Page:Daring deeds of famous pirates; true stories of the stirring adventures, bravery and resource of pirates, filibusters & buccaneers (1917).djvu/197

 he had so successfully escaped their vigilance so far that he became over-confident and careless. And in the present instance he judged her to be merely one more unhappy merchantman that was to add to his list of victims. But when the pilot of the Swallow saw the detached pirate craft approaching, he effected a smart stratagem. He altered his course and ran away from her, but he gave her a good long run for her trouble, and managed to allow her gradually to overtake the man-of-war. But this was not until the pirate had got well away from her mother ship.

As the pirate came up, full of confidence that the prize would shortly be hers, she hoisted out her black flag as usual and then fired. But when it was now too late they discovered that this was a man-of-war and much more than a match for the pirate. The latter was too far from Roberts' ship to be assisted, and so, seeing that resistance would be futile, she cried for quarter. This was granted and her crew promptly made prisoners, but not till she had lost already ten men killed and twenty wounded, whereas the Swallow had not received one single casualty.

The pirate admiral was still lying near the Cape, and one morning her crew looked up and saw a sight which gave them no pleasure. Over the land they could see the masts of the Swallow as the ship bore away to round the Cape. At the time Roberts was below having breakfast, and some of the crew came down to inform him of the sight. But Roberts was far more interested in his meal than in the ship and declined to get excited. She might be a Portuguese craft, or a French slaver, or it might be their own Ranger coming back. But as the ship came on nearer and nearer the crew began to get exceptionally interested. That was the man-of-war Swallow. It was useless to dispute the point, for there was among the pirate crew a man named