Part 2

“I haunted Ali Bey for a long time after that little episode at the tower, and with the help of Kinisi, who subsequently joined me, we put him in the way of meeting a very unpleasant end. We scared him out of bed and into a big mosque for religious protection one night. Women were not allowed in mosques, as Mohammedan females were supposed to have no souls, but we knew that one of the members of Ali Bey’s harem was in there, who had fled in disguise the day before, and she got him with a knife that she had carried for use in case she was caught. I often talked with him after he became a shade, and eventually we became quite good friends. He wanted to go back after the girl but Kinisi and I persuaded him to let her alone.

“After we left Ali Bey I returned and haunted my tower for some years, but there was so much going on there I didn’t approve of, that I got tired of it after a while and went over into Dalmatia, and from there to the Adriatic. I established myself on board a ship that lay in the harbor and haunted the forecastle for over two years. I moved to the Captain’s cabin after that, and was on the upper deck at night much of the time. The captain was a very agreeable sort of a fellow although he was a bloody pirate, but I never liked the first mate. I chased him and four offensive members of the crew into the sea one night in a gale off the coast of Barbary. I visualized to them separately, and as they were very superstitious they went easily.

“We roved over the Mediterranean and captured considerable booty. We were making new shades constantly. After the victims were thrown overboard, or had walked the plank, they would generally ooze back in the bilge water seepage in the hold so as to enable them to haunt the crew, which they did with a vengeance. They were mostly Spaniards and as a rule I found them quite pleasant.

“I was with the Mediterranean corsairs several years. I visualized before Sidi ben Musa on board a large brigantine that he had just captured with his galleys off the coast of Naples, and I was with him during the rest of his earthly career. He conducted numerous important enterprises. He once organized an expedition to capture the pope that would have been successful were it not for the fact that his men did not know the pope by sight and bundled a cardinal into their boat instead. This happened on the outskirts of the little village of Piano d’Orno not far from Rome. Sidi was one of the great terrors of the sea and wielded a baneful power on the Mediterranean during his lifetime. After he became a shade my association with him beguiled many dull periods.

“After Sidi’s time there was a celebrated sea robber on the Ægean who was called Red Beard. Sidi and I were with him four years. He was thick set and bullet headed. His heavy jutting lips, cruel eyes, and long fiery red whiskers gave him a rough and wild look. He was an excellent and formidable pirate. Wherever there was wealth to loot, involving wholesale massacre, he was always equal to the situation. It was estimated that he and his men killed over three thousand people and captured over four tons of gold during his lifetime. He had a most profitable career, but he finally came to grief and was captured by a war vessel of the Knights of Rhodes. He was rushed down a scuttle into the hold of the Christian ship, where he was subjected to misery and abuse with others of his crew. The ship was fighting its way in the teeth of a howling gale to the lee of some island and it was a wild night on board. The roaring and whistling of the wind, the howls and curses of the prisoners, the creaking of timbers and cordage, and the piercing shrieks of the galley slaves as the knotted thongs bit into their flesh to spur them to greater effort, naturally made conditions extremely unpleasant for those who were alive. The ship finally anchored. Red Beard succeeded in twisting out of his manacles and escaped into the sea. We went with him to the shore about a mile away, where he crept up to a fishing hut and recuperated. In a few days he set out for Egypt in a merchant ship as a common sailor. He became a shade in a brawl in Alexandria and Sidi and I met him soon afterwards. He joined us and we went to my tower for a long rest.

“Red Beard informed us, after he was translated, that during his earthly existence he had led a double life. There were long periods during which his professional activities were suspended. He had a castle on an island in the Ægean Sea where he lived in great splendor and was known as the ‘Freckled Duke of Patmos.’ Nobody there suspected that he was Red Beard the pirate.

“We found Kinisi waiting for us at my tower and we remained there for many years. The place acquired a bad reputation among mortals. Nobody who was alive was allowed to be there more than one night, and after several years visits to it were considered foolhardy and were entirely discontinued. When anybody tried to sleep there Red Beard and Sidi would appear before them and brandish big smoky knives and hop up and down, I would wave long white things in the background, and Kinisi would fly toward them with a rush and suddenly fade. The invaders were never able to stand much of this and would usually jump through the windows into the gully in the rear, so after a while we had peace and privacy there.

“I hope I am not boring you with this long recital, but in order that you may understand and appreciate some points that I intend to bring out later it is necessary to go into all this historical data.”

“You are not boring me at all. On the contrary your story is of the greatest interest,” I replied, “but why did you spend practically all of your time with that swaggering Turk eater and those two pirates when one of your evident talents could have undoubtedly found more respectable society?”

“It does seem funny to you, don’t it? Kinisi and I were special friends in life and naturally the intimacy continued afterwards. As to the pirates, that was just a little fantasy of mine. I always had a penchant for making new acquaintances, and, until lately, I always liked the sea. It happened that, outside of the land wars that were generally going on, the pirates were in those times producing more shades than anybody else, not only from among themselves, but from the sea faring public, and I found that by remaining with them I could constantly mingle with new specters that were congenial. I was stationed at the ‘port of entry’--so to speak, and could select my new associates as my fancy dictated. I consorted with a lot of other pirates in a spiritual way, as you will hear later on. You see my experiences in conducting the affairs of my tower when I was alive naturally predisposed me to association with those of that ilk in my disembodied state.

“I am inclined, if you will pardon me, to resent politely your implication that pirates were not respectable society. The live ones are much thicker now than they were then; they move in the very best circles, and sit at highly polished desks, instead of going out into the storms, fighting and killing clean for what they want. In our days a pirate was a gentleman adventurer, and everybody he hadn’t robbed thought well of him until he was captured and in chains, or killed, just as in the present day a pirate may be a ‘shrewd operator’ and a ‘successful business man’ until they get him, but we shall not discuss the ethics of piracy just now, for I am afraid our time will be exhausted before we get to what I would really like to talk about. With your permission I now return to the little company in my tower.

“For the sake of brevity I shall omit details of our stay there and many important incidents of piratical history with which I and my incorporeal friends were more or less identified. We sojourned for awhile in Algiers and other places along the North African coasts, where the pirate nests were numerous. These financial centers were in a flourishing state of prosperity. The Mediterranean yielded rich harvests to skilfully conducted enterprises at that time, mostly from Spanish sources.

“In 1643, I think it was, we all drifted into the forecastle of a ship that was bound for the West Indies. The Spanish Main was the paradise of the bloody buccaneers, and the home of the far famed ‘Jolly Roger,’ that floated in congenial airs from the masts of sinister looking ships that roved the wide waters and gathered their fruitful spoils. We anticipated a long period of ghostly entertainment.

“We amused ourselves on the way over by keeping the captain and crew in a turmoil of apprehension. We muddled the compass, made phantom marlin spikes dance on the deck, and rattled the ropes at night when there was no wind. We made all sorts of bewildering noises on board, but were careful not to terrify anybody to such an extent as to cause a shortage in the crew. There was plenty of rum on the ship and the uncanny episodes were attributed to other spirits than us. We remained latent most of the time, but Kinisi insisted on visualizing in the captain’s cabin several nights just after eight bells struck, and he came very near causing the ship to be turned back. The tough old skipper didn’t care how many spooks infested the forcastle but he didn’t fancy them in his part of the vessel.

“These things may all appear childish to you, but you must remember that we of the spirit world have a superfluity of time on our hands and that we look at everything from a standpoint entirely our own. All folly is dependent upon the point of view.

“When we arrived at Tortugas we found the whole island aflame with excitement over the exploit of a prominent buccaneer named Pierre le Grand, who had just bagged a big Spanish galleon containing fifty thousand pieces-of-eight, and was being overwhelmed with congratulations.

“We drifted among many famous freebooters at Tortugas and Barbados--Alvarez, Hooper, Lolonais and others--all of whom were hunting noble quarry and doing a profitable business. The treasure laden galleons bound for Spain were rich picking. Tons of bullion and millions of pieces-of-eight were garnered from the highways of the sea. The proceeds were spent in riotous dissipation and orgies by the merry buccaneers on shore and the rum dealers eventually acquired the greater part of the spoils.

“The folds of the black flag rose and fell on the long oily swells, and the West Indian sea floors were littered with sunken timbers and Spanish skeletons. Those were days of frenzied finance on the Caribbean.

“At Jamaica we had the pleasure of falling in with Captain Henry Morgan, who was one of the most renowned sea financiers of the seventeenth century, and we all settled on board his ship.

“While Captain Morgan had to endure much opprobium from the world I know him to have been a gentleman and a perfectly honest man, for he always divided the profits of his expeditions with fairness and exactitude among his associates. This is something that is seldom done now days, except as a matter of policy, or under compulsion, and I think it is worth while to note it.

“We went with Morgan and his fleet on his famous expedition for the capture of Panama. We weighed anchor off the cape of Tibur on December 16th, 1670, and came to the island of St. Catherine three days later. The island was taken with little loss. We found few pieces-of-eight, but a much needed supply of powder. On the night of the 24th I visualized before Captain Morgan in his cabin. We had a long conversation, and I was able to give him much valuable advice and information which he deeply appreciated. I faded when seven bells struck just before dawn, and after he became a shade some years later he told me he had always considered that interview a most pleasurable experience.

“I shall not consume time by describing the toilsome ascent of the Chagres river in small boats, the historic march overland, the final victorious battle, and the capture and sack of the rich Spanish city, for all this is embalmed in the annals of heroic achievement in which the world records its worship of success.

“We left Panama February 24th, 1671 with one hundred and seventy-five beasts of burden, carrying the profits of the enterprise, consisting of gold, silver, and valuable merchandise. We had six hundred prisoners to be held for ransom, and this brought forth much wealth that had been secreted when the city was taken. Notwithstanding the necessary misery and lamentations of these hostages, it was a merry throng of adventurers that wound in triumph through the forest pathways back to the headwaters of the Chagres.

“The Captain left the prisoners and a rebellious portion of his followers at the mouth of the river and we sailed to Jamaica, where he settled down to the life of a quiet gentleman. As he was wealthy he commanded respect and nobody questioned his record. Upon his transition into the immaterial state a few years afterward we had the good fortune to have him join our party, and we found him in every way delightful.

“Our ghostly little company was later augmented by the addition of Captain Teach, and no more blood-thirsty sea rover ever scuttled a ship, cut a throat, or blew open a treasure safe. He was of the roaring, ranting type that gives the tinge of the melodramatic to piratical annals. He had a black beard of inordinate length that reached from up around his eyes to his waist, and he used to twist it into tails with bits of ribbon and fix it up around his ears.

“We were all with him on board his big ship, the ‘Great Allen’ mounting forty guns, the name of which he afterwards changed to the ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge.’ He was a hard drinker and we agreed that we had never seen a more turbulent and desperate character. For years he terrorized the sea from the Carolinas to Trinidad.

“One night we witnessed the capture of a Yankee vessel bound from New York to Jamaica, under command of a Captain Taylor. The pirates streamed over the larboard quarter of the fated ship, but they met with unexpected resistance. The attackers were nearly all disembodied when suddenly, with blood curdling shrieks, Teach bounded over the side on to the deck into the midst of the pirates, and Taylor’s shade told us afterwards that he had never seen a more horrible object. Lighted tapers hung from the rim of his broad black hat that revealed the whites of the gleaming eyes, the gnashing teeth, frightful red mouth, and flying masses of black whiskers. He waved a huge cutlass and a brace of pistols hung on his breast. With demonic howls and yells this fiendish figure plunged among the Yankees. Encouraged by this sudden apparition the pirates rallied and the ship was soon theirs. The dead were heaved overboard. From them we soon learned all of the particulars of the fight, and they were most dramatic. Teach used to burn pots of brimstone in his cabin to make his crew think he was the devil, and many of them believed it. He kept a big green parrot in a cage on the deck of his ship. In the midst of the smoke and din of battle the raucous voice of the ill-omened bird would be heard above the roar of the conflict, yelling, ‘Go it!--Go it!--Pieces-of-Eight!--Pieces-of-Eight!’

“Teach once marooned a lot of his men, after an unusually rich capture, so as to avoid paying their share of the profits. He put them on a small desert island and, with loud curses and imprecations, sailed away. Some of them were subsequently rescued and accomplished his transition. When we met him afterwards he was much subdued but eager to square accounts with his old enemies--another illustration of the survival of a ruling passion under conditions that would seem to discourage its activity.

“Our party now consisted of Kinisi, Sidi ben Musa, Red Beard, Morgan, Teach and myself, and you will admit that this was quite a formidable troop of specters. We spent many years together which I shall pass over, as there were no events of especial interest--merely a long lapse of spiritual quiet.

“In 1818 we were all in New York and had the honor of meeting the shade of Captain William Kidd one night on the steps of the sub-treasury. The Captain had been hanged in England as a pirate in 1701 and for over forty years his bones had rattled in an iron cage, suspended from a gibbet near the Thames. He informed us that he at one time buried considerable treasure in the neighborhood of the Island of Manhattan, and his object in staying in the vicinity was to haunt people who were constantly digging to find his gold.

“He seemed exceedingly good natured and charitable in his ideas. He wanted somebody to find the money who would devote it to some great benevolent use, that in a way would wipe out the foul stains of its acquirement. Doubtless you have noticed that nowadays many senile and repentant, successful and therefore honorable gentlemen are heaving great masses of gold into public benefactions to ease similar pangs of avenging conscience.

“We all assured Kidd that it was foolish to think of such things--that conscience was only a form of fear--that no stains were as fleeting as those upon gold, and that there was no odor in the world that could cling to it, not even that of sanctity.

“For years we helped Kidd guard his idle capital. All sorts of men came after it. Several times Kinisi and Kidd visualized when the wrong people were getting too close to the big iron chests. They could of course only do this at night. In the day time all we could do was to keep the dirt falling back into the hole until it became dark. Teach wanted to let the diggers get the hole well opened and then tumble them in and cover them up, the way he used to do when he had somebody help him dig a treasure hole. He always shot the digger and left him in there with the chest so as to insure future secrecy. Many business secrets are made safe now on the same principle but the method is more indirect.

“The years rolled on and there were many changes on the lower end of the island. Clusters of robber baron towers projected into the sky. The narrow streets became deep canyons through which ran streams of gold, and among them were congregated the mad hordes of avarice, including some of the most expert malefactors in the world.

“At the head of the principal canyon the tall steeple of Trinity Church stood like a monolith to the memory of Christianity, for in the midst of that web of Belial was a Christian spire. The money changers had engulfed the temple and its mission had become a mockery.

“We met many interesting spirits in the church yard. Countless suicide shades flocked to the island from all over the country, for it was here that the tentacles of the octopi centered that had felled them. In life they had been tortured, crushed and driven to despair by organized rapacity and chicanery. Feeble salutes from among the sunken timbers of long lost galleons may greet these gray files as they drift away into time’s obscurities.

“We kept our little party well together and we had to be somewhat exclusive. There were many lady shades. They seemed fascinated with Teach and floated after him wherever he went. He had a peculiarly devilish and swashbuckling air about him, and a subtle suggestion of original sin that lured them on.

“The shade of an old money shark, who used to burn his warehouses and send out rotten ships to stormy seas for the insurance, and who had once sold his grandmother to a medical college, kindly offered us the hospitality of his crypt during the day time, provided we would agree that it would in some way benefit him later. He complained that just before he was translated he had been ‘trimmed’ and ‘ironed out,’ as he expressed it. Some skunks had high financed him and had filched practically all his gold by what he considered ‘dishonorable methods.’ We extended our heartfelt sympathy and moved in.

“At night we usually congregated in the belfry of Trinity, or down the street in the sub-treasury. We enjoyed being there, and Red Beard and Teach liked to float through the small crevices and air pipes into the big steel vaults and fondle the gold. The vast piles of bonds and paper money did not seem to interest them.

“One night when we were out on the steps back of the Washington statue we saw a shade drifting up and down Wall street in a hazy, dreamy, uncertain sort of way. He looked queer. Evidently he had been portly, and had worn a gray suit, a mess of side whiskers and a straw hat when he had passed into the immaterial world. We made ourselves known to him. We learned that he had been translated early that afternoon and he was trying to find out what the market had done since.

“His name had been Waters and he had been shot by a woman for some reason that he did not explain. We invited him up into the sub-treasury, and while he seemed even more anxious than Red Beard and Teach to get his hands on the gold, he floated blissfully back and forth among the currency and bond stacks so long that we had difficulty in getting him out through one of the pipes and over to the church yard before dawn. We were only able to do this by assuring him that he could go in and mingle with the money every night forever, if it lasted that long, and he replied that he never had suspected that heaven was so fine as all that. We thought that anybody who could regard that neighborhood as heaven was an abnormal optimist, and in the material world he would need immediate medical attention, but then you know some people are that way. After we had heard Water’s history we knew that there was no heaven anywhere that he could ever break into.

“The second night after it had happened, he took us up to what had been his office in one of the robber baron towers on Broad street, in which he had been shot. We found his partner there, a man named Rivetts, who was looting the safe and fixing the accounts so that Waters’ estate would come out at the small end of the horn. Waters visualized and haunted Rivetts so effectually that he jumped through the nineteenth story window into the street, to the great delight of Teach who regarded it as one of the best jokes he had ever known.

“Waters told us that when he was translated he was long a big block of U. S. Steel and short a lot of Reading, and some hyenas were trying to shake him out of the Steel and run him in on the Reading. He pulled over and studied with feverish avidity a basket full of paper tape, from what he called a ticker in the corner, and declared that if he had lived another two days he would have had all their hides on his back yard fence. You may know what some of these expressions mean. To us they seemed technical and confusing, but we gathered that death had deprived Waters of a ship load of pieces-of-eight and we felt very sorry for him.

“After that he took us around to dozens of offices at night. We saw the daylight haunts of swivel chair buccaneers, whose quarter decks were mahogany desks, and who preyed upon the vitals of the country of their birth, and the nests of merciless super-piratical combinations that mulcted mankind by impounding the necessities of life. We went to a building on lower Broadway where Waters said there were huge vaults full of the products of the most highly refined rascality in existence. He took us to the vaults of several food trusts, corporation attorneys, and banks, and showed us various documents and other evidence of wholesale plunder and remorseless nation-wide robbery that would have taken our breaths away if we had had any. It was a sort of a travelogue--a sight seeing tour in a region of unbelievable iniquity. We were indeed in shark infested waters.