up the ladder to board, I was shocked.
Her decks were dirty and she looked unkempt and down-at-heel, certainly no proper look for a trim Dutch vessel. Several hands were loitering about and one man stood upon the quarter-deck staring down at me and at Lila.
'Who be you?' he demanded.
'Your new master,' I told him, mounting the ladder to stand facing him. 'Your former master and I had a bit of a difficulty, and those who were ashore decided they'd prefer me as master.'
'They did, did they?' He scowled at me. 'They said naught to me!'
I smiled at him. 'There's the ship's boat alongside. Go ashore and talk to your former master, if you like.'
'You'd like that. To have me go ashore and leave you to command!' He stared at me from under bushy brows. ' 'Tis an unlikely thing.'
He peered at me. 'Who says you can handle a ship? Or a crew?'
'Ask them below there,' I said, gesturing. 'Now go below and get yourself a clean shirt, clean pantaloons and a trim for your beard after a shave. Don't appear on this quarter-deck without them.'
He started to argue, his eyes peering at me. 'Go,' I repeated, 'or you'll find yourself among the crew.'
'You'll need a new sailing-master then,' he said, 'unless you can lay a course yourself, for there's no other aboard can do it.'
'Show up here looking the way an officer on the poop deck should look, and you'll keep the job,' I said harshly. 'Otherwise I'll do it myself.'
'You can lay a course, can you?'
'Aye,' I said, 'but I've no wish to displace you.'
Grumbling, he went down the ladder, and with Lila following I went into the aftercabin.
Surprisingly, it was not so bad as I'd expected. But it was still not good enough to suit Lila. 'Go! Leave this to me! And the cooking, too! Just see there's enough aboard to do with!'
Out on deck again I turned the crew to, late as it was, and set them mopping decks, coiling lines, and making things shipshape. There were enough good Newfoundlanders aboard so that the job was not a great one, but it stirred them about and let them know a new hand was at the wheel.
All the while I was thinking. I'd no wish to be a pirate, only to be ashore in Raleigh's land with Abigail, at the same time I'd grown up in an England of the Armada, of Raleigh, Drake, Frobisher and Hawkins. Sea-fighting was in the English blood, and the Spanish were sailing their great galleons up the coast from the Antilles, loaded with gold, some of them.
With the crew at work I went to the aftercabin and spread out the charts on the great table there. They were old, none so good as those aboard my own ship, yet good enough, and I'd a memory for the charts I'd left behind. Yet I studied them, supplying what else was needed from the memory of those other charts.
Westward and south, along the shores of the Gaspe then south past Nova Scotia and down the coast, holding well out to sea.
I was still at the charts when an hour had passed and the sailing-master returned. He'd done a good bit to himself, and looked fresh and clean ... at least, cleaner.
When he saw me studying the mouth of the great river of Canada, he shook his head. 'Do not think on it. A strange ship has newly come there, a ship with many guns that flies no flag I've ever seen. He who commands is a pirate also, but like none I have ever seen. He owns but one hand. Where another was there is now a hook, sometimes a claw or talon. He is a young man, very strong, very quick, and I believe he does not leave. An Indian told me he is building a great house, a castle, perhaps, on a hill in the mountains.'
'We will avoid him then.' Looking at the men down on the deck, I noticed one, a strongly made fellow with fine shoulders and a well-shaped head. 'That one down there. Who is he?'
'A Newfoundlander, and a good man, too. His name is Pike. Or so they call him.
He was a fisherman before he came with us, and a hunter of whales.'
'And your name?'
'Handsel. The first name is Peter, but I am called Hans or Hands ... it does not matter which.'
'You know this man Pike?'
He nodded. 'He works well, and he fights well.' Then he added, 'I think he is the best seafaring man aboard. He knows the sea and he has a love for the ship.'
That night the food upon the table was food Lila had prepared, and it was good.
The men ate, and ate, and pushed back from the table with a sigh. Watching them, I knew my struggle was over, for it is rare that sailors have such food and they would not risk losing her, even if they wished to lose me.
After a few days, I mused, I would have no trouble. Whoever heard of a revolution of fat men?
Long I studied the charts while the crew worked upon the deck, repairing lines and sails and simply dressing her up for sea. As the beauty of the ship became evident, their pride in her grew.
On the third day I was upon the deck and the man I had inquired about passed me.
Within the hearing of several, I stopped him. 'Pike?'
He turned squarely to face me.
'Starting today you are sailing-master. You will direct the deck work, and the handling of sails. You will report to me ... and only to me.'
'Aye!'
'The ship is our home, Pike. It is also our fortress, our refuge. I wish it treated so. If there comes a time when we must sail through the eye of a needle, I want her ready. Do you understand?'
'I will do that. She will be ready, Captain.'
On the fifth day we sailed out of the harbor and set our course for the coast of the great land to the west, but I chose a route that would hold us far at sea and clear of the Gaspe.
Whoever the pirate was who had the claw hand, I had no quarrel with him. Let him go his way, and I mine, and mine was for Raleigh's land.
For three days the wind held true and we made good weather of it, seeing neither land nor ship, nor wishing it. My intent was to reach for the south, closer to home, and perhaps a Spanish ship.
On the sixth day in the morning watch there was a cry, 'Sail ho!'
With the glass I'd found aboard I studied her. It was a small fishing vessel, nothing aboard, no doubt, but hardworking fishermen and their catch, and I'd rob no such man.
'The other would have,' Handsel said grimly. ' 'Twas said he passed nothing!'
'And wasted his time,' I replied shortly, 'judging by what's below.'
Twice during the next few hours we sighted craft. One was another fishing vessel; the second was an Icelandic boat. Having been dealt with so justly at their hands, I had no intention of returning the favor by looting a craft that might belong to some friend of Thorvald's.
Now we moved in closer to the coast. It was a dangerous practice, and this I knew, but I believed that most Spanish craft came north along the great warm stream that flows along the coast of America until nearly opposite Raleigh's land, when they turned eastward for Spain.
We were still far tp the north, but there was ever a chance ...
Pike was at my elbow. 'Captain,' he spoke for my ears only, 'there's a vessel beyond the island there.' He indicated the direction with a nod. 'Over the trees? Can you see?'
'Aye.' I directed my glass that way and saw it plain, only the tips of her masts visible above the trees on the low, sandy island. Those masts should be showing well above the trees, and I had an idea about that.
'Pike, have a look. What do you think of her masts?' He peered through the glass, then turned to me. 'She's stepped her topm'sts, Captain. Whoever she is, she's stepped her topm'sts not to be visible. For some reason she's lying up.'
'Aground?'
'She's on an even keel. She's making repairs, I'd say, or being looted.'
Taking the glass I studied the shore. The island was low and sandy with a few sandhills covered with coarse grass, and the sandy ridge along the backbone of the island was covered with pines.
There was a mild sea running and we eased the whipstaff to guide her in closer along shore. I saw no sign of
