The Pirate Story Megapack
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R.M. Ballantyne. The Pirate Story Megapack
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A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
I love pirates. There, I’ve said it. It’s a secret, guilty pleasure no more.
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“A power schooner?” he said, a little doubtfully. “I don’t know. There’s one in the fleet, the Seamew, built in the East, Gloucester fisherman type. She can outsail anything round here if there’s any sort of weather, and she’s got an engine in her. Her owner was a bluewater man. Name of Rickard. Never more than mate, I understand. But he struck oil, or oil was struck for him and he came into a fortune. First thing he wanted a yacht and had this built. Sailed her round himself—plumb round the Horn, just to say it could be done these days. And they say—” the steward sank his voice to a confidential whisper—“they say he bucko’d his crew so they near mutinied. They quit, anyway, and he had to get others. He’s always short-handed. He’s a visiting member here—we exchange courtesies with a lot of clubs—or I wouldn’t be discussing him, you understand. I don’t know if he’d sell her outright, or even charter her, but I heard him say he was sick of her. Fact is, he don’t get along first rate with all the members. We do most of our racing inside the bay, and he laughs at us for bein’ mollycoddles. And he’s got a professional crew, you see, whereas we are all amateurs—strictly.
“There’s one or two rumors he’s going to be married to a widow. He’s willing enough, I fancy, and maybe his oil stock looks good to her—begging your pardon, ladies. The point I’m making is that he’s always with her and that she hates yachting. Blows her hair about a bit too much, perhaps,” said the steward with fine scorn.
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