly [´instəntli] ad.立即，立刻 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- pistol [´pistl] n.手枪 vt.用手枪射击 (初中英语单词)
- bloody [´blʌdi] a.(流)血的；血腥的 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- lieutenant [lef´tenənt] n.陆军中尉；代理；副手 (初中英语单词)
- thrust [θrʌst] v.&n.猛推；冲；刺；挤进 (初中英语单词)
- league [li:g] n.同盟；社团 (初中英语单词)
- pirate [´paiərət] n.海盗 v.做海盗；掠夺 (高中英语单词)
- headlong [´hedlɔŋ] ad.&a.轻率地(的) (高中英语单词)
- violently [´vaiələntli] ad.强暴地；猛烈地 (高中英语单词)
- schooner [´sku:nə] n.纵帆船 (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- naught [nɔ:t] n.无；零 (高中英语单词)
- peaceable [´pi:səbl] a.和平的；安静的 (高中英语单词)
- lighting [´laitiŋ] n.照明，发光 (英语四级单词)
- fiddle [´fidl] n.小提琴 v.拉提琴 (英语四级单词)
- grotesque [grəu´tesk] a.奇异的，想象中的 (英语四级单词)
- hoarse [hɔ:s] a.嘶哑的；嗓门粗哑的 (英语四级单词)
- villain [´vilən] n.坏人；恶棍；反面角色 (英语四级单词)
- morrow [´mɔrəu] n.翌日 (英语四级单词)
- tinkle [´tiŋkəl] v.&n.(使发)叮当声 (英语四级单词)
- gathering [´gæðəriŋ] n.集会，聚集 (英语四级单词)
- volley [´vɔli] n.&v.齐射；(话)迸发 (英语四级单词)
- incessantly [in´sesntli] ad.不断地，不停地 (英语六级单词)
- foolishly [´fu:liʃli] ad.愚蠢地 (英语六级单词)
- calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
- landing [´lændiŋ] n.登陆；降落；楼梯平台 (英语六级单词)
- sullenly [´sʌlənli] ad.不高兴地 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
京公网安备 11011202003401号
