Kate Bonnet | Page 7

it had seemed to her that they were, indeed, a rough, hard lot. Kate
Bonnet was a brave girl, but without knowing why she felt a little frightened.
"Your name is Dickory, isn't it?" she said.
He looked up quickly, for it pleased him to hear her use his name. "Indeed it is," he
answered.
"Well, Dickory," said she, "I wish you would go and find Ben Greenway. I should like to
have him with me until my father comes back."
He turned, and then stopped for an instant. He said in a clear voice: "I will go and get the
shilling changed." And then he hurried away.

He was gone a long time, and Kate could not understand it. Surely the Sarah Williams
was not so big a ship that it would take all this time to look for Ben Greenway. But he did
come back, and his face seemed even less ruddy than when she had last seen it. He came
up close to her, and began handling his fruit.
"I don't want to frighten you," he said, "but I must tell you about things. I could not find
Ben Greenway, and I asked one of the men about him, feigning that he owed me for some
fruit, and the man looked at another man and laughed, and said that he had been sent for
in a hurry, and had gone ashore in a boat."
"I cannot believe that," said Kate; "he would not go away and leave me."
Dickory could not believe it either, and could offer no explanation.
Kate now looked anxiously over the water towards the town, but no father was to be seen.
"Now let me tell you what I found out," said Dickory, "you must know it. These men are
wicked robbers. I slipped quietly among them to find out something, with my shilling in
my hand, ready to ask somebody to change, if I was noticed."
"Well, what next?" laying her hand on his arm.
"Oh, don't do that!" he said quickly; "better take hold of a banana. I spied that Big Sam,
who is sailing-master, and a black-headed fellow taking their ease behind some boxes,
smoking, and I listened with all sharpness. And Sam, he said to the other one--not in
these words, but in language not fit for you to hear--what he would like to do would be to
get off on the next tide. And when the other fellow asked him why he didn't go then and
leave the fool--meaning your father--to go back to his farm, Big Sam answered, with a
good many curses, that if he could do it he would drop down the river that very minute
and wait at the bar until the water was high enough to cross, but that it was impossible
because they must not sail until your father had brought his cash-box on board. It would
be stupid to sail without that cash-box."
"Dickory," said she, "I am frightened; I want to go on shore, and I want to see my father
and tell him all these things."
"But there is no boat," said Dickory; "every boat has left the ship."
"But you have one," said she, looking over the side.
"It is a poor little canoe," he answered, "and I am afraid they would not let me take you
away, I having no orders to do so."
Kate was about to open her mouth to make an indignant reply, when he exclaimed, "But
here comes a boat from the town; perhaps it is your father!"
She sprang to the rail. "No, it is not," she exclaimed; "it holds but one man, who rows."

She stood, without a word, watching the approaching boat, Dickory doing the same, but
keeping himself out of the general view. The boat came alongside and the oarsman
handed up a note, which was presently brought to Kate by Big Sam, young Dickory
Charter having in the meantime slipped below with his basket.
"A note from your father, Mistress Bonnet," said the sailing-master. And as she read it he
stood and looked upon her.
"My father tells me," said Kate, speaking decidedly but quietly, "that he will come on
board very soon, but I do not wish to wait for him. I will go back to the town. I have
affairs which make it necessary for me to return immediately. Tell the man who brought
the note that I will go back with him."
Big Sam raised his eyebrows and his face assumed a look of trouble.
"It grieves me greatly, Mistress Bonnet," he said, "but the man has gone. He was ordered
not to wait here."
"Shout after him!" cried Kate; "call him back!"
Sam stepped to the rail and looked over the water. "He is too far