“This will be a dangerous task, Master Craddock,” said he.

“If I meet my death at it, it may be that it will cleanse the memory of an ill-spent life.  I have much to atone for.”

The Governor did not see his way to contradict him.

“What was your plan?” he asked.

“You have heard that Sharkey’s barque, the Happy Delivery, came from this very port of Kingston?”

“It belonged to Mr. Codrington, and it was taken by Sharkey, who scuttled his own sloop and moved into her because she was faster,” said Sir Edward.

“Yes; but it may be that you have lever heard that Mr. Codrington has a sister ship, the White Rose, which lies even now in the harbour, and which is so like the pirate, that, if it were not for a white paint line, none could tell them apart.”

“Ah! and what of that?” asked the Governor keenly, with the air of one who is just on the edge of an idea.

“By the help of it this man shall be delivered into our hands.”

“And how?”

“I will paint out the streak upon the White Rose, and make it in all things like the Happy Delivery.  Then I will set sail for the Island of La Vache, where this man is slaying the wild oxen.  When he sees me he will surely mistake me for his own vessel which he is awaiting, and he will come on board to his own undoing.”

It was a simple plan, and yet it seemed to the Governor that it might be effective.  Without hesitation he gave Craddock permission to carry it out, and to take any steps he liked in order to further the object which he had in view.  Sir Edward was not very sanguine, for many attempts had been made upon Sharkey, and their results had shown that he was as cunning as he was ruthless.  But this gaunt Puritan with the evil record was cunning aid ruthless also.  The contest of wits between two such men as Sharkey and Craddock appealed to the Governor’s acute sense of sport, and though he was inwardly convinced that the chances were against him, he backed his man with the same loyalty which he would have shown to his horse or his cock.

Haste was, above all things, necessary, for upon any day the careening might be finished, and the pirates out at sea once more.  But there was not very much to do, and there were many willing hands to do it, so the second day saw the White Rose beating out for the open sea.  There were many seamen in the port who knew the lines and rig of the pirate barque, and not one of them could see the slightest difference in this counterfeit.  Her white side line had been painted out, her masts and yards were smoked, to give them the dingy appearance of the weather-beaten rover, and a large diamond-shaped patch was let into her foretopsail.  Her crew were volunteers, many of them being men who had sailed with Stephen Craddock before—­the mate, Joshua Hird, an old slaver, had been his accomplice in many voyages, and came now at the bidding of his chief.