CHAPTER XV
THE GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA
The Governor of Jamaica was much interested in the visit of Kate Bonnet,whom he saw alone in a room adjoining the public apartments. He had mether two or three times before, and had been forced to admit that theyoung girls of Barbadoes must be pretty and piquant in an extraordinarydegree, and he had not wondered that his friend, Captain Vince, shouldhave spoken of her in such an enthusiastic manner.
But now she was different. Her sorrow had given her dignity and hadadded to her beauty. She quickly told her tale, and he started uprightin his chair as he heard it.
"Do you mean," he exclaimed, "that that pirate, after whom I sent theBadger, is your father? It amazes me! The similarity of names did notstrike me; I never imagined any connection between you and the captainof that pirate ship."
"That's what Captain Vince said when I last saw him," remarked Kate.
"It must have astounded him to know it," exclaimed the Governor, "and Iwonder, knowing it, that he consented to obey my orders; and had I beenin his place I would have preferred to be dismissed from the servicerather than to sail after your father and to destroy him. If I had knownwhat I know now, my orders to Captain Vince would have been verydifferent from what they were. I would have told him to capture yourfather, and to bring him here to me. It cannot be that he is in hisright mind!"
Now Kate was weeping; the terrible words "destroy him," and theassurance that if she had thought sooner of appealing to the Governor,much misery, or at least the thought of misery, might have been sparedher, so affected her that she could not control herself.
The Governor did not attempt to console her. Her sorrow was natural, andit was her right.
When she looked up again she spoke about what she had come to ask himfor; the authority to bring back her father wherever she might find him,and to defend him from the attacks of all persons, whoever they mightbe, until she reached Jamaica. And then she told him how she would seekfor her father on every sea.
The Governor sat and pondered. The father of such a girl should be savedfrom the terrible fate awaiting him, if the thing could possibly bedone. And yet, what a difficult, almost hopeless thing it was to do. Tofind a pirate, a fierce and bloody pirate, and bring him back unharmedto his daughter's arms and to reasonable restraint.
He spoke earnestly. "What you propose," he said, "you cannot do. Itwould be impossible for you to find your father; and if you did, nomatter who might be with you, and no matter how successful you might bewith him, his crew would not let him go. But there is one thing whichmight be done. The Badger will report at different stations, and hercourse and present cruising ground might be discovered. Thus I mightsend a despatch to Captain Vince, ordering him not to harm your father,but to take him prisoner, and to bring him here to be dealt with."
Kate sprang to her feet.
"An order to Captain Vince!" she exclaimed, "an order to withhold hishand from my father? Ah, sir, your goodness is great, this is far morethan I had dared to expect! When I last saw Captain Vince he left me ina great rage, but, knowing that he would respect your order, I woulddare his rage. If his revengeful hand should be withheld from my fatherI would fear nothing."
"I beg you to be seated," said the Governor, "and let me assure you,that in offering to send this order to Captain Vince I do not in theleast expect you to take it. But there is one thing I do notunderstand. Why should the captain have left you in a great rage?Perhaps I have not a right to ask this, but it seems to me to have somebearing upon his alacrity in setting forth in pursuit of the Revenge."
"I fear," said Kate, "that this may be true; I do not deem it improperfor me to say to you, sir, that Captain Vince made me an offer ofmarriage, and that in order to induce me to accept it he offered, shouldhe come up with the Revenge, to spare my father and to let him go free,visiting the punishment he was sent to inflict upon the rest of thepeople in the ship."
"I am surprised," said the Governor, "to hear you say that; such anaction would have been direct disobedience to his orders. It would havebeen disloyalty, which not even the possession of your fair hand couldjustify. And you refused his offer?"
"That did I," said Kate, her face flushing at the recollection of theunpleasant interview with the captain; "I cared not for him, and evenhad I, I would not have consented to wed a man who offered me hisdishonour as a bribe for doing so. Not even for my father's life would Ibecome the bride of such a one!"
"Well spoken, Mistress Bonnet," exclaimed the Governor, "your heart,though a tender, is a stout one. But this you tell me of Captain Vinceis very bad; he is a vindictive man and will have what he wants, evenwithout regard to the means by which he may get it. I am glad to knowwhat you have told me, Mistress Bonnet, and if I had known it betimes Iwould not have sent, in pursuit of your father, a man whose anger hadbeen excited against his daughter. But now I shall despatch orders toCaptain Vince which shall be very exact and peremptory. After he hasreceived them he will not dare to harm your father, and would cause himto be brought here as I command."
"From my heart I thank you, sir," cried Kate, "give me the orders and Iwill take them, or I will--"
"Nay, nay," said the Governor, "such offices are not for you, but I willgive the matter my present attention. On any day a vessel may enter theport with news of the Badger, and on any day a vessel may clear fromKingston, possibly for Bridgetown, where I imagine the Badger will firsttouch. Rely upon me, my dear young lady, my order shall go to CaptainVince by the very earliest opportunity."
Kate rose and thanked him warmly. "This is much to do, your Excellency,for one poor girl," she said.
"It is but little to do," said the Governor, "and that girl beyourself."
With that he rose, offered Kate his arm, and conducted her to her uncle.
When Mr. Delaplaine was made acquainted with the result of theinterview, both his gratitude and surprise were great. He comprehendedfar better than Kate could the extent of the favour which the Governorhad offered to bestow. It was, indeed, extraordinary to commute what wasreally a sentence of death against a notorious and dangerous pirate forthe sake of a beautiful and pleading woman. An ambitious idea shotthrough the merchant's brain. The Governor was a widower; he had metKate before. Was there any other lady on the island better fitted topreside over the gubernatorial household? But, although a man of highposition could not wed the daughter of a pirate, a pirate, evidently ofan unsound mind, could be adjudged demented, as he truly was, and thusthe shadow of his crime be lifted from him. This was a great deal tothink in a very short time, but the good merchant did it, and thefervour of his thankfulness was greatly increased by his rapidreflections.
As they were on their way home Kate's eyes were bright, and her steplighter than it had been of late. "Now, uncle," said she, "you know weshall not wait for any chance ship which may take the Governor'sdespatch. We shall engage a swift vessel ourselves, by which the ordersmay be carried. And, uncle, when that ship sails I must go in her."
"You!" cried Mr. Delaplaine, "you go in search of the Badger and CaptainVince? That can never--"
"But remember, uncle," cried Kate, "it is just as likely that I shallmeet my father's ship as any other, and then we can snap our fingers atall orders and all captains. My father shall be brought here and thegood Governor will make him safe, and free him, as he best knows how,from the terrible straits into which his disturbed reason has led him."
Her uncle would not darken Kate's bright hopes, ill-founded though hethought them. To look into those sparkling eyes again was a joy of whichhe would not deprive himself, if he could help it.
"Suppose he should capture our vessel," she exclaimed; "what a grandthing it would be for him, all unknowing, to spring upon our deck andinstantly be captured by me. After that, there would be no more pirate'slife for him!"
When Dame Charter heard what had happened at the Governor's house andhad listened to the recital of Kate's glowing schemes, her eyes did notimmediately glisten with joy.
"If you go, Mistress Kate," said she, "in search of your father or thatwicked Captain Vince, I go with you, but I cannot go without my Dickory.It is full time to expect his return, although, as he was to depend uponso many chances before he could come back, his absence may, with goodreason, continue longer, and I could not have him come back and findhis mother gone, no man knows where. For in such a quest, what mancould know?"
"Oh, Dickory will be here soon!" cried Kate; "any ship which comessailing towards the harbour may bring him."
The Governor of Jamaica was a man of great experience, and with a fairlyclear insight into the ways of the wicked. When Kate and her uncle hadleft him and he paced the floor, with the memory of the beautiful eyesof the pirate's daughter as they had been uplifted to his own, he feltassured that he could see rightly into the designs of the unscrupulousCaptain Vince. Of what avail would it be for him to kill the father ofthe girl who had rejected him? It would be an atrocious but temporarytriumph scarcely to be considered. But to capture that father; todisregard the laws of the service and the orders of his superiors, whichhe had already proposed to do; to communicate with Kate and to hold upbefore her terror-stricken eyes the life of her father, to be ended inhorror or enjoyed in peace as she might decide--that would be Vince, asthe Governor knew him.
The Governor knew well his man, and those were the designs andintentions of Captain Christopher Vince of his Majesty's corvette theBadger.
Kate Bonnet: The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter Page 15