CHAPTER THREE - THE PIRATE AND THE OLD MAN
CHAPTER FOUR - THE GHOST OF THE PAST
CHAPTER 8 - A PIRATE ONCE AGAIN
Jack sat upon the gunnel of his boat, a small single masted sloop, with an open cockpit. The only decking was on the bow and on the aft. The decking on the bow provided just enough stowage space for a man to lay down.
Jack stared east as the sun began to rise and the south wind began to blow. He could wait for the tide no longer, he had to set sail for Roanoke, for if he stayed any longer his broken heart would drive him back to Bath Town and his son.
Jack pushed hard upon the stern of his boat and slowly she slipped into the water. He raised the jib and then the mainsail which quickly filled with the southern wind. He took his heading east towards the Sound and towards Roanoke Island. He laughed to himself as he raised the sails, for they were black as the night, they were the sails of a smuggler. Jack supposed that if Mr. Murray's dreams of an honest living failed, he intended to slip back into his old ways.
As he sat in the cockpit with his hand firmly on the tiller, Jack pondered upon a name for his boat. At last he settled on the Glencoe.
The wind picked up and the Glencoe began to heel, Jack hiked out over the starboard side of the Glencoe holding fast to the mainsail line. The water broke upon the bow, spraying the cockpit with cool water as the sloop sped on towards the east.
Jack felt free, free of all the hardship of the world, free of the sorrow that came with the parting and even for a brief moment, free from the vengeance that burned deep in his heart.
By mid day, the Glencoe had almost reached the mouth of the Pamlico Sound. Knowing that he could not risk being seen by the watchtower on Roanoke Island, Jack put ashore to wait for nightfall. He crawled into the stowage compartment under the bow and fell into a deep sleep.
Night fell upon the Pamlico Sound, and Jack prepared to set sail once again. He had thought perhaps it would be best to sail directly to Roanoke Island and beach his boat on the far side away from the port. The plan would provide for a quiet and unseen way to walk across the island to the harbor where the Skye would be docked. How would he escape? What if he was seen? "No", he thought, escape would be near impossible, he would have sail into port at night and board the Skye. He would sail past Roanoke Island and wait upon the far shore of the Albemarle Sound for his prey to arrive. The Glencoe sailed swiftly, into the Pamlico Sound and then northward through the Croaton Sound.
The watchman on the tower at Roanoke Island never spied the black sails of the Glencoe as she silently slipped by on her way to the north shore of the Almbemarle Sound. As the early rays of the Sun began to shine in the east, Jack had set the Glencoe ashore in swamps of the Albemarle Sound. Smiling, Jack thought to himself "once a smuggler, always a smuggler." He lay down in the cockpit and fell asleep.
When he awoke, he thought to himself "tonight, perhaps tonight the Skye would be in port." He kept his spyglass in his hand and scoured the horizon for the sight of any sails. Late in the afternoon, he saw the Summerfield enter the Croatan Sound with another ship close behind. As the two ships came closer he knew that tonight would be the night, for there before him sailing in the Ablemarle Sound was the Skye and aboard her the Campbell.
Under the cover of night Jack raised the black sails of the Glencoe setting forth to Roanoke Island and setting forth upon his path of vengeance. Silently, the Glecoe sailed across the Albemarle Sound and into the harbor.
Roanoke Island was alive with music and with the singing of drunken sailors. Along the dock were moored three ships in the order that they had entered port earlier that day, the Concord was berthed closest to the town, followed by the Summerfield and last and closest to the mouth of the harbor was berthed the Skye.
Jack dropped sails and with muffled oars began to row to the side of the Skye. When he came along side of the Skye he hesitated for a moment. "What am I doing? Is this not murder." Kate's words haunted him, "the captain and the crew have nothing to do with this."
The darker angels of Jack's heart began to whisper unto him. The vision of his children frozen to death and clinging to their mother's corpse filled his mind. His heart grew cold, vengeance, it is not a sin to kill those who murder. Jack leapt over the side and onto the deck of the Skye.
Only one man had been left to keep the watch, and had drunk himself to sleep. Jack made his way across the deck and towards the captain's quarters from which a light shown forth. Jack could see two men talking across a desk, with stacks of silver coins upon it, one wore the captain's hat and another had two keys hanging about his neck.
Jack covered his face, drew his sword and dashed into the cabin.
The captain, though startled, rose up and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. Jack smashed the captain's face with the hilt of his claymore, sending him immediately to the ground.
The man with the two keys, Malcomb Campbell, reached for a small flint lock pistol that lay upon the corner of the desk. He never reached it, for with the first blow Jack struck his hand and with the second Jack ran his sword through the Campbell's neck.
Jack heard himself utter a single word, "Glencoe."
Jack took the keys off the dead man's neck. He gathered the silver from the table. The Captain groaned in pain. Jack stopped and stared with his sword at the ready, but Kate's words again rang in his ears, "the captain and the crew have nothing to do with this." He bound and gagged the captain.
Jack took a knife from the captain's boot. On a piece of paper he wrote a single word, "GLENCOE". He then drove the knife through the paper and into the chest of Malcomb Campbell, the deceased master of the Skye and close relation to the Argyll.
Jack made his way to the master's cabin and with one of the keys opened the cabin door. Looking about he saw a cabinet door. Inside the cabinet was a strong box, with the other key he opened the strong box, filled with silver, and deeds to land in the colony as well as a ledger of trade. Jack smiled, "it is not a sin to steal from those who steal."
Pleased, he shut the strong box, and began to leave the cabin. He halted, there was something odd about the back of the cabinet, the wood, it was different. Jack thought himself a fool, "you call yourself a smuggler." Taking the tip of his sword, Jack pried off the back panel of the cabinet.
His eyes grew wide, stacks upon stacks of coins, not coins of silver but coins of gold. Jack looked about, and listened for any movement or sound, hearing none, he quickly gathered the gold and placed it into the strong box.
Jack made his way across the deck of the Skye and lowered the strong box down into the cockpit of the Glencoe. He looked back one last time to see if he had been seen, all he saw was the drunken sailor, who was to have kept the watch, still fast asleep.
Once again, Kate's words haunted him, "the captain and the crew have nothing to do with this."
"Damn!"
Jack knew the poor wretch would be hanged for falling asleep on the watch. Drawing his sword he crept quietly across the deck towards the drunken sailor. Jack bashed the sailor's nose with the handle of his sword. The sailor gave out a small grunt, and his broken nose began to bleed, but the drunken watchman never awoke from his slumber.
"Better a broken nose than a hangman's noose." and with those words Jack slipped over the side of the Skye and unto his smuggler's sloop.
The Glencoe slipped out of the harbor unseen, heading through the Roanoke Sound and onto Ocracoke Island with the pirate at the helm.