Jim Morgan and the Pirates of the Black Skull (16 page)

“Well, we wouldn’t be the great thieves we are with that attitude, now would we, Lacey?” said George. “The proper spirit of things is to say what our father always used to say: when life – or pirates – shuts a door, look for a window.”

George looked at Jim.

Jim looked at George.

They both looked to the window at the back of the captain’s quarters. In spite of everything, the corners of Jim’s mouth curved into a grin. He knew he and George were both thinking the same thing. No matter what Jim had lost, he still had the best friends a boy could have.

“You didn’t know our father, George,” said Peter and Paul in unison. But they came to stand beside their brother with eyes fixed upon
the window and fingertips tapping before a devious set of smiles. All four boys then turned to Lacey. She let out a long sigh, slumped her shoulders, and put the book in her hand back on the shelf.

“Oh for goodness’ sake,” was all she said.

Out the window the five friends crept, quiet as mice. Just below the windowsill a narrow ledge, barely as wide as a man’s open hand, ran along the
Spectre’s
hull. But the Clan of the Ratt had cut their teeth leaping from rooftops and sneaking through windows in London. They pressed themselves tight against the hull and tiptoed to the ship’s aft corner. There they found a mooring line stretched from the ship down to the pier below.

Jim took the lead and leapt from the ledge to the rope. He swung his feet over the line and scooted his way over the water. That old rogue’s smile spread across Jim’s lips. For better or for worse, he had grown tired of just letting horrible things happen to him. It felt leagues better to really do something about them. But half way down the line, a shadow crossed over his face. To his surprise, Jim looked up to see Janus Blacktail balancing on the rope above him.

“Something wrong with the gangplank, young Jim?” asked Janus. The black cat smiled and winked knowingly with one green eye.

“Get away, you blasted cat!” Jim whispered as harshly as he dared. “You’ll get us all caught!”

“Oh, I would never betray a fellow sneaker, my boy. Thieves honor and all that. In fact, I’m doing a bit of sneaking myself. The
Spectre
is just about dried up of good secrets, I think. So I’m off for more interesting fare. I just wanted to take a moment to remind you that I’ll be finding you some time in the not-too-distant future to collect that secret you owe me.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” Jim snapped. He let go of the rope with one hand to shoo the cat away, but the moment he did, the scratch Janus had given him ignited in pain like a lit match. It burned so fiercely that Jim nearly lost his grip and dropped into the water.
Janus Blacktail laughed his purring chuckle and leaned his face close to Jim’s.

“You see, young Morgan, secrets really are like an itch you just can’t scratch. Toodle-oo for now, my friend. Don’t forget about me though, for I shall be seeing you again one day soon.” The cat scampered down the rope and onto the pier, where he disappeared into the bustling streets of Shelltown. Janus’s reappearance nearly spoiled Jim’s improving mood. But once all four of his friends joined him on the pier, without raising even the hint of an alarm, Jim’s spirit of adventure caught up once more in his blood. He, the Ratts, and Lacey wasted no time and stole off down the streets of Shelltown, in search of Egidio Quattrochi’s shop.

Jim hated to admit it, but MacGuffy had been right - Shelltown was no place for children. Every sailor on the streets walked armed to the teeth, outfitted with curved knives, loaded pistols, and deadly cutlasses. All their blades were far too sharp, and their pistol grips far too worn, to have gone unused for any length of time. There were turbaned Corsairs like those that followed Splitbeard, round hatted sailors from the Far East with long braided mustaches like Wang-Chi’s, and seamen with peg legs, hook hands, earrings, tattoos, and cold eyes that warned of foul moods and dark deeds.

Of course, all this meant that George and his brothers were having the time of their lives.

“That’s right, mind your business, mates,” George announced, strutting with his chest stuck out ridiculously far, and his thumbs jammed in his lapels. “Dread Steele’s crew comin’ through ‘ere. Mind your distance and no harm shall come to ya!” Peter and Paul followed suit, lined up behind their brother. They sauntered down the street in their best imitations of the bow-legged sea walks of the brutish sailors they saw, greeting the passing buccaneers with hearty “Arrghs!”

“Keep quiet, George,” Lacey said. She was quite fed up and walked as far away from the Ratts as possible, both to minimize her mortification and to keep her eyes peeled for trouble. “You have to be an actual
pirate to be a part of Dread Steele’s crew, anyway – which…you…are...not!”

“Well, good thing for us we’re startin’ up our trainin’ today, in’t it?” George replied. “With our thievin’ skills, we probably already have a leg up I’d wager. But I ‘magine Dread Steele can show us at least a thing or two, can’t he? We even already came up with our pirate names.” At this, Lacey rolled her eyes and looked as though she wanted to cover her ears with her hands. The threat alone of the forthcoming announcement was more than she could bear.

“Here we go!” George announced. “I be One-Eyed George!”

“And I’m One-Eyed Pete!”

“And they be callin’ me Paul of the One-Eye! ARGH!”

“The Pirates Ratt!” Peter and Paul shouted at the top of their lungs, hooting, hollering, and laughing so hard they nearly fell over each other. Jim could not help but laugh himself, but George ripped his hat from his head and waved it about emphatically, stomping his foot on the cobblestone street.

“Did I not just say, only last night, to pick different names from me?” George yelled. He rolled his eyes as if the chore of being an older brother had finally reached a mind-boggling level of suffering. “We can’t
all
be one-eyed somethin’ or other – that’s stupid!”

“Actually, George, if you listened, I said Paul
of the one-eye
,” Paul corrected. “Which is completely different.”

“It’s not different at all, Paul!”

“Well, I picked one-eyed first, George! Back when we was at the lighthouse. So really, you’re the one stealing my name!” Peter roared.

“Besides, you have two eyes!” Paul yelled. This little spat was simply the last straw for Lacey, who suddenly exploded. She stomped her own feet quite loudly and turned nearly purple at the cheeks.

“You all have two eyes!” She thundered at the brothers. “And two arms and two legs! On top of all that, Dread Steele is
not
going to train you to be pirates! He has far more important things to do, like helping Jim stop the Cromiers from getting the Treasure of the Ocean. So for goodness’ sake, shut it before you get us all caught!”

“How do you know, Lacey?” George asked quite snottily, his brothers nodding right along with him, as though they had not just nearly come to blows a moment ago. “And what’s the worry? We just escaped from Dread Steele’s own ship with a huge man armed with a giant sword standin’ guard. If that can’t hold us, nothin’ can!”

“I wonder what they even call an orphanage in a pirate town?” Paul said, cleaning his nails on his shirt. “I guess they don’t have Saint in the front of many of them, do they?”

“Pirates don’t use orphanages, young one,” a crackly voice wheezed from beside the boys. They simultaneously whirled on the speaker, who was a homeless beggar lying in the shadows of a nearby alley. The beggar leaned against a barrel outside a broken door, seeking shelter from the morning sun. “Nor do pirates use prisons. Those be the ways of more civilized folk.”

“If they don’t put you in an orphanage or a prison, then what do they do with you?” Peter asked, a small smirk playing on his lips. But the beggar just laughed - a sandy, choking, and mirthless laugh. He looked the boys over with a chapped and wind-burnt smile on his wrinkled face. “In Shelltown, when they catch a thief, they cut off his hands.”

The Ratts considered this for a moment, trying to determine whether or not it was just another lie adults tell children to coerce them into such-and-such a behavior. They decided it was, and burst into laughter.

“Cut off your hands?” Paul said. “If you lie do they cut out your tongue?”

“He’s cracked,” George said, shaking his head with pity at the old man. “I’ve heard it all now.”

“Have you?” The old beggar shrieked, staring the boys right in their laughing faces with his crazed eyes. “Have you seen it all as well?” The ragged man threw his arms up onto the edge of the barrel, revealing two stumps that had once been hands, wrapped in dirty, ragged bandages. The boys ceased laughing immediately and gaped at the empty places where the beggar’s hands should have been.

“Right then,” Jim finally managed. He nudged his friends farther down the path, never taking his eyes off the old man. “Sorry about that. We’ll just be going now.”

“Mind where ye walk and how ye talk, ya sea babes!” the beggar screamed after them. “Ye are no longer in the world! Ye are headed toward the deep ocean, where the laws and manners of men hold no sway!”

The rest of the way through Shelltown the Ratts uttered not a single word, nor did Lacey even bother to say that she’d told them so. All five members of the clan had gone quite pale. If Jim had forgotten it, he remembered then that the pirates and villains he now faced did not play at games, nor did they fool about. They were very real, and they dealt in vile and deadly deeds.

Fortunately for Jim and his friends, not every pirate in Shelltown was a complete scalawag. There was a merchant selling parrots of all shapes, sizes, and colors, who was helpful enough to point them in the direction of Egidio Quattrochi’s shop. All the merchant’s birds cawed the name “Egidio Quattrochi” over and over again in a squawking chorus as the small company walked down the street.

They found the shop not a few moments later, tucked beneath the remains of a derelict pier. The old walkway extended only so far as the rocky beach before coming to an abrupt, broken end. The rest of the boardwalk looked as though it had been smashed by a giant’s hand and tossed out to sea. But it was the shop itself that caught Jim by surprise and furrowed his brow so deeply. The red wooden door and quaint shingled walls upheld a roof built from the biggest tortoise shell Jim had ever seen - green and brown and easily as large as MacGuffy’s home beneath the lighthouse by the bay. It was the shell of an ancient monster of the deep.

SIXTEEN

lone shingle, laced in spiderwebs and dust, hung over the red wooden door. The sign read:
Egidio Quattrocchi’s Magical Books and Artifacts
. Taking care not to be seen, the clan snuck around to the side of the shop. George and Peter laced their hands together and hoisted Jim up by a foot to peek through a round window, placed in the hole through which the giant tortoise would have once stuck an arm or leg. It was dark inside the shop, and while Jim could make out a counter and a few shelves, he saw not a trace of Dread Steele or the man, Egidio. However, toward the back of the storefront, Jim found a short hallway. At the end of the hallway was a door, cracked ajar. Bright, flickering light snuck out from around the doorway’s edges.

“Can’t see them from here,” Jim said, hopping down from his friends’ hands. “I think they’re in a room in the back. I can see the firelight from behind the door. It looks like we’ll need to head inside.”

“Say no more, say no more,” said Peter, a devious smile breaking over his face. It had been a long time since Peter Ratt had employed his most valued possessions, a set of beautiful, silver pins he’d won from the ex-greatest lock pick in London. He cracked his knuckles and withdrew the leather pouch from a pocket inside his jacket.

Quick as a flash, Peter went to work. In less than three twists the door popped open, swinging into the shop with a low creak. Jim cringed at the groaning door. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his teeth set on edge. The five former thieves leapt aside of the door, pressing themselves close to the building to avoid discovery. But when not so much as a ghost stirred inside the shop, Jim risked a peek. He saw nothing but shadows, and so he waved his friends inside.