Lyr. Add: Cap'n English's Ghost
T. G. Roberts

"Soon after the death of the notorious Richard English at the yard-arm of a frigate, a lubberly fellow with a fast schooner and plenty of luck reaped a rich harvest in the same seas which the late Richard had stained with blood, and so began to fancy himself as a pirate of the first class."

A schooner up from Santa Cruz
With treasure in her hold
Of candle-sticks and chalices
And pearls and minted gold!
A schooner up from Santa Cruz
With jibs and topsails set,
And rubies on the captain's hands
And in the lazarette.

"A stranger came aboard soon after sunset, in a mysterious manner, joined tipsy Captain Duffer in the cabin and there rattled and rolled the bones for extraordinary stakes. The stranger had all the luck, to the disgust and displeasure of Duffer."

The captain slopped his liquor;
He cursed and banged the board.
The stranger's smile was pale and thin;
His glance was like a sword,
Sudden and cold. The lantern swung
And tossed the shadows wide.
"I win again, you fool!" he said.
"Ye're mine now, hair an' hide!

"Ye played like a fool and lost like a fool;
And a scurvy fool you be,
Fatted on knavish tricks ashore
And now a drunkard's luck at sea:
But now ye've fumbled yer last throw
And lost the utmost stake.
As my name be Richard English,
What I win, I take!"

The captain spilled his liquor.
His red nose greyed to ash.
With furtive, rummy fingers
He fumbled at his sash.
The lantern tost its murky gleam
From the ringbolt overhead.
"To Hell wid old Dick English!
For he bes hanged and dead!"

"Not so!" the stranger whispered.
"There's some as never die!"
The captain's face went white as milk,
And grievous was his cry.
"But ye'll cheat the law," the stranger said,-
"Yard-arm an' gallows-tree.
So down yer last wet drink, poor fool,
And come along with me."

The lantern swung and shattered
On the deckbeam overhead;
The bulkheads buckled and split;
The spars came down like lead;
And loud the mysterious stranger laughed
As the schooner heaved and broke
And foundered in a cloud of foam
All white and hot like smoke.

Theodore Goodridge Roberts, 1934, The Leather Bottle, The Ryerson Press, Toronto.