The Stolen Heart (29 page)

 

 

“We could throw over the cargo, they want so desperately, and try a
straight run for Callao once we were lighter and they were
distracted,” Bob suggested.

 

 

“Not enough time," Wright the second mate said. "They're gaining on
us, even with all of our sail, and at this point I'm afraid the
cargo is the least of what they're after. They want this ship. We’ll
be lucky to keep our lives.”

 

 

“I say we fight,” George argued.

 

 

“They will have more men than we, and they’ll be experienced
killers,” Al said with a shake of her head. “No, we would be
throwing our lives away. As the Captain says, the whales, the oil,
is
not
worth a man’s life."

 

 

They all nodded. They had heard him say it often enough themselves.

 

 

"I think we can pretty much guess what they will do. My father told
me once about some pirates his friend encountered in the Pacific.
They will want the ship in one piece, to bring to port and unload,
and sell. They will either kill us, or if they don't think we pose
any real threat, they'll divide up our crew, putting some aboard
their ship, and a few of their own men on this one as a so-called
prize crew."

 

 

Perkins nodded. "Aye, that's about the size of it, lad. It just
depends on how vicious they are."

 

 

"Well, let's hope for the best," George said, "that they keep us
alive. What then? How are we ever going to get home with no oil or
ship?"

 

 

All the men nodded.

 

 

“Let's say they split the crew. We need to be prepared on both
ships," Al said. "There's laudanum, and some sleeping powders in the
medicine chest. They'll take you off with them, Perkins, Wright, I'm
sure, so you can’t lead a rebellion to take back the ship. We all
need to watch and wait, and be prepared to act in tandem.

 

 

"Here it will be easy. We know this ship better than they ever
could. We just have to hide anything we don’t want them get their
hands on, and conceal some weapons and provisions in the boats in
case we get a chance to get away. But that should be a last resort.
God knows where we could end up."

 

 

"True," Wright said with a sigh.

 

 

“They’ll want a boat to take our crew over to their boat. They’ll
search you, but so long as there are no real weapons that they can
see aboard, they won’t search too carefully. We’ll hide the sleeping
potion in that boat. We’ll need to give up a couple of guns, but
hide the rest.

 

 

"Most whalers don’t usually have the store of weapons we have. Let's
all start thinking of the best hiding places for them now, and put
them there with powder and shot.”

 

 

“I say we go now, into the whaleboats,” Bill said as he stood there
trembling.

 

 

“What chance do we have in an open boat?” Cook argued.

 

 

“Maybe better than with a bunch of pirates,” Jemmy said.

 

 

“No,” Perkins said, “Al is right. We need to stick together and be
prepared. In an open battle, we have no chance. But we do have
enough weapons to take back the ship by surprise.”

 

 

“We’ll have to wait to see what happens. Maybe not all of us will
survive, but if we don't keep our heads, none of us will."

 

 

"I don’t understand," Wright said, looking around suddenly. "Where's
the captain?"

 

 

"He would be the first one they killed, to sap any resistance to
them taking over. I couldn't let that happen. So I threw him
overboard."

 

 

"
What
?" they all gasped.

 

 

Perkins spoke up now. "Al threw him overboard to save him. So any of
us still alive at the end of this all, remember this setting. He'll
be there waiting." He gave the coordinates, and then looked around
the circle of deeply worried faces.

 

 

"It'll be all right. We'll get him back, never fear. He's a strong
swimmer, and better off taking his chances on land than being killed
for sure at sea."

 

 

"Still, he was the captain…"

 

 

Wright looked around and shook his head. "He would have fought for
his ship, and died. The lad's right. Better to use our brains than
our guns here when we're outnumbered three to one. Al saved him for
sure. Now he's counting on us to save the ship."

 

 

Almira nodded. "Aye. I promised the Captain we would be back for
him. I have every intention of keeping my word. So let's muster our
weapons and supplies while we still can. And remember, no matter
what, be prepared to retake the ship the very next night after we're
captured.”

 

 

“But there will be so many of them. Even if we put half of them to
sleep, the odds will still be pretty overwhelming,” Perkins
disagreed.

 

 

Al had a bold and daring plan at the back of her mind, but it would
require more thought and might have to be considered a last resort.

 

 

She shrugged. “We’ll wait and see. I’m sure something will come to
us when we see the lay of the land, so to speak.”

 

 

Perkins nodded. “Aye. You're right. No sense in trying to deal with
the unexpected at this point when we don't even know if we'll see
the sun rise on the morrow."

 

 

"So what should we all do now to get ready?” George asked.

 

 

“Keep trying to outrun them,” Perkins said.

 

 

“And in meantime, let’s get some water out of each of the
rainbarrels. Get some oilcloth, wrap the pistols and some powder and
wadding, and put it in the barrel. It’s one place they will probably
not think to look.”

 

 

Perkins said, “Cook, put on some food and boil up the water. Let
them think we’re a discontented crew now off the leash. Rattle off
some of the stories we’ve heard about really bad captains. Splash
yourselves in brandy and rum, swish it around in your mouths, act
drunk, but don't get drunk.

 

 

"Above all, don’t attack, no matter how much you're provoked. Say
that we saw their red flag and were glad to be liberated from such a
foul captain. With any luck, they’ll just take the boat to port and
try to sell the cargo. Then we shall see.”

 

 

“All that work, all that sweat,” Jemmy grumbled.

 

 

Al fixed him with a glare. “There are more whales, but you only have
one life. Don’t throw it away.”

 

 

“It might be taken from me.”

 

 

“We just have to be smarter than they are.”

 

 

Perkins nodded. “Don’t be hasty. Stick together, stick to our story,
and we'll do our best to survive this.”

 

 

After the men headed off to prepare, Al pulled Perkins aside. “I
have an idea. But it could be risky, so we need to consider
carefully if it’s going to work. We'll need Chip’s help and haven’t
much time.”

 

 

“Tell me what you're thinking of.”

 

 

He listened to her hurried explanation, and said, “It could just do
the trick. But if it doesn’t, or gets out of control, there would be
hell to pay.”

 

 

“Aye, I know the dangers of a whaler as well as you. I was born on
one, after all. If it does get out of control, then we have the
whaleboats, and will be close enough to shore to make sure that if
we all stick together, we’ll be fine.”

 

 

“But we’ll lose the ship, everything.”

 

 

“We’ll lose it anyway if we don’t try!" she argued. "This is the
only way I can think of to trick the pirates and save our lives, and
get the ship back. We also have the laudanum to take them on their
own ship. They’ve been preying upon unsuspecting crews up and down
this coast, and they have to be stopped.”

 

 

“But, Al, even if we succeed-”

 

 

“Don’t you see, even if we get our ship back, they'll come right
after us if we don’t defeat them on board their own vessel as well?
And we might not survive a second time if they're angry enough over
what we've done.”

 

 

She shook her head. "I would hate to lose the
Trident
just
as much as any of you, but if we take the brig, it will be a ship
for a ship, and at least we'll still have some chance of going
home."

 

 

Perkins sighed, and nodded in the end. “It's the best plan I can
think of. I can't see any other way to trick them into giving us
back our ship without a fight. And as you say, if we do get rid of
them, well, then we can worry about the rest.

 

 

"I'll get Chip and Coop to start, and gather the tools. And you
know, Captain would be proud of you. Not to mention your father Jed.
You’re one smart young lad.”

 

 

She smiled gratefully. “Thanks. I sure hope so. Remember, pass the
word along to get ready for tomorrow night. And no matter what
happens, don’t throw your life away.”

 

 

“The same goes for you. Else I'd have two whaler ship captains after
my hide, instead of just one measly pirate captain.”

 

 

Almira smiled at him grimly. “Don’t worry. I have more than enough
to live for. My brother and father are out there, remember, and now
Jared too."

 

 

"Do you really think your father is still alive?" he asked quietly.
"If he met up with this lot—"

 

 

She shrugged one shoulder. "I remember all my father told me of
pirates. If he's alive, I'll find him. Even if he's not, I'm sure
I'll find out what happened one way or the other. And if this is the
brig responsible for him being missing, well, I'm going to make sure
they pay. And pay dearly.

 

 

"And I swear to you, so long as I have breath left in my body, I'm
going to find Jared and bring him safely home to Nantucket."

 

 

Perkins stared at her grim expression, and nodded. "And I'll be
right with you no matter what. We all will. To the death."

 

 

"Aye. But let's all pray to God it doesn't come to that."

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

 

 

Despite their favorable winds and deft maneuverings, the pirate ship
was gaining on them every second. Almira ran down below and got one
of Jared’s waistcoats to put over her baggy shirt to try to disguise
her womanly figure even more.

 

 

Then she checked her pistol, and taking some of the strapping, tied
it to her waist under the baggy hem of her shirt. She could not load
it without running the risk of blowing her foot off, but she wadded
up some powder and balls and slipped them in under the strapping.
All she would need was a few moments to load and she would be ready.

 

 

George at the helm was doing his best to evade the pirate ship,
bringing them back in toward the coast. Some of the men were getting
ready to get into the whaleboats. She couldn’t blame them, but it
would make it that much harder to keep her promise to Jared to come
back from him if they had fewer allies on board both ships. But any
ally was better than none, so they would just have to do the best
that they could.

 

 

Eventually, as the sun began to dip lower over the horizon, the
words she had feared to hear were sounded through their speaking
horn in English and what she guessed to be Spanish. “Prepare to be
boarded.”

 

 

She saw a small cannon on the deck, but to her vast relief they did
not use it. She guessed that since the ship was already in such bad
shape with only one complete mast, there seemed little point in
damaging it further, and everyone knew that whalers were notoriously
combustible due to all the oil.

 

 

Al was still bringing up provisions for the boats in case they would
need to abandon ship, and was almost alone below as the men began to
swarm on the decks with pistols and cutlasses, swinging from the
rigging of their own vessel over the rail and down onto the deck.

 

 

All of the
Trident
crew stopped what they were doing and
raised their hands in surrender.

 

 

“I am Xavier Delgado, gentleman trader in these parts,” he said in
heavily-accented English. “I believe you have a cargo for me.”

 

 

“I am Perkins, now acting captain of the
Trident
. We're
happy to trade with reputable men.”

 

 

The buccaneers had immediately commenced searching the crew for
weapons, but apart from the usual pocket knives that most of them
carried to help with the myriad of chores aboard ship, they had
stashed all the weapons in the rain barrels.

 

 

Al moved from her hiding place under the hatch as a pirate headed
her way to search the ship.

 

 

She raised her hands and looked, and looked--and came face to face
with her brother.

 

 

She barely recognized the wild-eyed young man with a straggling
beard and dirty blond hair hanging down past his shoulders.

 

 

“My God, Adrian, what’s happened to you? You’ve turned pirate?”

 

 

He stared at the small blood-stained boy. “Who are you? How do you
know me?”

 

 

“Adrian, it’s me! Almira, Al as I’m known here. I was coming to look
for you and Father. I got on the first boat I could after I found
out that the
Dolphin
was a hell ship. How on earth have you
come to be with these desperate men?”

 

 

He laughed almost wildly, and grabbed her around the neck. “I don’t
know who you are, you little bastard, but you won’t talk about my
father like that.”