Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves (27 page)

“Dread Steele?” the three Ratts exclaimed together, their eyes growing wide with wonder as Jim stood there like a statue, trying to grasp the meaning of this sudden revelation. His father’s greatest enemy, Dread Steele, had once been his friend, just like Count Cromier.

“The Lord of the Pirates!” George cried, and all of the fear from not a moment ago vanished from his face. “I’ve heard all about you. You’re a legend!”

“Well, it seems you all have heard of me, but who are you?” Steele scanned the children’s faces one by one, starting with Lacey. “A young lady.” He leaned down and searched deep into Lacey’s blue eyes with his own ink blacks. “You know, there truly are women pirates that sail the seven seas, my dear. But don’t let that make you think that they’re sweet or lovely like you. They’re meaner than lightning and rougher than bark on a tree. Now, what is your name?”

“Lacey,” Lacey said without even batting an eye. She set her little jaw and stared right back into Steele’s face without a blink. “And don’t think that just because I’m a girl that I’m sweet or lovely either. I’ll knock the block off of any stupid boy that crosses me!”

“Trust us,” the Ratts chimed in. “She will.”

“I believe you,” the captain said with a smile, then laughed, but it wasn’t a cruel or sarcastic laugh - in fact, it was one of the jolliest laughs
Jim had heard in a long time, like the way his father had laughed with Hudson that day on the hill, which felt like so long ago.

“And you three gentlemen.” The pirate captain stood tall again. crossing his arms, observing the three Ratt brothers like a dark-eyed sergeant at a military review. The Ratts immediately straightened up and snapped their shoulders back, their faces dripping with shameless idol worship. “Nearly three of a kind, I’d say. What are your names?”

The opportunity was too good to pass up. The Ratts took one look at one another and nodded. The time had finally come.

“WE ARE GEORGE …”

“PETER …”

“PAUL …”

“THE BROTHERS RATT!”

“Thieves extraordinaire!” George threw in as they all stood together, arms outstretched with hats in hand and leaning over in a deep bow.

“Good improvisation, George!” Peter exclaimed.

“We
are
thieves extraordinaire,” Paul agreed happily, as though realizing how good that sounded for the first time. Lacey, however, just shook her head in red-faced mortification.

“Yes,” Captain Steele smiled, seeming to have a hard time controlling a sudden cough, covering his mouth with his hand. “Well, I am honored to be in the presence of such notoriety, for we pirates always honor those that live by the skill of their own two hands. Although it seems that you, along with some other local gangs, have been attempting to thieve from me.”

“Not from you, sir,” George said, he and his brothers falling back into attention.

“From that old man.”

“That old man is a member of my crew.” The captain’s face grew stern and nearly terrible for a moment. “And I consider an affront to any member of my crew, no matter how big or small, important or not, an affront to my own person and character.” Fear began to creep back into the boys’ faces, but no sooner had the brief storm boiled up
in the captain’s eyes than it blew away again, and his formal politeness returned. “And what was so valuable on old MacGuffy that you thought worthy enough to scheme an entire inn full of bloodthirsty scalawags?”

“Well, sir,” Paul began. “You see, he has this —”

“Don’t tell him anything!” Jim interrupted. “Just keep your traps shut!” Now, all this time, while Lacey had been defiantly charming and the Ratts had practically fallen in love with the living legend before them, Jim’s jaw had been tightening, and his blood pumping angry red into his face. He’d been trying to put it all together, trying to fit the jagged edges of this mystery in place, but the only thought driving through his mind was that both Count Cromier and Dread Steele had been in that picture with his father, and that both of them somehow knew about his father’s treasure, and so in some way, both of them had brought about his father’s death.

“Ah,” the captain said, turning his dark eyes on young Jim Morgan and studying him fiercely. “Taking the lead on things now, are we?”

“I’m not the leader of anything,” Jim snapped, glaring right back, summoning up the nastiest stare he could muster.

“Those eyes,” the pirate captain said quietly to Jim. “Now that I see them up close, I would know them anywhere. For they are the mirror image of your father’s, James Morgan.”

“Jim, he knows your name,” George said. “How does he know your name?” The slightest hint of jealousy flushed the eldest Ratt’s cheeks.

“Shut up!” Jim growled, failing to hold onto his rage any longer. “He knows my name because he knew my father. They were enemies a long time ago, but before that they must have been friends! And I’ll bet you anything he’s here because he had something to do with killing him!”

“Oh, Jim!” Lacey cried, covering her mouth with her hands.

Fast as a cobra, the captain’s hand lashed out, snatching Jim up off the floor by the front of his shirt. “Never accuse me of that! NEVER!” the captain roared, his face afire as though a match had been struck to a hidden oil well beneath his rough skin. Jim’s defiant flash of anger melted into shivering fear, and the other children shrunk back from the suddenly terrifying shadow pirate.

But after holding Jim under the fire of his gaze for a long moment, the captain took a deep breath and set him back on the floor with a small shove. He stood up and turned his back to them all, straightened his coat, and ran a hand through his hair. When he turned to face them again, an icy calm once more covered his face.

“Never accuse a man of a crime for which you have no proof, young Morgan,” Steele said matter-of-factly. Jim just hung his head and refused to look up at the captain, wetness glazing over his eyes. “Even amongst Pirates it’s unforgivable form. Now I, on the other hand, have several eye witnesses that can attest to the fact that all of you tried to steal this from my man MacGuffy.” Steele pulled the amulet from inside his coat pocket, holding it up for the children to see. The round, jeweled medallion spun around on its chain, glimmering brightly in the lamplight. “The Amulet of Portunes, able to unlock any treasure a man’s heart might desire.” The captain stared at the medallion as though its gleam might hypnotize him. “Now what could five young children such as yourselves possibly want to unlock with this? Or need I ask, Jim Morgan?”

“I just want my box back,” Jim spouted. “I just want back what’s mine.”

“I see,” said Dread Steele, his eyes narrowing on Jim. “And I don’t suppose this box would happen to have the symbol of a great pirate treasure engraved upon its lid, would it? And I also don’t suppose that you count that very treasure in the lists of what is yours to be had!”

“What’s he talking about, Jim?” George asked, looking back and forth between the Pirate and Jim.

“Ah, so you haven’t told your friends, have you?” The Pirate smiled grimly. “That comes as little surprise to me, young Morgan.”

“Haven’t told us what, Jim?” Lacey looked at Jim, her bright blue eyes quivering.

Jim’s mouth suddenly refused to work. He stared dumbly at his friends, his cheeks growing hot and red. Finally, he mustered a few shaky words. “I was going to tell you, honestly! I just—”

“Just chose not to?” Dread Steele interrupted. When Jim looked at the man’s face, he found not the haughty, accusing smile he expected,
but instead downcast eyes of the utmost disappointment, disappointment much like what had been in his father’s eyes that day on the beach not so long ago.

“Just chose not to tell them how your father knew the secret to a vast treasure?” Dread Steele continued mercilessly. “Just chose not to tell them how he had passed that secret on to you, and like the irresponsible whelp you are, you lost it, and how you were using them to get it back…all for yourself?”

“That’s not true!” Jim tried to defend himself, but it was too late. He saw the blank, devastated looks in his friends’ eyes.

“You lied to us?” George said, tears brimming. His brothers Peter and Paul seemed to be waiting for Jim to say something to convince them that he had planned on sharing his great treasure with them all along, but Jim had nothing to offer but regret.

“George, I’m sorry,” Jim said, his own eyes stinging.

“It seems to me,” Dread Steele announced, stepping between Jim and the Ratts. “That it is time for this evening to end. Murdoch,” the pirate captain called for the rough-hewn sailor with the black beard. “Take the Amulet to where it will be safest. Put it in the Pirate Vault of Treasures.”

Murdoch’s eyes went wide with what Jim could only imagine was fear or surprise, or both. “Yes, sir,” the pirate finally stammered, taking the Amulet and immediately leaving to fulfill his duty.

“As for you.” Dread Steele turned his attention back on the children. “It’s obvious that your present ties are nigh already severed. Which is always the best time to make new ones. I think you three would make ideal pirates.” He nodded at the Ratts, a hard smile in his eyes. But when he turned to Jim, the smile left and only the hardness remained. “You, on the other hand, have some obvious issues to work through.” Then his eyes fell on Lacey. “And you my dear, really are sweeter than you’d like to admit, too sweet for pirating I’m afraid. Wang-chi, if you please, show our guests out.”

The Chinese pirate snatched Jim and Lacey up by the backs of their necks, dragging them out of the cabin as the Ratts watched helplessly, George’s eyes filling with tears.

“No!” Lacey cried, tears instantly falling down her own cheeks. “We have to stay together, please don’t pull us apart!”

The captain grinned for a moment, and Jim thought just for a second that he was going to let them go, but the grin slowly widened into a toothy, pirate smile. “Sorry friends, but this is called press ganging, not volunteering. Life is like a tide, young ones – it sweeps close to home, then far out into the great unknown again, with little care for that which is caught in its pull. Time to say goodbye!” With a sweep of his arm, the captain shoved the Ratts back into the cabin and slammed the door behind him, locking it with a key as he followed Wang-chi out of the cabin.

“Please! Please don’t do this!” Lacey pleaded, sobbing, but Jim had ceased his tears, summoning up all of his newly learned courage in fierce defiance.

“You pirate scum! I’ll get you for this, just you wait and see!”

“I don’t think so, young Morgan,” the pirate king said, almost sadly, as Wang-Chi deposited the kicking and struggling children on the gangplank, pushing them down toward the dock. “Not only did I know your father, but I have also had the displeasure of meeting your aunt, though I doubt she knew it was me. If you’re anything like her, which I believe you are, you’ll have forgotten all about your supposed friends by tomorrow, and be back to worrying about the only person you truly care about - which is you. Goodbye, Jim Morgan.”

As soon as Jim and Lacey’s feet had touched dry ground, the pirates hoisted up the gangplank, trapping the Ratts on board, and Jim and Lacey on the docks.

Lacey put her hands over her face, crying miserably. When Jim tried to put a comforting hand upon her shoulder, she jerked away, refusing even to look at him. Jim felt cold despair wrap its fingers around his heart and just for a moment, thought of surrendering to it, giving up while he still possessed at least his life.

But as Jim stared into the dark, where Dread Steele stood on his deck, a salty wind blew in from the ocean, tugging at his curly hair, kindling the embers of a long cold fire within his chest.

“This isn’t over yet,” Jim cried, balling up his hands into fists. “If you knew my father, then you should know this is not over by a long shot!” With that, he pulled Lacey by the arm, storming over the snow-covered cobblestones back into the heart of London.

“Where are we going?” Lacey finally asked.

“The last place I ever thought I’d willingly go,” Jim replied, eyes straight ahead. “We’re going to see the King of Thieves.”

From the deck of the sloop, Captain Steele watched as the little boy and girl made their way in the cold. Around Steele gathered his crew: Mufwalme, Wang-chi, Mister Gilly, and all the rest of the rugged men save for Murdoch, who had left on his errand to the Vault of Treasures. Even Cornelius Darkfeather sailed down on his black wings from the topmast, landing neatly upon the captain’s shoulder.

“So,” Wang-chi said, “that’s Lindsay Morgan’s son?”

“Yes,” the captain said, and a disquieted murmur rose up among the tough sailors.

“Then why have we let him go?” Mufwalme rumbled. “Is he not the one you seek? Does he not hold the secret to that which Lindsay Morgan took?”

“Perhaps he is and perhaps he does. But first I must see whether he truly is his father’s son…or if he is too far gone. Cornelius!” the captain said, and the raven perked up his head, hopping down onto the railing of the sloop’s deck, looking up at the captain.

“Follow them,” he ordered. “Report back to me all you see and hear.”

“Sir,” Cornelius coughed politely, “wouldn’t it be best if we just told the boy?”