The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-05
CHAPTER XXIV

N1OOQ WcdLIlCI llclQ. AllO ooA
 Gull was cutting the deep green
 water of the Atlantic now as if she
 ruled 1t. Fear gave way to feel
 ing of well being, rasping whispers
 turned to shouts. The sailors sang
 chanteys as they climbed the Shrouds and washed down the deck At night they told tales of the seven seas, wonderful to hear.
 There were others besides the old French harbor pilot who could stand turn as helmSman to relieve the captain and his mate at the wheel. Nobody was overWorked. Food was good and plentiful and the crew did not quarrel or fight among themselves. All were proud of the little schooner's clean speed. They made wagerS among them selves as to whether she was mak- ing IA knots or 15; and they kept her guns clean and shining - her two long guns and her 10 car ronades which could create havoc at close range.
 A score of the crew claimed to be excellent gunners and these men boasted of what they could do to an English brig. They grum- bled a good deal at their inac- tivity.
 .Bide your time!" Cabell told them shortly.
 It was Jerry who was more explicit. He was not the sort of officer who believed in hiding plans from the crew. From eX- perience and memory he knew how such course breeds uneasi- ness and discontent. Though sea- men are rather an insenSitive lot, he knew they could develop the nerves of saged animals when kept in ignorance of what they were to face. And so he explained plainly:
 "Well hold the course we've taken and try to enter Chesa- peake Bay. We'll run up the Po- tomac if possible. Then Captain Banks will go into Washington ard get our Orders in Council from President Madison. Without our papers we're floating dead wood. With them, we can go after English merchantmen and keep the booty. Therell be an honest division of booty, you understand. When we harass the enemy for our country, we benefit our selves"
 AS matter of fact, Jerry gave little thought at this stage of the game to booty, yet he knew the part that prize money would play with a crew; it would be the means of paying them and of goading them on to a valor that patriotism could not always in- spire. This was the privateer officers code, and Jerry was too honest to gloss it over with a shin ing idealism. In time, he won dcred, would he too be thinkin only of the prize dollars a cap tured ship full of tea and silk would yield? The thought dis turbed and saddened him.
 Polly kept much to her cabin, but when Jerry permitted it she would go on deck with him or with Cabell and wa tchwhat went ol there. The sailors were respectful. and agreeable to her and seemed attach no omen of ill luck to her presence on the ship.
 .. Cabell explained it. q weeded out the superstitious ones to save trouble later on. Every time interviewed a sailor I said, My frst mates taking his wife. this Sossing. Furthermore, we've got
 black cat in the galley Only one man refused to come aboard and he was Portuguese"
 Polly laughed at sharing status with the black galley cat. "It's a fine voyage" she told Cabell. I'm not afraid of anything any more, now that we're getting close to home"
 Cabell Banks made no answer. His own apprehension, like Jer- rvs, was growing keen again. It was time to cross paths with some British merchantmen coming up from Jamaica. The Caribbean was a nest for war sloops also: these they reasonably suspected, were being sent north to close American ports.
 That evening well after sunset the two lookouts riding at the masthead yelled down in unison, Sail. ho!"
 "Where away?" the cry went up. And the answer: ITO lar board!"
 Jerry climbed the shrouds with his binoculars. He could, by that time, make out two sails, then