Sackett's Land

to learn of their ways, which be different than ours. But with a good stockade and a few swivel guns a man could protect himself while trying to deal fairly.'

            Food was brought to the cabin table, and I ate, and well, yet there was more to worry me, for I knew that Nick Bardle, a revengeful man, was still alive.

            We needed a foremast, so with Jublain, Corvino, and Sakim and several of Tempany's men, I led the way into the woods to where some likely mast timber could be found. While they felled the tree, I looked about, marking various trees for future falling, and studying the land for a likely spot for a trading station.

            It must be on the river, in a position easily defended, with timber available and a spring if possible.

            We floated our tree down river and guided it about to the position of the Tiger. All went well, and we saw nothing of Bardle nor his men, nor of the Jolly Jack.

            Meanwhile we dug out around the hull, using lines and poles to get her on an even keel. We were under no false notions about Bardle. He not only wanted our ship and cargo. He also wanted us ... dead!

            We shifted two guns to the stern that could be brought to bear if an enemy approached us from the waterside, as we more than half expected.

            Meanwhile, I saw Abigail only at intervals.

            Four days we labored, patching the hull, restepping the mast, repairing rigging. I had much experience with splicing line, so could do my share, and did it.

            We hoped to float free at an early hightide, yet I had an idea that Bardle was also thinking of tides.

            Jublain sat in the cabin with us, his dark, cynical face bored with our talk. 'Bardle knows about tides,' he said at last, 'he knows all that we know, and the man's no fool. Why do you suppose he has done nothing?'

            'We served him well on his last attempt,' Corvino replied. 'He's had his belly full.'

            Jublain snorted his disgust. 'He waits for you to complete repairs,' he said. 'He wants no hulk on the beach, but a vessel afloat and loaded with cargo he can trade or sell. He has twice or three times the men we have, and he'll come when he wills.'

            Out upon deck I looked at the sky. Clouds bulked large, and the wind lifted, rustling the rigging, flapping a loose corner of canvas. There was a spatter of heavy drops.

            A storm was coming, but storm or not we must use the tide when it came, and with luck we might float free. Brian Tempany came out on deck, glanced at the sky and around, then ordered his men to clean up what tools remained, to get them aboard and make all fast.

            'In the storm,' I said, 'we might slip away.'

            'We'll ride out the storm,' Tempany said, 'and leave when it has blown away. I think we'll have our chance then.'

            Abigail came on deck. The wind was whipping her skirt about her legs, and I braced myself against it, wishing I were warmer dressed.

            'Barnabas Sackett,' she said. 'It is a good name.'

            'A name is what a man makes it,' I said. 'My father did well with his and I hope to do as much. The times are changing, and many people are restless with the desire to better themselves. We have too many gentlemen who do nothing, are nothing, and many a yeoman or apprentice with ability who would rise in position if the chance existed.' I waved a hand. 'Here there is no such restriction.'

            'Perhaps. But when enough people come here, it will be the same. ...'

            I grinned cheerfully. 'Then the secret is to come first and help to make the rules by which the rest will live.'

            'The King will do that,' she objected.

            'No doubt. But the King is far away, and his word needs time in which to travel, and men have a way of making their own adjustments. There is no Court here, hence no need for courtiers. There is great need for strength, courage and intelligence, and you will find those qualities as often or more among artisans as gentlemen.'

            'You like this?' she indicated the shore.

            My eyes swept the coastline, green and lovely even under the sullen clouds. 'I do. It is a magnificent coast, a land filled with everything. I shall go away. But I shall come back again.'

            She looked at me for a long time, and what she might have said then I do not know, for Captain Tempany emerged from the companionway shouting, 'Stand by, fore-and-aft! The tide's coming in!'

            Even as he spoke, a wave of water rolled past the hull, out past the bow, then receded slowly, carrying away some of the sand with it.

            'Here she comes!' Jublain shouted. 'Sail, ho!'

            It was the Jolly Jack, carrying a good stand of sail, coming down toward us.

        Chapter 17

            She was yet some distance off and the wind was wrong for her, but that she intended to come up to us for an attack was obvious. And there we lay, still aground, with only a few small guns to bear.

            It was my time to act, and I acted now, without thinking, without speaking to Tempany.

            'Sakim! Jublain! Corvino! Here ... to me!' I grabbed a passing sailor and shoved him toward a gun. 'Get a sling around it. Quick now!'

            Sakim had come running and I directed him to haul our gig alongside and get into it. Running to the cabin I retrieved my longbow and the arrows I had made as well as some I had brought from England.

            'Tumble in,' I told Sakim. 'We'll do a bit of business this day!'

            From the deck they lowered down a light but powerful cast-iron gun and we lashed it into place. The gig was light and fast, under ordinary conditions, but now she sat deep and we shifted what weight there was to counterbalance the gun. Then we pushed off, got our sail up and headed for the open sound, needing all the room we could get.

            The tide was rising rapidly, but it needed time to float such a craft as the Tiger, although glancing back I could see that Tempany had a boat out astern of her with a line to the ship and the boats crew pulling with a will.

            If the Jolly Jack had sighted our gig, she seemed to think it of no importance. It was the Tiger they wanted, and they wanted her free of the sand and their work done for them. The Jack was moving in toward the coast now, prepared to stand off and demand a surrender or shell the Tiger to bits.

            Now we put about our gig and commenced moving toward the Jack. My thought was to cause trouble, to buy time for the Tiger to get well afloat, and what I proposed to do was the height of foolishness. All depended on the maneuverability of the gig, much of which had been sacrificed to carry the cannon.

            We edged in close and intent upon the Jack. They paid us small attention. We laid our gun on the form'st and touched a match to the hole.

            A moment only, then our gun boomed and the gig jerked violently in the water. There was a startled shout from the Jack, then an angry voice telling us to sheer off or be sunk.

            We had done no harm to the mast, but we had hit the bulwark just forward of mast, carried away some rigging made fast there and scattered fragments of wood in all directions.

            Carefully, we loaded her again. We had put just eight balls aboard, and powder enough, but no more.

            Now they opened a port upon our side and ran out a gun. Kneeling, I took aim with my long-bow and put an arrow through the open port. It must have startled them, although I doubt if damage was done.

            We turned right in toward the Jack, firing the second time as we lined out straight with a good shot at her. This time our shot was high. It hit the after-house just abaft the wheel.

            Almost at the same instant, a Jack gun boomed and a shot splashed only a few feet away from us. We were much less of a target than the Jack, and before they could put a rammer down her muzzle, we had turned under her stern and come up on the portside, but too close for