The Captain looked at Mr. Daddles in a quizzical fashion. "I guess
you've got a yarn," said he,--"why don't yer let us have it?"

Mr. Daddles was perched on the cabin, swinging his bare legs over
the cock-pit. The Captain was at the wheel, as usual, with his
eyes fixed on the water ahead of us, part of the time, but now and
then raised to look at Mr. Daddles. The latter had a serious,
almost mournful expression on his face, as he told the story of
the last of the pirates.





CHAPTER III

THE LAST OF THE PIRATES


"You know that a great many of the most famous pirates were really
rather small potatoes. Take Captain Kidd, for instance. Why, they
are still disputing whether he was a pirate or not. If he was one,
he didn't take to it until late in life, and he'd been a perfectly
respectable sailor up to that time. They sent him out to catch
pirates, and according to one story he turned pirate himself."

"Well, they hung him for something," said Captain Bannister.

"Yes, sir. They did that because they said he was a pirate, and