Kate Bonnet The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter   By: Frank Richard Stockton (1834-1902)

The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter

by

FRANK R. STOCKTON

Illustrated by A. J. Keller and H. S. Potter

[Illustration: "Oh, Kate!" said Dickory, "you should have seen that wonderful pirate fight." (See page 350.)]

[Illustration]

New York D. Appleton and Company 1902 Copyright, 1901, 1903 By D. Appleton and Company All rights reserved February, 1902

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. TWO YOUNG PEOPLE, A SHIP, AND A FISH

II. A FRUIT BASKET AND A FRIEND

III. THE TWO CLOCKS

IV. ON THE QUARTER DECK

V. AN UNSUCCESSFUL ERRAND

VI. A PAIR OF SHOES AND STOCKINGS

VII. KATE PLANS

VIII. BEN GREENWAY IS CONVINCED THAT BONNET IS A PIRATE

IX. DICKORY SETS FORTH

X. CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER VINCE

XI. BAD WEATHER

XII. FACE TO FACE

XIII. CAPTAIN BONNET GOES TO CHURCH

XIV. A GIRL TO THE FRONT

XV. THE GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA

XVI. A QUESTION OF ETIQUETTE

XVII. AN ORNAMENTED BEARD

XVIII. I HAVE NO RIGHT; I AM A PIRATE

XIX. THE NEW FIRST LIEUTENANT

XX. ONE NORTH, ONE SOUTH

XXI. A PROJECTED MARRIAGE

XXII. BLADE TO BLADE

XXIII. THE ADDRESS OF THE LETTER

XXIV. BELIZE

XXV. WISE MR. DELAPLAINE

XXVI. DICKORY STRETCHES HIS LEGS

XXVII. A GIRL WHO LAUGHED

XXVIII. LUCILLA'S SHIP

XXIX. CAPTAIN ICHABOD

XXX. DAME CHARTER MAKES A FRIEND

XXXI. MR. DELAPLAINE LEADS A BOARDING PARTY

XXXII. THE DELIVERY OF THE LETTER

XXXIII. BLACKBEARD GIVES GREENWAY SOME DIFFICULT WORK

XXXIV. CAPTAIN THOMAS OF THE ROYAL JAMES

XXXV. A CHAPTER OF HAPPENINGS

XXXVI. THE TIDE DECIDES

XXXVII. BONNET AND GREENWAY PART COMPANY

XXXVIII. AGAIN DICKORY WAS THERE

XXXIX. THE BLESSINGS WHICH COME FROM THE DEATH OF THE WICKED

XL. CAPTAIN ICHABOD PUTS THE CASE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

"Oh, Kate!" said Dickory, "you should have seen that wonderful pirate fight" Frontispiece

"If you talk to me like that I will cut you down where you stand!" 46

"He is my father!" said Kate 124

"Haste ye! haste ye," cried Dickory, "they will leave you behind" 155

"Take that," he feebly said, "and swear that it shall be delivered" 241

Kate and her father in the warehouse 260

Lucilla rescues Dickory 337

In an instant Dickory was there 403

KATE BONNET

CHAPTER I

TWO YOUNG PEOPLE, A SHIP, AND A FISH

The month was September and the place was in the neighbourhood of Bridgetown, in the island of Barbadoes. The seventeenth century was not seventeen years old, but the girl who walked slowly down to the river bank was three years its senior. She carried a fishing rod and line, and her name was Kate Bonnet. She was a bright faced, quick moving young person, and apparently did not expect to catch many fish, for she had no basket in which to carry away her finny prizes. Nor, apparently, did she have any bait, except that which was upon her hook and which had been affixed there by one of the servants at her home, not far away. In fact, Mistress Kate was too nicely dressed and her gloves were too clean to have much to do with fish or bait, but she seated herself on a little rock in a shady spot not far from the water and threw forth her line. Then she gazed about her; a little up the river and a good deal down the river.

It was truly a pleasant scene which lay before her eyes. Not half a mile away was the bridge which gave this English settlement its name, and beyond the river were woods and cultivated fields, with here and there a little bit of smoke, for it was growing late in the afternoon, when smoke meant supper. Beyond all this the land rose from the lower ground near the river and the sea, in terrace after terrace, until the upper stretches of its woodlands showed clear against the evening sky.