9 Full Moon

9. FULL MOON The clouds parted to reveal a full moon. A bowsprit cut through the swirling fog, dragging a tattered sail beneath it. A hulking ship followed closely behind, crashing in the waves and creaking as if it were begging the sea to break it apart.

该页暂无翻译

Shadowy figures busied themselves aloft, while others took arms from the quartermaster on deck: flintlocks, pikes, muskets, and cutlasses. Then came an urgent call from the crow's nest: "SWIP AHOY, CAP'N!" A gigantic figure hanging from the rigging, blade in hand and shrouded in mist, bellowed, "HARD TO PORT!" Almost at once, the Black Rat turned sharply in a shower of spray and brine, furing tendrils of fog across the water toward the Blackhole, which had been positioned directly in the path of Twirlybeard's ship.

On the deck of the Blackhole, the Jolley- Rogers watched nervously. Apart from Nugget, who wasn't nervous at all and couldn't wait to meet a real-life ghost. "FLY!" ordered Grandpa, and he launched his trusty parrot, Squawk, toward the Black Rat, a rolled-up parchment in his talons. "Do you think they'll come?" Jim Lad's mom asked Grandpa. "When Cap'n Twirlybeard reads that note, he'll come, all right," Grandpa replied. The Jolley-Rogers waited in the moonlight. All was silent but for the waves lapping against the oak of the Blackhole's

hull and the gentle creak of its timbers. After a few minutes, Nugget shouted, "Squawk!" and pointed toward the Black Rat's stern, where a parrot's silhouette could be seen heading their way. Squawk landed on Grandpa's hand. "Squawk!" he screeched. "Coming aboarrrrd! Avast and belay! OI' Twirly wants a key today!" The Jolley-Rogers watched as, across the water, figures tumbled into boats, waving cutlasses and flintlocks, their briny grumblings drifting on the mist. A voice boomed, "Heave ho!" and Captain Twirlybeard and his crew lurched toward the Blackhole.

该页暂无翻译