this is a story of captain kidd, who was, you know, the greatest pirate of them all in old times.
one day this terrible fellow was cruising about in these very waters, with a ship full of gold and jewels and precious things which he had stolen. you see, he wanted to find a new place in which to bury this particular treasure. he was always hiding things. he buried his different hoards all along the coast from maine to mexico, just as squirrels hide their nuts wherever it is convenient. you can scarcely find any place, however tiny, which has not a story that captain kidd’s treasure is buried somewhere near. like the squirrels, captain kidd often went away and forgot about his treasure, and never returned to dig it up.
[63]well, captain kidd was cruising along this coast, with his ship full of treasure. he had been enjoying great luck on his last voyage. that means, of course, that a great many other people had been most unlucky. in those days about the unluckiest thing that could happen to anybody was to meet captain kidd on the high seas. pirates were such greedy, cruel fellows,—i beg your pardon! i forgot that nearly every one here is a pirate. how careless of me!
captain kidd was a long way from shore when he ran into a fog,—a thick maine fog; the kind that islanders know so well. it was so thick that one could scarcely see a ship’s length ahead. all of a sudden the pirate lookout called to the captain:—
“sail ahead!” and sure enough! out of the fog loomed a sailing vessel, so near that the two bowsprits were almost touching.
now, this stranger was a fishing-boat named the mary ann. she was a maine fishing-boat, like your father’s, tom prout, and she was on[64] her way home from the banks with a cargo of fish. the captain, whose name was tobey, was frightened out of his wits when he saw the black flag flying at the mast of captain kidd’s vessel. of course, he knew what this meant. if he were captured by the pirate ship he should never see his home and dear little children again. so he put about, and the mary ann scuttled away for dear life, without stopping to say “howdy.”
when captain kidd saw the other boat go about, he grinned a dreadful grin and said,—
“oho! you are running away, are you? well, that must mean that you have some precious treasure aboard. let’s after them, my hearties, and give them a chase.”
you see, he was greedy as well as cruel. already he had more treasure than he knew what to do with, but he longed for more. this was just like a pirate—i beg your pardon, captain bulldog! i forgot again.
now began an exciting chase through the fog. the little mary ann was a fast boat, and[65] for a time she kept ahead of the pirate ship, which could barely see her scudding like a sea-gull through the fog. but finally poor captain tobey saw that the pirate ship was gaining on him, and his heart sank. alas! what could he do? he thought of his children at home, and the tears filled his eyes.
suddenly he had an idea! he knew every rock and shoal in the bay, which was full of rocks and shoals. he remembered that there must be a reef close by, a reef which came almost to the surface of the sea. until one was quite close he would not see it, hidden by this fog. captain tobey steered straight for the place where he knew that reef must be, straight to a froth of white foam.
the pirate ship followed where he led and came on, gaining every minute. now captain tobey held his breath. they were in the waves that broke upon the reef! but the mary ann went safely over without touching, because she was so small. and the big vessel flying the black flag came close after her.
[66]crash! smash! “hurrah!” came a shout from the mary ann. “hurrah! good-by!” the pirate ship was stuck fast on the reef, and the waves were beating her to pieces. but captain tobey did not wait to see what happened. he was too eager to get home to his wife and babies. the mary ann disappeared silently through the fog, scudding towards a harbor miles away.
but there was excitement indeed on board the pirate ship. the pirates went running to and fro, shouting and waving their arms, crazy with fear. they tumbled into the long boats as fast as they could, without thinking anything about their treasure, only of their precious lives. but captain kidd was different. he cared more for his treasure than for anything.
“the mate and i will shift for ourselves!” he shouted. “leave my boat!” he knew he could not save everything, there was such a vast deal of gold and silver and heavy plate in the ship. but he ran to his own cabin and[67] brought out a little wooden box bound in iron. it was full of the most precious treasure of all,—diamonds and rubies, sapphires and emeralds, and precious stones of every color.
with this chest under his cloak he got into the boat, and his mate, one-eyed pete, rowed him away. the fog was so thick that they soon lost sight of the other boat. a storm was rising; the wind blew so loud and the waves roared so terribly that they could not hear any answer to their calls. they had to be very careful of the rocks and reefs on which the waves broke fiercely, and they rowed on and on for hours before they found a place where they could land.
but at last they came to a safer shore, with an inlet and a smooth beach. they landed, and soon discovered that this was a very little desert island.
“this will be just the place to bury the treasure,” said captain kidd. “let us do so before we meet any one who may try to take it from us.”
[68]“right, captain,” growled one-eyed pete.
so they dug a hole in the ground and buried the treasure, heaping a little mound over it. they knew that they should remember the spot, because there was close beside it a great big rock split open and lying in two pieces side by side, like a huge book spread flat upon its back.
captain kidd wrote down in his note-book a description of the place, and, as well as he knew, how they had come there. he drew besides a picture of the fog as a sample, so that he should recognize it again. for he said,—“i never saw such fog before, in all my life!” which proves that all this must have happened close by where we are now.
then one-eyed pete said,—“cap’n, a terrible storm is coming on, and i think this here island is a poor place to be on; for the waves will roll right over it. let’s row to the mainland, which can’t be far away.”
so they rowed away again, and after a long time spent in trying to find a landing-place,[69] they came to a harbor and a village. they pretended that they were shipwrecked sailors, so the good people took them in and gave them food. what would they have thought had they known it was the wicked captain kidd who was visiting them!
the storm lasted several days, but when it was over captain kidd said “good-by” politely, and with one-eyed pete went out on the first fishing-boat that left the harbor. nobody discovered who they were. they exchanged passage into the first vessel they met, and were soon far over the seas.
after that captain kidd lived to have many wild adventures, and he forgot all about his treasure in the little iron-bound box on the desert island. no one ever heard of the other pirates, who must have been drowned in the storm that night. the pirate ship went to pieces, and some bits of the treasure were washed ashore with its timbers, and the fishermen’s children found them on the beach. but it is not known that any one ever found[70] the captain’s jewels, and i dare say the box is there to this day. just think, if only one could find it!
aunt clare ended her story with a sigh, echoed by all the little girls. “i wish i had some diamonds now,” said rose wistfully.
“oh, so do i,—and rubies!” cried mary.
“is that all?” asked kenneth and charlie, in one breath.
“is it true?” demanded tom eagerly.
“’course it is true,” cried charlie. “didn’t you ever hear of captain kidd?”
“i don’t know for certain that it is all true,” said aunt clare, “but it might be. there were pirates who buried their treasure in desert islands. why, i’ve heard the fishermen of this very place tell that there was treasure buried around here somewhere. no one knows where.”
“it might be this very same treasure!” cried kenneth, “mightn’t it, aunt clare?”
[71]“i suppose it might,” she answered, laughing.
the boys exchanged eager looks. they did not say anything about it then, but they each knew that they were resolved to find that pirate treasure if it was anywhere near the island.
as for the little girls, they were helping to pack up the lunch baskets; for the released prisoners were now ready to go home, and some of the pirates were going with them.
