Epigraph

TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER



If sailor tales to sailor tunes,

Storm and adventure, heat and cold,

If schooners, islands, and maroons,

And buchaneers, and buried gold,

And all the old romance, retold

exactly in the ancient way,

can please, as me they pleased of old,

The wiser youngsters of today:



-So be it, and fall on! If not,

If studious youth no longer crave,

His ancient appetites forgot,

Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,

Or Cooper of the wood and wave,

So be it, also! And may I

And all my pirates share the grave

Where these and their ceations lie! DEAD MAN'S GHOST



A thin, high, trembling voice sang:



"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"



I have never seen men more dreadfully affected than

the pirates. The color went from their faces like enchant-

ment; some leaped to their feet, some clawed hold cf

others.

"It's Flint!" cried Merry.

rum!

last words!"

"Darby M'Graw," the voice wailed. "Fetch aft the

rum!"

"They was his last words!" moaned Morgan. "Flint's

Still, Silver was unconquered. "I'm here to get that

stuff," he cried, "and I'll not be beat by man or devil."

"Belay there, John!" said Merry. "Don't you cross a

sperrit."

"There's seven hundred thousand pounds not a quarter

of a mile from here," Silver said. Sperrit? I never was

feared of Flint in his life, and by the powers, I'll face

him dead!"