Читать книгу To Slight the Jacket Blue - Bronwyn Sciance - Страница 16

Captain Thomas lowered the strange instrument he used to measure the ship's position and turned to Jane. "We're well on course. Should be to the Caribbean within a few weeks, and once we reach the part of the world where your Edward Sharpe was last seen, we should be able to track Captain Bluejacket and rescue him. Pray to God we are not too late," he added soberly.

Jane leaned on the railing next to the captain, scanning the seas, half-hoping that she would see Edward coming towards her and be spared the confrontation. "What could happen–if we are too late?" she asked.

"Let us hope you need never know the answer to that question, Miss Jane," Captain Thomas replied.

Jane shivered. The implications were all too clear. Despite what most seemed to believe, she was not so naive as all that. "Captain," she said finally, "what is this man Bluejacket?"

Captain Thomas looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...who is he?" Jane clarified. "Why does he choose to hunt His Majesty's Royal Navy? I know so little about him..." Her voice trailed off.

Captain Thomas looked stumped. "In truth, I know little more about him than I do of any other pirates. Although I will say it is rare for a pirate to go after the Navy. Most pirates seek only to avoid her. England's might is greater than all the wavescum in the world–didn't your man capture seven prizes before meeting Bluejacket?"

Jane glowed with quiet pride. Edward was the bravest of the brave, and it warmed her heart to hear him spoken of so well.

Captain Thomas shrugged. "Suppose one pirate is just like another, really."

"Oh, no, Captain, each pirate is as different from one another as one sailor is from another."

Jane turned in surprise to see the boatswain, Michael Johnson, who had suddenly appeared at the rail beside her. "Mr. Johnson, you startled me," she said, a touch breathlessly.

"My apologies, Miss Jane." Johnson bowed formally.

Captain Thomas smiled at the boatswain. "Go on then, Michael. Who is Captain Bluejacket?"

Johnson scratched his chin. "If anyone ever knew his true name, they've long forgotten it. I would say it was perhaps five years ago that Captain Bluejacket first appeared."

"Did he always hunt Navy?" Jane asked.

Johnson nodded. "Aye, from the very beginning. A bolder man there never was–and he catches 'em, too."

"What does he do with them then?" Jane wasn't certain she really wanted the answer to the question, but she had to ask.

"He sinks them," Johnson replied simply. "A merciless man–you can always tell a merciless pirate by the device on his flag."

"How so?" Jane asked, interested in spite of herself.

"Red flags, or any red in the device, means no mercy shown, no quarter given," the captain explained. "Surrender or die."

"Dead men tell no tales," Johnson confirmed.

Jane covered her mouth with her hands. She had been expecting it, but still..."Then...then how does anyone live to tell the tales?"

"Rarely, a man will survive being cast into the sea," Johnson replied.

"Like young Lon," Captain Thomas added.

Johnson nodded. "But mostly, the tales come from Bluejacket's own former crew."

"He abandons them?"

"No, lass, they leave the crew when it divides. He gives them their prize money and they go their merry ways. It's no different than a merchant vessel."

Jane frowned. "But why would he do such a thing? Surely it's a risk?"

Johnson shrugged. "'Tis in their codes."

"Codes?" Captain Thomas and Jane repeated in unison.

"All pirate crews have 'em," Johnson explained. "I've known a few in my time, former pirates who sailed on with us after their crew divided. Some of the things they've told me...I'd have tried to convince R–er, the captain to try them, if to do so wouldn't be to admit admiration for that band of cutthroats and rebel scum."

Jane was fascinated. In all she had heard about pirates, she ha presumed them to be without honor, without chivalry, scum and wickedness that would stop at nothing to attain their ends. "What sorts of laws have they?"

Captain Thomas looked interested, too. Johnson gave them a half-smile. "Well, now...there are some crews what say that to gamble or play cards or dice for money is forbidden."

Captain Thomas nodded slowly. "I've never permitted gambling aboard my ships, but I've always told my men they were not to be like pirates. I never thought..."

"Few do," Johnson replied. "And they're as strict about loyalty as you are–worse, in fact. Men who shirk their duties in battle are to be punished by anything from whipping to marooning."

"What else is there?" Jane asked, intrigued.

Johnson closed one eye, as if thinking. "Most crews offer compensation to those who lose a limb in the course of duty. All men get a fair share of the prize money, and no man may steal from another. Women and children are not to be taken to sea against their will. And most have rules about shipboard quarrels."

"Such as?"

"Such as forbidding them entirely, and ordering all men with a quarrel to take it to the shore and settle their differences with a gentlemanly duel. 'Tis a strange world these men live in, a lawless and deadly one to be sure, but nevertheless a tightly governed one, as strict about their codes as Captain Thomas here is about shipboard discipline."

"So in truth, Edward should be fine," Jane said softly.

Johnson nodded. "He will come to no harm in their company...provided he abides by their rules."

"How can men be so bloodthirsty and yet so honorable?" Jane wondered.

The boatswain shrugged, turning away. "Not all of them are, but some of them–like any other set of gentlemen."