The Escape

(album: Moonfleet & Other Stories - 2010)

And so it began,
The story how Elzevir would look after John as his own son,
And the smugglers betrayed on Moonfleet Bay
by Maskew looking now at Elzevir's gun;

Then a shot rang out in the morning light,
Maskew fell, a hole between his eyes,
But it was his own men who brought him down,
and they also got poor John – oh, they also shot poor John;

Oh, it's a dangerous world boys,
Oh, with the smuggling crew,
Oh, it's a dangerous life boys,
When you're running from the Revenue,
When you're running from the Revenue;

And so to escape it came now for Elzevir to pick up the boy,
and carry him away,
For he could not walk with a bullet in the leg,
and they made for the safety of the Purbeck cave;

T'was there that John would read one night,
The words in the locket by candlelight,
For the Bible verses held the key to Blackbeard's hidden treasure,
at the bottom of a Castle well;

Oh, it's a dangerous world boys,
Oh, in a smuggler's life,
Oh, in the Days of our Age boys,
That's where the secret of the Treasure lies,
That's where the secret of the Treasure lies.

Oh we're going to be rich boys,
The treasure we will find,
Blackbeard's bones are dancing here tonight;
Yes, we're going to be rich boys, the treasure we will find,
At fourscore-feet-deep-well-North is where it lies!