I owned a little merchant sailing vessel, and I was on the ocean blue with a cargo of sugar. I was shouting out orders at the top of my voice when the “look-out” man came down from the “crow’s nest” at the masthead.
“Well, what do you want, my good fellow?” I said to him, as he came up.
“Ship to windward of us, sir. She looks like a pirate,” he answered me.
“Full sail ahead!” I yelled. “Every stitch of canvas you’ve got. Quicks the word!” Then I went forward to tell the mate about it.
He went on deck to have a look at it. “Looks mighty suspicious, eh, Cap’n?” he asked.
I replied, “I think it is a pirate.”
In the morning I found the supposed pirate was closer than it had been the previous day. It was so close that I gave orders to get the guns loaded and for a pistol and a cutlass to be given round to each member of the crew.
In an hour it was within cannon range, so she sent a cannon ball across our bows and hoisted the Skull and Cross-bones to the masthead. I ordered the gunner to fire a shot at them. He did so, and snapped their mast off about six feet from the deck, and we rent the air with a lusty cheer.
We didn’t cheer when, the next minute, our main and mizzenmasts fell with a crash to the deck, killing several men as It went over the side.
In a few minutes the pirate ship was alongside, and a horde of filthy pirates swarmed on the deck. We were outnumbered twelve to one, and were soon captured. The pirates made all the crew that were captured, to walk the plank, and I came last. I had my arms tied behind me so that I could not swim, and as I walked towards the end of the plank I saw the sharks swimming about that had eaten my comrades.
Crash! Splash! Bang! I woke with a start as I remembered I had been reading a pirate story, had gone to sleep and dreamt of pirates, and must have fallen out of bed!
THE END.
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