The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-17
How COpley Banks Slew Captain Sharkey
A.
(Convmst r

eyes were like those of a traveller who sees
his home at last.
Il am glad that we are of one mind, y
said he, 'for l am myself of opinion that
the seas are not large enough for the two
of us. But if you will take your sword and
pistols and come upon a sand bank with
me, then the world will be rid of a damned
villain whichever way it goes"
"Now, this is talking!" cried Sharkey,
jumping off the gun and holding out his
hand II have not met many who could
look John Sharkey in the eyes and speak
with full breath. May the devil seize
me if 1 do not choose you as a consort!
But if you play me false, then I will come
aboard of you and gut you upon your
own poop"
"And ] pledge you the same!" said Cop
ley Banks, and so the two pirates became
sworn comrades to each other.
That summer they went north as far as
the New Foundland Banks, and harried
the New York traders and the whale ships
from New England. 1t was Copley Banks
who captured the Liverpool ship House OF
Hanover ,but it was Sharkey who fasten!
ed her master to the windlass and pelted
him to death with empty claret bottles.
Together they engaged the Kings ship
Royal Fortune, which had been sent in
search of them, and beat her off after a
night action of five hours, the drunken,
raving crews fighting naked in the light
of the battle lanterns, with bucket of
rum and a pannikin laid by the tackles of
every gun. They ran to Topsal Inlet, in
hn
spring they were at the Grand Caicos,
ready for a long cruise down the West
Indies
BY this time Sharkey and Copley Banks
had become very excellent friends, for
Sharlxey loved whole hearted villain,
and he loved a man of mettle, and it
seemed to him that the two met in the
captain of the Ruffing Harry. 1t was
long before he gave his confidence to
him, for coiu suspicion lay deep in his
character Never once would he trust
himself outside his own ship and away
from his own men.
But Copley Banks came often on board
the Happy Delivery and joined Sharkey in
many of his morose debauches, so that
at last any misgivings of the latter were
set at rest He knew nothing of the evil
that he had done to his new boon COM
panion, for of his many victims how could
he remember the woman and the two
boys whom he had slain with such levity
so long ago! When, therefore, he recelv-
ed a challenge to himself and to his quar-
termaster for carouse upon the last
evening of their stay at the Caicos Bank
he saw no reason to refuse.
oh bo1
rifled the week before, so their fare was
of the best, and after supper five OF them
drank deeply together. There were the
two captains, Birthmark Sweetlocks, Ned
Galloway and Israel Martin, the old buc-l
caneersman. To wait upon them was the
dumb steward whose head Sharkey split
with his glass because he had been too
slow in the filling of it.
The quartermaster had slipped Sharkeys
pistols away from him, for it was an old
joke with him to fire them cross handed
under the table and see who was the
luckiest man. 1t was a pleasantly which
had cost his boatswain his leg, so now,
when the table was cleared, they would
coax Sharkey's weapons away from him
on the excuse of the heat and lay them
out of his reach
The captains cabin of the Ruffling Har-
ry was in a deck house upon the poop,
and a stern-chaser gun was mounted at
tho back of it, Round shot were racked
round the wall and three great hogsheads
of powder made made stand for dishes
and for bottles. In this grim room the
five pirates sang and roared and drank,
while the silent steward still filed up
Il @Io I,Nx o.,I fl,a
candle round for their tobacco pipes.
Hour after hour the talk became fouler,
the voices hoarser, the curses and shout
ings more incoherent, until three of the
i've had closed their bloodshot eyes and
dropped their swimming heads upon the
table.
Copley Banks and Sharkey were left
face to face, the one because he had drunk
the least, the other because no amount
of liquor would ever shake his iron nerve
or warm his sluggish blood. Behind him
stood the watchful steward, forever fill
ing UP his waning glass. From without
came the low tapping of the tide, and
from over the water a sailors chanty from
the barque.
Copley Banks glanced at the steward,
and the man took a coil of rope from the
shot-rack behind him.
Captain Sharkey,'' said Copley Banks,
Edo you remember the Duchess of Corn
wall, mailing from London, which you
took and sank three years ago off the
Statira Shoal?'
Course me if can bear their names in
mind, said Sharkey eve did as many
as ten ships a week about that time"
There were a mother and two sous
among the passengers. Maybe that Will
bring it back to your mind"
Captain Sharkey leant back in thought.
with his huge thin beak of nose jutting
upward Then he burst suddenly intoi a
high terrible, neighing laugh He remejn-
bered it, he said, and he added details TO
prove It,
But burn me if it had not slipped from
my mind!' he cried. "How came you to
think Of it?''
1T was of interest to me- said Coplev
Banks for the woman was my wife and
the lads were my only sons
Sharkey stared across at his COMPANION
and saw that the smoldering fire which
lli1f rod oil l,so 4