“Upon realizing the seriousness of their situation, one of his friends went to the captain, demanding to be set ashore at the nearest port. His throat was slashed and he was thrown overboard. Needless to say, the remaining two kept their mouths shut and waited for an opportunity to escape. But, the other friend was later killed in battle while they were taking over another ship, leaving Shamus on his own.
“Although he did not like it, he was determined to make the best of a bad situation, to survive, and wait for the right opportunity to escape. Meanwhile, he also saw an easy way to get some gold, as long as he did what the pirates wanted. He claimed that when they fought with another ship’s crew, he made sure to inflict plenty of wounds serious enough to draw blood, but never life-threatening. He also wrote in his journal that, to the best of his knowledge, he had never killed anyone… not even a pirate.”
“He certainly lived under very stressful conditions,” Harry said. “It’s amazing that the others never caught on to him.”
O’Flynn shrugged. “I guess they were too busy trying to stay alive during those battles to notice what their shipmates were doing. Then again, since he kept all this to himself, I sometimes wonder how truthful it is.”
“I can see that. But, obviously, he did get away from them. Was that in his journal?”
“When they stopped at some port for supplies, they all went ashore, taking some – or all – of their gold with them, with the intention of having a good time. Instead of going to the brothels with the others, Shamus headed for a bar to look for a boxing match somewhere, saying he missed his old life and I guess they believed him.”
“No doubt they searched for him before leaving port again.”
“They probably thought he’d found what he was looking for, had got beaten up, and probably in no condition to be of any use to them anyway. He wrote that he remained hidden until about an hour after the ship sailed. Several days later, he found a ship that was bound for the British colonies and Upper Canada. They didn’t need another crewman, but he struck a deal with the Captain to work for his passage and one meal a day.
“Years later, he returned to Ireland, bought the farmland he wanted, built a nice, big house, married a widow, and lived happily for many years. Unfortunately, Great-uncle Paddy, wasn’t so lucky.”
Harry stood up and poured two mugs of coffee, thinking it was too bad Bertie was taking in a genealogy seminar at the university. She would have enjoyed this. He handed a mug to O’Flynn, who declined cream and sugar, and then returned to his chair. “How did Paddy come to this country?”
“After hearing the stories Shamus told about all the gold he had found, Paddy seemingly decided to look for the same mine Shamus had found all those years ago. We just learned in the past few years that he had left the country.”
