Hades's Revenge (8 page)

Jessop suggested William make an artificial
leg for Salty. A huge grin came over his face as Jessop saw the
wheels and cogs turning in William’s head. Within a few moments,
William was scribbling notes and sketches on a wood scrap.

Since Salty’s rescue, the little pig often
hobbled over to William and Jessop for a scratch behind the ears,
squealing loudly if anyone came into his comfort zone perimeter of
six feet or less. This gave William a chance to do some indiscreet
measurements needed to accomplish his task. He spent a good few
weeks on the mission, detailing it to resemble the opposite leg. He
sanded it, rubbed it with oil and added padding covered by a
well-tanned piece of leather and attached fancy brass tack-like
nails. Another bit of leather meant to sit on the wearer’s back and
hooked to the leg with buckles giving the little pig the appearance
of wearing strange one-legged chaps.

When William presented the contraption to
the captain and Salty, Jessop was quite sure he saw a tear form in
the man’s eye before slapping William on the back with gratitude.
Salty was a little unsure at first of what to make of his new
apparel, but within a day he was walking around like he never lost
ham to the pirates.

He seemed so assure of himself, he often
whined until the captain would put him down so he could walk beside
him as he made his rounds around the deck. Within a couple weeks,
he maneuvered many of the steps that had plagued him since his
loss. Yes, Salty was altogether a new pig and when he wasn’t
attached to the captain, one could find him below deck in the
carpenter workshop following William around.

* * *

One exceptionally clear night after a long
run of rain and weather, Jessop found himself on the deck relieving
himself over the rail, down wind, of course, when he heard the
familiar thumping of a little peg leg on the quarter deck as the
captain came into view with his lantern in tow.

With the ringing of the bells, Jessop knew
it was time for the captain to check the bearing and make any
correction in their course. He watched the noble man examining the
quadrant against the North star and moon and assessing the compass.
Jessop noticed the captain laboriously squinting through lantern
light to make his notes.

Jessop remembered a time when his father
moved written correspondence and newspapers closer and closer to
his face to read the scribble therein. Was the captain of an age
that he too was having difficulty with his eyes?

He laughed to himself thinking back when he
and Tom laughed at Big Tom as he did the opposite—extending things
farther and farther from his face in an attempt to read the
measurements on the ironworks. Big Tom did not like this laughter
and refused to admit he couldn’t read the markings, whereas his
father only seemed to need the attentions of Penelope noticing his
actions to quickly acquire a smart looking pair of glasses.

Penelope had noted how very wise he looked
with his new spectacles to swell his father’s ego. Big Tom was not
so easily swayed as Jessop’s father and as far as he knew, old Tom
was still squinting and struggling to see the engraved numbers on
his tools.

He wondered if he could make something other
than glasses that could help the captain see better. He assumed a
man such as the captain needed to exude strength and confidence and
would not want to look as though he were weak in any way. He’d
never seen the captain have a problem reading the instruments in
the daylight, so maybe this was a sort of night blindness.

He walked to his bunk thinking on these
things when another memory came to him. Big Tom’s wife was an avid
sewer and often relaxed after the chores of dinner with a bit of
embroidery or repairs to her family’s attire. She used the flame of
a candle and an old bottle filled with water to brighten her work.
The light from the flame was magnified through the glass and water
to intensify it by two or more times. This allowed her to work late
into the night if she wished.

What if he used the same concept of water to
illuminate the compass and reflect the image onto a mirror or piece
of glass, making it larger and brighter? He could say he was aware
how difficult it was to read the compass in the dark with a
lantern.

If made correctly, it might be useful in bad
weather, but easily disassembled if need be. It wouldn’t be seen as
a crutch or weakness on the captain’s part but an improvement to
the ship.

A few days of putting it together and some
tweaking with trial and error and it might be put into action in a
week or less. It put a smile on his face as he lay in his hammock
thinking on how he would manufacture the contraption. It could
cement his and William’s positions in the crew and also satiate his
hunger for inventing useful things.

* * *

As Jessop predicted, things came together
quickly with the help of William’s new expertise in woodworking,
and before long the box was made and tested. Now all that was
needed was to set it atop the compass and make minor
adjustments.

That evening William and Jessop headed out
to the quarter deck to set things up when they were interrupted by
Gordon. The man of few words was exceptionally grumpy at seeing
them interfering with the ship’s instruments.

“What do ye think yer doing?” he
grumbled.

“Master Gordon, good evening. I had a notion
to augment the compass so as to make it luminous and easy to read
at night as well as in bad weather conditions.”

“And who might be requesting such an
augment?” he demanded.

“No one. I deduced it might be of help.”

“Yer deducin’s were wrong,” he said
dismissively. “Grab yer gear and step down from that there quarter
deck.”

“We’re only trying to help,” William said,
surprising Jessop and Master Gordon. Gordon was not pleased and he
stepped forward in a threatening manner towards William, though
William did not cower and stepped up to the challenge.

“What might be makin’ ye think we needs yer
help, fool,” Gordon growled.

Jessop stepped between the two scowling men
and said, “Gentlemen, there’s no need for quarrel.” Jessop looked
mostly to William thinking there was a better chance of William
choosing the noble route than Gordon and he was right. Without
saying a word, William nodded in agreement and took a step back. It
was Gordon who seemed to be in the mood for a brawl when he
sniggered at William’s falling back and egged him on saying, “Yer a
mollycoddled milksop, ye are.”

William glared at Gordon and stepped forward
saying something under his breath. Jessop hooked his arm as he
tried to pass him. “It’s not worth a broken jaw, William.”

“Better listen t’yer mum, Willy. Wouldn’t
want ye to get a whoopin’,” Gordon goaded.

William was steaming mad, leaning hard into
Jessop’s palms at his shoulders restraining him. William instead
sent an insult at Gordon, something about his mother that need not
be repeated. Gordon’s fist came back in a rebuttal to the
statement. Jessop turned just in time to push William clear of the
cannon and arched his back in avoidance of it himself.

Expecting to meet impact, Gordon was caught
off guard and out of balance making him stumble awkwardly into the
captain coming up the stairs behind him.

“Blimey hell, Gordon. Ye drunk yer meal, did
ya?” he said catching Gordon with his arm.

“No, Captain. I…”

“Captain, I fear Gordon was helping me when
I accidentally bumped into him knocking him off balance.”

Jessop could see in the captain’s eyes that
he was skeptical, at best, about the tale being told, but he
obviously decided to play along with the charade. “I see,” he
responded as Gordon straightened himself and fell into place at the
captain’s side.

“What is it ye got in that chest thar?” the
captain inquired.

“This?” Jessop said picking it up and
wondering which route to take in the conversation. “This, Captain,
is an idea I had to assist you and Master Gordon in taking your
compass readings.”

“Did ye now. And how might this here gadget
be aiding our cause, lad?” he queried.

He took a dangerous glance at Gordon before
continuing. Gordon was flush and about to explode as Jessop
continued. “Basically,” he said setting the box over the compass
adjusting it minutely this way and that, “I light this candle and
voila.” He lifted a pane of glass that also served as the top of
the box and when he set it in place on its hinge, the compass face
was reflected, enlarged and bright as can be.

“Lookey thar, Gordon…Is that not a sight fer
sore eyes? Nice work, lad. Nice work indeed.”

“It’s not all my doing. William helped with
box housing.”

“Not at all, Captain, it was all Jess’s
idea. I just built it to his specifications,” William
interrupted.

“Nicely done, boys,” the captain said
running his hand along the handsomely carved trim William had done
on the edges, just to make it look nice.

“Very nice. Wouldn’t ye be agreein’,
Gordon?”

Gordon nodded his agreement to the captain
with no expression whatsoever and avoiding the gaze of Jessop and
William.

“A heap of thanks to ye, boys. This will
come in right handy,” he said congratulating them with a pat on
their shoulders as he scribbled down his readings on a scrap of
parchment then shoved it in his pocket. Cash, on his way to relieve
himself, happened by before the captain blew out the candle and
took some minor adjustment direction from Jessop and admired the
invention with its new owner. Jessop and William said their
goodnights to the three pirates, leaving them on the quarterdeck to
marvel at the contraption—at least most of them were admiring it.
Gordon stood emotionless and wordless at the captain’s side.

He’d saved Gordon from a tongue lashing from
the captain at spurring on a fight with the two of them, though he
was sure there would be backlash somewhere down the road for what
was not said this evening from an angry Gordon, but for now, all
was good and no one was hurt—yet.

On one of Jessop’s treks to the belly of the
ship for supplies and inspection, he was asked by Beans to also
check the food storage area for broken or leaking containers. Once
a month like clockwork, Beans would put in this request, so much so
that he rarely went to O’Donnel but went straight to Jessop.
Apparently, O’Donnel in the past, had missed a leak, once or twice,
on rum kegs and trusted only Jessop to check the storage these
days.

“Certainly,” Jessop answered to Bean’s
request. Jessop had made his rounds through the trove of stolen
goodies and dealing with Fin—not something he ever looked forward
to, but the sullen man rarely said a word to him after the incident
with the compass, however he felt Fin always had a suspicious eye
on him.

Jessop made his way down the narrow snake of
a corridor toward the food storage room, when he turned a corner
nearly running into a man leaning against the wall, bent over as if
to fall any minute.

Jessop grabbed the man to help him into the
darkness of the storage room before setting the man upon a crate
tied to the wall just inside the door. He lit a match, making the
oil lamp sizzle and beam a glow of light onto the face of sick
fellow. He was shocked to see it was the captain as Salty came
running in the room snorting and grunting as he kicked the door
shut with the peg and hoof of his back legs. The metal latch
grabbed its mate with a clank.

“Captain, what’s wrong?” Jessop asked.

The captain could barely sit up unassisted.
His skin was white and clammy as he reached out to Salty and
clumsily withdrew the handkerchief Salty always had around his
neck. Hidden on the backside was a small pocket in which the
captain pulled out a small hard candy he quickly popped into his
mouth.

“I’m sorry you had to find me this way,
Jesse, but I trust you will use your greatest discretion as to what
you’ve seen,” the captain said with an eloquently British dialect
and not the slightest hint of pirate jargon.

Jessop didn’t know what to say, but when the
captain stared at him waiting for a reply, he said, “Of course,
sir.”

“A captain of a pirate ship cannot show
weakness or in my case, illness—do you understand?”

“I do, Captain. What ails you? Shall I get
O’Donnel?” Jessop asked in concern.

“No. O’Donnel knows not of my sickness.
Salty keeps me in check—a little something sweet does the trick
until I can get back to my cabin and have something to eat along
with a concoction I take several times a day.”

“Are you…dying?”

“Oh, lad, we’re all dying, but no, I forget
sometimes to keep on my scheduled regiment. As long as I do that,
eat regularly and take my medicine, I’m fine, but I lost track of
the time and haven’t eaten since this morning. I should be fine in
a moment.”

He did look better. A little pinkness
returned to his cheeks, and his eyes seemed to twinkle a little
more than they did earlier.

“Can I help you back to your cabin?”

“Most assuredly not. Like I said, I can’t
appear to be ill on the likes of this ship.”

“May I ask why the charade of sailor slang
and pirate speak?”

“All for appearances, lad. It’s a long story
and this is neither the place nor time to tell it. I’m feeling much
better now,” he said as he retied the handkerchief to Salty’s
chubby little neck.

“Good, sir. Your secret is safe with
me.”

“Aye, lad. A scurvy dog, ye be if ye be
divulgin’ in such things.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Jessop said with a
smile as the captain opened the door and stepped into the hallway
with an ever-present Salty trailing behind.

* * *

A whistle blew in the in the blackness of
the night, rousing Jessop from his sleep. If not for the thumping
and thundering of footsteps around him, he might have thought it
was part of his dream, but it most definitely was not.