“My men,” he cried, in a stalwart voice which no one there had ever heard him use before, “my men, look upon me and you will not see what you expect to see!  Here is no planter, no dealer in horses and fat cattle, no grower of sugar-cane!  Instead of that,” he yelled, drawing his sword and flourishing it above his head, “instead of that I am pirate Bonnet, the new terror of the sea!  You, my men, my brave men, you are not the crew of the good merchantman, the Sarah Williams, you are pirates all.  You are the pirate crew of the pirate ship Revenge.  That is now the name of this vessel on which you sail, and you are all pirates, who henceforth shall sail her.

“Now look aloft, every man of you, and you will see a skull and bones, under which you sail, under which you fight, under which you gain great riches in coins, in golden bars, and in fine goods fit for kings and queens!”

As he spoke, every rascal raised his eyes aloft, and there, sure enough, floated the black flag with the skull and bones—­the terrible “Jolly Roger” of the Spanish Main, and which Bonnet himself had hoisted before he called together his crew.

For the most part the men were astounded, and looked blankly the one upon the other.  They knew they had been shipped to sail upon some illegal cruise, and that they were to be paid high wages by the wealthy Bonnet; but that this worthy farmer should be their pirate captain had never entered their minds, they naturally supposing that their future commander would not care to show himself at Barbadoes, and that he would be taken on board at some other port.

As for Big Sam, he was more than astounded—­he was stupefied.  He had well known the character of the ship from the time that Bonnet had taken him into his service, and he it was who had mainly managed the fitting-up of the vessel and the shipping of her crew.  He did not know whom Bonnet intended to command the ship, but from the very beginning he had intended to command her himself.  But he had been too late.  He had not gone among the men as he had expected to do soon after setting sail, and here this country bumpkin had taken the wind out of his sails and had boldly announced that he himself was the captain of the pirate ship Revenge.

The men now began to talk among themselves; and as Bonnet still stood, his sword clutched in his hand and his chest heaving with the excitement of his own speech, there arose from the crew a cheer.  Some of them had known a little about Stede Bonnet and some of them scarcely anything at all, except that he was able to pay them good wages.  Now he had told them that he was a pirate captain, and each of them knew that he himself was a pirate, or was waiting for the chance to become one.

And so they cheered, and their captain’s chest heaved higher, and the soul of the luckless Big Sam collapsed, for he knew that after that cheer there was no chance for him; at least, not now.