THE PRIVATEER CAPTAIN. BY WATERS," AUTHOR OF "THE DETECTIVE POLICE OFFICER;" "A SKELETON IN EVERY HOUSE;" 250.c.96 LONDON: CHARLES H. CLARKE, 13, PATERNOSTER ROW. 7861. THE PRIVATEER CAPTAIN. CHAPTER I. MORNING SHADOWS. I AM about to transcribe an episode in my youthful experience, which, though comparatively brief, if measured by time only, has so impressed and shaped my life-now past its sixth decade-that it stands out in the light of memory as a towering mind-mark, to which all subsequent events appear subordinate, and to chiefly owe their form and colour, their shadows and their sunshine. In that episode, Kirke Webbe, captain of the Scout privateer, was a prominent actor, and his character and history, as developed by the scenes in which I happened to be associated with him, possess, I think, an interest and value -especially now, when the "species" to which he belonged may be said to be extinct-apart from his influence upon my own individual fortunes. If, however, the ordinary sketches of his class which one meets with are to be deemed authentic portraitures, Captain Webbe, who was neither a vulgar ruffian nor a melodramatic hero, cannot be presented to the reader as an average specimen of the pri vateer. He boasted of having been a scholar of Christ's Hospital; was certainly well read in English literature; and his seamanship he acquired by six years' service in the royal navy as midshipman. Further than this, those of his deeds to which I am about in these pages to bear witness must speak for him; though, if proof of their verity be required, I can only refer to the internal evidence supplied B |