"So small an escort scarce befits so great a captain," he said. "We will
all attend you." One and all started forward.

I called to mind and gave utterance to all the oaths I had heard in the
wars. "I entertain you for my subordinate whom I command, and not who
commands me!" I cried, when my memory failed me. "As for you, you dogs,
who would question your captain and his doings, stay where you are, if
you would not be lessoned in earnest!"

Sheer audacity is at times the surest steed a man can bestride. Now at
least it did me good service. With oaths and grunts of admiration the
pirates stayed where they were, and went about their business of
launching the boats and stripping the body of Red Gil, while the man in
black and silver, the Spaniard, the two gravediggers, the knave with the
wounded shoulder, and myself walked briskly up the beach.

With these five at my heels I strode up to the dying fire and to those
who had sprung to their feet at our approach. "Sparrow," I said easily,
"luck being with us as usual, I have fallen in with a party of rovers. I
have told them who I am,--that Kirby, to wit, whom an injurious world
calls the blackest pirate unhanged,--and I have recounted to them how
the great galleon which I took some months ago went down yesterday with
all on board, you and I with these others being the sole survivors. By
dint of a little persuasion they have elected me their captain, and we
will go on board directly and set sail for the Indies, a hunting ground
which we never should have left. You need not look so blank; you shall
be my mate and right hand still." I turned to the five who formed my
escort. "This, gentlemen, is my mate, Jeremy Sparrow by name, who hath a
taste for divinity that in no wise interferes with his taste for a
galleon or a guarda costa. This man, Diccon Demon by name, was of my