George Fraser - Captain in Calico

‘We’ll leave the whereabouts of your brig for the moment. Be sure I shall find it when I desire.’ The Governor walked slowly round the table to his seat. ‘Of this request for pardon by yourself and your followers – you’ll do me the credit to suppose that it is not prompted by sudden reformation. Perhaps you will supply me some reason. Your own, personally.’

Rackham’s answer was prompt. ‘Two years ago, just before you came to Providence, I was to have married – a lady here, in this town. You’ll mind that in those days I was quartermaster to Vane, who then commanded the Kingston . He refused the pardon, ye’ll remember, and fired on your vessels as they entered harbour. As bad luck had it, I was aboard, and willy-nilly I must sail away with him. I had wanted that pardon – by God I had wanted it.’ He leaned forward as he spoke, and his dark face was suddenly grim. ‘But there it was. Every man aboard the Kingston was outlaw from that day forward, or so we supposed. Myself with the rest. But things have altered over two years. Vane is gone, and Yeates, too – it was Yeates that touched off the first gun against you in the harbour fight. And so, when I heard a few weeks back from a friend who had lately been in Providence that my lady was still unwed – for I’d never heard of her in those two years – the notion took me that perhaps the pardon might not be out of reach after all. I thought that if the law will let bygones be bygones, well, I might pick up where I left off.’ He gave a deprecatory shrug. ‘Provided she’s of the same mind as she was two years gone. When she learns how it fell out, I think she will be.’

Woodes Rogers studied him with interest. ‘She must have considerable attractions,’ he mused. ‘Who is she?’

‘Her name is Sampson,’ said Rackham. ‘Kate Sampson. Her father has plantations –’ he broke off at the sudden clatter as Master Tobias’s pounce-box fell from his table, dislodged by the little lawyer’s uncontrollable start. And in turning in the direction of the interruption, Rackham did not see the colour drain abruptly from Rogers’ face at the mention of that name. When he looked back again the Governor had one elbow on the table and his face was shaded by his hand.

‘You’ll know him,’ Rackham concluded. ‘An honest little man.’

Woodes Rogers did not reply, but he rose abruptly and walked over towards Dickey’s desk. There he stopped, as though undecided, his back to Rackham, looking over Dickey’s head towards the windows. The lawyer, glancing at his face from the corner of his eye, saw it strained and ugly, and when the Governor spoke again, his voice was unusally hard.

‘That explains your own reason. What of your followers?’

‘We put it to a vote; the majority were for coming in. The others had the choice of coming or not, as they pleased, but they fell in with the rest of us.’

‘Why?’ snapped Rogers. ‘Surely some must have preferred to find employment with another pirate captain?’

‘With twenty thousand pounds’ worth of silver in the Kingston to share when they get shore with a Royal pardon under their belts?’ Rackham was amused. ‘Not they.’

Rogers wheeled on him like lightning. This time he made no attempt to conceal his stupefaction. ‘What did you say?’ His voice was strained with disbelief.

‘Twenty thousand pounds of silver,’ Rackham repeated. ‘Taken from the Spaniards in the Gulf of Florida. There was more, but it’s gone now. Still, they look to what’s left to see them snugly provided for ashore.’

Rogers for once was at a loss to preserve his calm. ‘Are you mad?’ he burst out. ‘D’ye suppose for a moment they’ll be permitted to keep it? God’s light!’ He wheeled on Dickey. ‘Was there ever such effrontery? They’ll have the pardon, will they, and keep their plunder too?’

‘Spanish silver,’ corrected Rackham. ‘Plunder if you will, but the British Crown has no right to it.’

Rogers bridled like an angry cat. ‘Will you talk to me of right?’ He strode forward, glaring at Rackham. ‘Listen, listen but a moment, Master Pirate.’ It was all he could do to speak coherently, so great was his rage. ‘That silver, or any other loot you may have, is forfeit to the King. That you will understand now. By God, I marvel at you! I do, as I live! Do you know where you stand, or must I inform you? I’ll see you and your crew of mangy robbers sunk and damned before you’ll have one penny of that silver, aye, and I am Woodes Rogers that say it! You seek the pardon, you say. Then, by heaven, you’ll sail your brig into this port, silver and all, and surrender every ounce, or you’ll not only see no pardon, I’ll have every man-jack of you sun-dried in chains.’

Any normal man’s composure would have been shattered by that tirade, but Rackham simply shook his head. ‘They’ll never agree,’ he protested. ‘I feared ye might bilk at letting them keep all, but a portion …’

‘Not a penny.’ Rogers’ voice was suddenly dreadfully soft. ‘And when you tell me they’ll refuse and sail away I’ll remind you that there is one who will not sail with them, and that one is yourself. You thought my need for privateers so urgent, I suppose, that I should be forced to grant you pardons on your own terms. You learn your error. Not that you’ll profit by it. For I intend to do what I proposed at first: I’ll have the position of your ship and aught else I need to know wrung from you before the hour is out.’

Master Dickey had never seen him in such a venomous rage, and looked to see the pirate shrink appalled. But although Rackham must have known the danger in which he stood his voice was steady.

‘Myself I don’t care what becomes of the silver. That’s my crew’s demand, not mine. I …’

‘So you say now,’ sneered Rogers. ‘In effect it does not matter. I have the means at hand to possess myself of your ship, your men, and your silver. For that last the government can afford to forgo your hundred prime seamen. They’ll hang very neatly in a row, yourself among them.’

The very confidence in the Governor’s voice, its jeering note, stung Rackham as his threats had not been able to do.

‘You’ll pay a rare price for it, then,’ he retorted. ‘Aye, you may do as you please with me, but if you think to catch those lads of mine napping you must have forgotten all you learned in the South Sea. Did I come here unprepared, d’ye think? Why, there are men of mine in the town at this moment, and unless I’m back with them within the hour that brig of mine will be hull down and away before you can even force me to tell you where she lies, much less get your bum-boats out of harbour and after her.’ His lip curled in a grin of vindictive triumph. ‘And if by chance ye closed with her, how many of those precious men of yours would live to bring her to port? You’ll find the price of silver marvellously high, supposing you get it.’ He laughed contemptuously. ‘And ye know ye won’t. For they’ll fight till she sinks under them, and the dollars will be as far as ever from the King’s pocket.’

Now this was the stark truth and Rogers knew it. But for the anger which had possessed him he must have known that the threats he had spoken were empty ones. He should have realised it, but his mind had been further distracted by that name – Kate Sampson – a moment before. That and the sudden revelation of the fortunes which these rascals possessed had upset the normal balance of his reasoning. For a moment he stood, grimly silent, then he paced back to his chair and sat down.

‘You would give much for this pardon, would you not?’

‘Ye know I’d not be here else.’

‘And a moment since you told us that the silver meant nothing to you. As I see it, you would have no need of it, since the lady you intend to marry’ – his tone hardened imperceptibly – ‘is well provided for.’