474 LEAVES FROM A LOCi. 



us pass without putting disagreeable questions, easy enough ; but at 

 Angostura, though not as exact in those matters as at the custom- 

 house at Amsterdam, it is not quite so likely that men of our descrip- 

 tion will pass without scrutiny." 



" And you intend to embark the whole of us on board the Balti- 

 more clipper ?'' asked the Hollander. 



" All," replied the captain, " but that Englishman., Tom Wilson." 



" What ! discard Tom Wilson !" 



" Not discard him/' said the pirate. "I mean (swearing a dread- 

 ful oath) to do for him." 



" I thought him your favourite officer. I am sure he's the best 

 sailor on board ; besides, he saved your life at Maracaibo." 



" Very true, so he did ; and he is as active an officer and as good a 

 seaman as ever paced a deck ; cool in danger, bold and skilful in en- 

 gagement ; and when he boards an enemy, woe betide those who 

 oppose him ; but he is dangerous we must get rid of him !" 



" What/' is he treacherous ? If I thought so ray pistol " 



" None of your vapouring, Van-der-Plaank, I don't yield to you in 

 courage ; but I would no more encounter Wilson openly when his 

 blood is up, than I would jump on board a ship on fire, when the 

 flames have reached the powder-room. No, no, Tom must be dealt 

 with differently. The little Portuguese, Lopez, has planned the 

 matter with the black cook, so as to wound him with a pin steeped 

 in Indian arrow poison, when we get on board to-night. I will tell 

 you my reasons for this ; though Wilson is a devil when in action, 

 yet, no sooner does an enemy strike, but he grumbles if we make 

 them walk the plank, and has saved many by his foolish scruples. 

 This won't do for us ; a rover's maxim should be, ' dead men tell no 

 tales !' Besides, since the last affair of putting the captain of the 

 Yankee steamer in his own boiler, Tom has become gloomy and dis- 

 contented; he threatens, and, I believe, intends to leave us. Now, 

 as I know him to be a man above any act of treachery, I would allow 

 him to quit us, if he pleased ; but he might ruin us without intend- 

 ing it. You remember he was wounded in the head during the en- 

 gagement with the Dutch letter -of -marque we took off Carthagena. 

 I thought he would never have recovered ; but the Spanish barber- 

 surgeon on the north side of Cuba, spliced a piece of silver in his 

 brain-case ; he got partly well ; but whenever he takes the smallest 

 quantity of grog, or is in any way sick, or when troubled with the 

 night-mare, he is apt to blab all manner of nonsense, which, though 

 well enough amongst ourselves, would perhaps blow us all up if 

 heard by strangers ; this makes me resolved on puncturing him in 

 his sleep. The fact is, ' poor devil/ he suffers so much from his wound 

 in the skull, is so troubled with ugly dreams, and so often driven mad 

 by ' remorse' (this expression he spoke in English) as he calls it, that 

 to put him out of his misery is, after all, only an act of common 

 humanity! But the breeze freshens," said this humane man, "and it 

 is time to embark. The people have disposed of their goods, and if 

 we stay much longer on shore, Glasgow and the rest of the black 

 fellows will be getting groggy, and they will be troublesome to 

 get off." 



