The Black Book

by George Shadow

  * * *

  This time, they were not in a cage as they had earlier thought. The iron bars of the prison extended up to the ceiling of this lower deck and were held to the wooden structure by massive nails bored and welded into them. At their feet, the rods simply sank into the floor’s planks, probably coming out to form strong hooks on the other side.

  The three children had extricated themselves from one another a few minutes ago. Each now occupied a strategic position facing the heavily padlocked entrance to the cell, and from here, they could see similar structures like the one they were now occupying lined up on the starboard side of the ship. Matthew guessed they were in an empty slave vessel, which was just like the one they had rescued Anderson from some days ago.

  Although the book had been able to match Nora with a Jewess whose character was a striking replica of hers, and had woefully failed to do this for Leonard! Matthew turned to look at Nora with a sad expression on his face. The reason for this anomaly he was yet to discover.

  “I can’t believe he . . . left,” Nora whispered to no one in particular. “I can’t believe he abandoned me here.”

  “Don’t tell me you were thinking of that all this while,” Matthew cut in. “Remember you wanted to leave us back in the pine forest like he just did.”

  “I’m hungry, Matthew,” Stephanie whined, and her foster brother placed her head on his shoulder to comfort her.

  Matthew’s own stomach was also groaning, and he wondered when they would be in a good position to eat and rest their weary limbs on a comfortable bed.

  “You’re right,” Nora finally cried, cleaning off a tear about to drop from her cheek. “I’ve been freaked out by all this! I’ve—I’ve done some things wrong and . . . and I’ve learned my lesson the—the hardest way! I’ve been a fool! He’s been as selfish as I’ve been and I’d never noticed it.” She sniffed terribly and covered her face with her hands. “I deserve what happened! I really deserve it.”

  “No, you don’t,” Matthew said, trying to help. “Leonard showed you he’s no good for you.”

  “Stop crying, Nora,” Stephanie begged her sister. “You’ll make me cry, too.” She reached out a hand and Nora took it.

  “Can’t—Can’t help it, Steph,” Nora said, sniffing. “I’ve spent all my spare time thinking he only did what he did ‘cause of Tricia, but now I’m—I’m not so sure anymore.”

  Neither Matthew nor Stephanie knew who Tricia was, and they wisely chose not to interfere, at least for now. Though she just became their number one enemy, no matter who she turned out to be!

  Matthew looked his foster sisters over; ignoring the shabby clothes they were both wearing and trying to use the dim light coming from one of the cells far away. What an experience they’d all had these past few days, and yet, they had been able to evade death itself. Maybe they had the book to thank for this. Maybe its pages conferred on those whose names were inscribed on them the gift of immortality and infallible resilience. Maybe it all really came down to hard-earned luck, but would he ever know the truth? Only time would tell.

  The leather-bound book felt very cold between his palms. Its cover was as black as ever, save for the dead white of its pages distinctly carved out by its charred edges. He wondered how many more times the hardcover would go up in flames before it completely burned out. This thought wasn’t at all comforting.

  “Who’re we looking for now?” Nora asked him, cleaning her eyes with her hands.

  “Barbara.”

  “Barbara?” Stephanie exclaimed, sitting up. “I thought you said Fat George? It’s not fair.”

  Matthew reddened. “I . . . decided to find her first ‘cause she’s a girl,” he defended.

  “No,” Stephanie snapped. “You won’t find him now ‘cause he’s your number one enemy.”

  “That’s not the point,” Matthew objected. “Barbara’s not my friend, either.”

  “Stephanie’s right, Matt,” Nora gently pointed out. “You could . . .”

  “You stay out of this,” Matthew shouted and got up to move away from his adopted sisters. He wore a stripped Guernsey shirt and old sailcloth trousers with British leather shoes on his feet, but he didn’t notice these since he didn’t know what a Guernsey shirt looked like nor what sailcloth trousers felt like. He just felt this burning, incomprehensive anger inside and vehemently cracked his knuckles while the book remained strapped under his left armpit.

  “I know we’re all angry, Matthew,” Nora said in a tearful voice. “I—I’ve been bitchy to you and all that, but . . . but we just have to forgive one another! We just have to.”

  “Guess you’re right,” Matthew told the iron bars, but refused to turn back to his senior sister. After all, she’d called him an outcast before and that had never sounded right.

  “What finally happened to Sitting Bull, Nora?” Stephanie asked, shifting to rest her head on her sister’s laps.

  “He was shot dead by his own tribesmen who were police officers,” Nora replied, trying to regain her composure. She felt pleasantly surprised by her ability to remember what she’d taken to be unfounded stories in History class and even felt a slight elation to be witnessing these events firsthand. Linda would never believe her when she got back!

  “Someone’s coming,” Matthew warned and scampered back to squat beside them. “Remember to look out for Barbara,” he added. The footsteps were coming down a wooden ladder at the bow end of the prison deck and he realized he was wrong about there being just one person. He hid the book in his shirt.

  “Those bloody pirates, I should say,” a brightly decorated, black-coated figure started before the others. “It is now imperative that they be blown out of Virginia’s waters, don’t you think, Mr. Cornwall?”

  “Absolutely, first lieutenant,” Cornwall agreed. “The skirmish near Cape Halteras all but reduces the importance of your present line of thought, dear sir.”

  “They broadsided the Romulus, which you know is a sixty-pounder, for twenty-five minutes,” the sailor exchanged with an angry voice. “A ship of that size can never hold up against two thirty-pounders running abreast of her, reported her captain after the battle, but if you ask me, he has made a bloody mess of his career, that one.”

  “I do not know the gentleman.”

  “Captain Buck Crankwood. A jolly seaman and a very old-fashioned officer,” the first lieutenant said. “All in all, I am glad the admiral found it in his busy schedule to dispatch a congratulatory letter to our own dear captain, don’t you think?”

  “Absolutely, sir,” the short, rounded Mr. Cornwall agreed. “A pirate captain cannot keep the Jolly Roger aloft when his mainmast is two fathoms under, can he, sir?”

  “And to think they held on to their stolen booty with a tenacity the devil should envy! Why, they sank to the depths of the deep blue grave with it! To prefer such an exit to capture surely baffles the mind, Mr. Cornwall.”

  “Certainly, sir! Most certainly,” the other seaman agreed. He now walked alongside his mate towards their prison. “It pains me to note in the log that we only arrested three young pirate reefers! All that prize money just slipped right through our fingers! One could only dare to imagine the size of her hold and the amount of stolen goods there in! A seventy-two pounder for that matter.”

  “I wonder who builds for Teach, my dear friend. I dare say I have one eye on the Spaniards,” the first lieutenant confided. “Now we can only confirm a penny’s worth for each of these three young pirates before us.” He brought out a ring of big keys and started unlocking the iron door before the three prisoners, his eyes on their shadowy figures sitting away from the light. “Mere children, if you ask me, who would never want to embrace the deep blue grave like their less cowardly counterparts.”

  “Did he call us pirates?” Nora whispered. “Perhaps I can stab him with a knife if I have one.”

  “They have guns, Nora,” Matthew informed her. “You’ll never succeed before you face death.” And what was wrong with
his English this time? Matthew knew something was happening to them again, but he couldn’t make out the problem. Was the presence of these newcomers contributing to this unknown change? He couldn’t tell at present.

  Funny enough, he was beginning to know where he was and how he’d gotten there with his sisters. This was coming up faster than it had ever done in the previous episodes of their wild adventure and he felt so helpless due to his ignorance.

  The sailors came for the kids, and Nora carried out her threat, wiping out a short dagger to stab the first lieutenant in the arm when he reached out for her!

  “You bloody pirate whore,” the man bellowed, hitting her with his free arm. The other man pried the weapon from her and carried her out of the cell as she struggled.

  “Put down my sister!” Stephanie shouted when they seized her as well, but they ignored her and carried her out of the cell.

  Matthew did not protest when they came for him. He stood up before he could be manhandled like the others. As he started climbing upwards, the bright sun rays that hit him on the ship’s second deck made him realize his two sisters were very dirty. He even felt appalled by his own hands when they crossed his view. They all terribly needed to scrub themselves down with a hot bath. “Where are you taking us, sir?” he politely asked one of the sailors.

  “I will be damned,” the man exclaimed. “It is hard to see a cultivated pirate in this part of the world, and I will be damned if I am not seeing one now.”

  “Let the captain decide that,” the soldier Nora had injured snarled. He had made a torn piece of his shirt into a tourniquet for his wounded arm. He hated the fact that a girl had stabbed him.

  The ship’s upper deck looked exactly like the one Matthew and Stephanie had come across towards the southern tip of Africa when Anderson was their rescue mission. Gaily-clothed seamen and fashionably attired soldiers went about their duties in an orderly manner here, while others hung from shrouds on their way to mend a torn canvass or fix a ratline. The ship’s masts were massive structures climbing up to the cloudless sky from stern, amidships and fore positions, and all her sails were freely spread out on a steady breeze and below the British flag, hauling her across a deep blue sea.

  Somehow, Matthew knew that a sea battle had taken place between this ship and another vessel some miles behind them and she had caused a powerful explosion in the other ship’s supply of gun powder with her heavy firepower, breaking its hull amidships with a resulting and inevitable descent to the ocean bed below.

  Those in this pirate ship, he’d gathered a few moments ago, had all preferred to perish with their stolen goods rather than surrender, and he along with his sisters were the only ones who had looked up to the British man-of-war for help when she crawled up to rescue her new prisoners.

  The defiant Nora had stopped struggling in front of Matthew and he thanked her for that, since they didn’t know how this particular ship treated prisoners, let alone pirates. He’d read somewhere back in school that death was once proclaimed for anybody caught as a pirate in those days. Such days were certainly like this one, and he knew their best option was to remain as polite as ever until they met Barbara and got a chance to use the book on her.

  He just hoped they would soon do so. Meeting her, that is. There appeared not to be enough time left for them or any of the remaining kids they were yet to rescue!