'Twas a sensible way to avoid trouble, and I for one would rather pay a modest blackmail every month or two than run the risk of losing a good ship and a twelve-month's cargo.

But when it came to using this connivance for private spite, the thing was not to be endured.
In March my doubts became certainties.

I had a parcel of gold coin coming to me from New York in one of the coasting vessels--no great sum, but more than I cared to lose.

Presently I had news that the ship was aground on a sandspit on Accomac, and had been plundered by a pirate brigantine.

I got a sloop and went down the river, and, sure enough, I found the vessel newly refloated, and the captain, an old New Hampshire fellow, in a great taking.