Read Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber for Free Online Page A

I rummage in my seabag and pull out my jockey silks, the outfit I had gotten back in the States as a reward for riding the Sheik of Araby to victory in the Great Race.
    I stick one foot in the tight white pants, then the other, then pull them up to my waist and do the buttons. Judy, like any dutiful maid, is standing by with the green-and-white striped top over one arm and the white stockings over the other, fretting all the while.
    "But, Mistress, you're gonna have nothin' on under these flimsy things! You can't go out like that!"
    "Yes, I can," I say. "I've done it before." I pull the blouse on over my head and Judy does the side tab buttons. White stockings next, and then we do the little cinch-belt things on the pants below the knees.
What a strange thing to have someone help you dress.
Sinful, I know, but I can't say I find it unpleasant. I've tried to get her to call me Jacky, but she won't do it. "Mistress Mary" is as close as she'll get to calling me by my name.

    Now the soft leather boots. "Now braid up my hair, Judy, if you would, so's I can stuff it up into my cap." I sit in the room's only chair and she comes around in back and takes my hair and begins to do it. I can sense her dismay at all this from the heavy sniffing and sighing coming from behind me.
    "Look, Judy, it's the only way I can get into the track as a single female," I say. "They won't let me in without a male escort 'cause they'll think I'm just a girl of easy virtue trying to get in to do some business with the swells. It'll be all right, you'll see. I'll wear my cloak with its hood pulled up till I get there, and then I'll pop out in this gear and fit right in and I'll be able to find my young man and see what's up with him. See?"
    "No, I don't, Mistress."
    I'm thinking the disguise will both get me into the place
and
remind Jaimy of my wild and adventurous ways, which he said he liked. I hope he still feels that way.
    She gets done braiding and ties up the end with a bit of ribbon and I get up and look at myself in the mirror with satisfaction.
Tight and trim and back in harness again, my girl.
My blouse is loose enough to hide what I got in the way of chest, and my cap hides my hair and, if pulled down far enough, part of my face, too.
    I complete the outfit by putting my ring, the ring Jaimy put on my finger back in the goldsmith's shop in Kingston, back in my ear and squeezing it shut so it doesn't fall out.
    Then I lift up the front of my blouse and reach two fingers inside the money belt that's wrapped around my belly and pull out several coins. "Here's some money. If I don't come back, pay the landlady for our lodgings and take a carriage to number nine Brattle Lane."

    "What do you mean, if you don't come back?" she gasps. "Please come back, Mistress, please..."
    "If I don't come back, it'll just mean I'm with Jaimy and that's where he lives and you'll come join me there," I say, and present my back. "Here, give me my cloak."
    She gets it and puts it around my shoulders and fastens the bonnet ties.
    "It'll be all right, you'll see," and I plant a kiss on her frowning forehead and I'm out the door.

    It doesn't take me long to get to the track. I know from my begging days in this area that the jockeys have an entrance around back so I go back there to see about gaining entry. I'm in luck—they've got the big doors open to let in some horses, so I stride through the gates and whip off the cloak and blend right in with the crowd of jockeys and handlers and stableboys milling about.
    The stands are filling with people and, on the track, horses are being exercised and there's a feeling of great excitement in the air. The day is bright and clear and there are flags snapping and jockeys strutting about in their colorful silks and...
    "Jacky!"
    My heart leaps in my chest.
Jaimy? Is it...
    No, it isn't. I turn around and see Peter Jarvis standing there in his silks grinning at me.
    "Petey!" I shout and go to throw my arms around the little man,