'Now I want every married man to raise his hand. Don't lie to me. Every married man.'
After it was said in Spanish, most of the hands went up, including Senor's.
'I see. You married men stay where you are. Single men, over to the starboard rail and sit down.'
We did as we had been told. There were only four of us. Two pirates watched us there for what seemed like an hour.
While we sat there, the other pirates were getting the boat into the water and getting the married men into it, with a keg of water and a string of onions. We could not see the boat until it pulled away. When it did, it was just a sort of darker shadow on the sea, but I knew it had to be jammed full of men and ready to sink the first time the sea got rough. There had been sixteen men in the starboard watch and eight in the larboard watch, plus the captain and Senor, so twenty-six men. Two had been killed that I knew about, and I think that was all. We four had stayed on board. So twenty men jammed into a boat I would have thought could not carry more than a dozen.
'Listen to me,' Capt. Burt said when he got back to us, 'and listen sharp. You may join my crew if you wish. If you do, each of you will take an oath, and your lives will be forfeit should you break it. When you've taken that oath, you'll share in our gains just as these men do. You'll eat and drink with us and be accounted a full member of our crew. If you don't, you'll be put ashore on the next deserted coast we reach. Now I want every man willin' to join us to stand.'
He stared hard at me while the other man was repeating what he had said in Spanish, but I did not get up. The others did, but I did not.
After that they tied my hands, and I sat there for hours. I asked the guard if I could lie down. He said yes, and I was about asleep when they got me up and brought me to the captain's cabin.
Capt. Burt was in there. So was his sea chest and all his stuff, which was a lot. There were two chairs, and he told me to sit down in the empty one, which I did.
'You're the Jerseyman I talked to in Veracruz, ain't you?'
I mumbled that I was.
'Thought so.' He took a silver snuffbox out of the blue, brass-buttoned coat I was to know so well, took a pinch, and said, 'You know my name, but I've forgotten yours. What is it?'
I told him again, calling him Capt. Burt.
'Right. You speak good Spanish.'
I nodded.
'French, too. Quite a bit of French.'
I answered him in French, saying that I did, but that no one was likely to take me for a Frenchman.
'You can navigate?'
'A little. I never said I was an expert.'
'I want you, Chris. I've got three already, but I'd be glad to trade 'em for you. What would it take to get you to join?'
I tried to think whether there was anything.
'Your own ship? You'd be captain, reporting to me. I'd claim a captain's share of anything you took on your own, but the rest would be yours.'
I shook my head. 'It's stealing, Captain. Stealing and murder. I won't do it.'
Burt sighed. 'You're a gentleman, Chris, whether you know it or not. Give me your parole, and I'll cut those ropes. Givin' your parole means you won't try to get away, 'pon your honor.'
I nodded. 'Cut me loose, and I won't try to get away, I swear it to God.'
'On your honor.'
'Right. I swear it on my honor.'
He pulled out a dirk and showed it to me. 'My ma gave this to me when I joined His Majesty's Navy.'
I said it looked like a good one, because it did.
'It is.' He used it to cut the rope around my hands. 'Sheffield steel, and this black handle's ivy root. The mountin's are silver. We weren't rich, you twig? My pa's a grocer. I know it must have cost my old ma every penny she had.'
I was rubbing my wrists.
'Why do you think she did that?'
'Because she was proud of you.' It hurt me to say that, but I did.
Capt. Burt nodded. 'She was. She was proud of me 'cause I was goin' to fight for my king and my country. It's your country, too, Chris.'
I knew that it was not, but it seemed better not to say so.
'And that's what I'm doin'. Ever been paid half of nothin'?'
I did not understand what he meant, but I shook my head.
'I have. A midshipman's pay's the kind of money you'd throw to a beggar. You don't join for pay, eh? You join for prize money, and if you're lucky it can be rum quids. My ship was laid up and me put on half pay. Meanin' half of nothin'.'
I said, 'What did you do?'
'You're seein' it.' Capt. Burt grinned. 'I did this.'
He jumped up. 'Listen here, Chris. Spain hates us and we hate Spain. The only reason we're not at war with 'em is that we're not strong enough to fight 'em yet. The only reason they're not at war with us is that they've all they can do to hold down the savages over here. My men and I rob Dago ships and Dago towns. How long do you think we could keep it up if His Majesty were to tell the governor of Jamaica to clap me in irons?'
I did not know and said so.
'Per'aps a year. Not a day more than that, and it could be a lot less. Hear me now, Chris. Back before Cromwell, Spain set out to conquer us. Their king sent the biggest bloody fleet anybody's ever seen, and we only beat 'em off by the skin of our teeth. If things had been just a bit different, if Drake hadn't been around, or certain others, they'd have beat us.'
I can still see him standing there staring at me, his thumbs hooked into his wide belt, and two big guns hooked on to it too. If he had been an inch taller, he would have had to stoop a little under the deck beams, and he had the look men get when they have killed people they have talked to and drunk with. (Maybe I have it, too, since I have done those things. I do not know.)
'The gold I take from the Dagos is gold they stole from the savages.'
I nodded. I did not want to, but I did.
'I don't know everythin' you've been taught, or how much of it you believe. But that's the way the world is, Chris, and that's the way it's goin' to stay. Well by God, I can play the game as well as any Dago. No, better. And I've proved it.'
All of a sudden he smiled. 'Let's have a drink on that. Your captain had some decent canary.'
He got out the wine and poured a glass for each of us. 'You're a gentleman, Chris. So'm I, and a king's officer, eh? Even if he won't own to me out loud. We can be pals without agreein' on everythin' under the sun, can't we?'
I said, 'Yes, absolutely.'
'So drink up. Want to join us? No, I can see you don't. Per'aps you'll change your mind later though.'
He sipped his wine, smacked his lips, and chuckled. 'Want to know what happens at Westminster? The Dago ambassador comes to the king and complains about me. The king and all his ministers look grave as parsons and say I'll be dealt with severely, and as fast as they can lay hands 'pon me. When he's gone, they have a good laugh and another drink.'
He drained his glass. 'We'll sell the cargo of this ship in Port Royal, and we'll sell it cheap because sellin' it anyplace else would mean a long voyage. My men'll spend their share of the price we get there, too, or most of it. A lot of that will end up in London as taxes. So what I do helps England and hurts Spain. How many nights' sleep has the king lost tryin' to dream up a surefire way to rein in Bram Burt, do you think?'
I said, 'None, I guess.'
'Exactly right.'
Capt. Burt sat down again. 'I said the men spend their takin's in Port Royal. Mostly it's wagered and wagered again till it's lost. I fancy a girl and a glass as much as any other man, Chris, but I don't gamble unless I feel sure I
