Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves

by James Matlack Raney

  It was almost over now, Jim thought. Steele was moving in for the final blow when the sound of stomping feet rumbled nearby.

  A throaty voice cawed from above their heads. “We have a bit of a problem here!” It was Cornelius, flapping down from the night sky and landing smartly on Jim’s shoulder. “More soldiers are on their way. Too many for us to handle!”

  “Jim!” George shouted, breaking Jim out of his trance. “We have to go now. They’re after you, remember?”

  “We all must go! We must flee!” Cornelius screamed, not just to Jim and his friends, but to Steele and the rest of the pirates as well.

  The captain looked at the bird, then to his men and the children, then finally back at the nearly defeated Captain Cromier, breathing hard but still holding forth his sword to defend himself. Bartholomew smiled, his lips trembling. “Come on, old man! End this if you have the stomach. I’m not finished yet!”

  But the mysterious lord of the pirates merely flung a grin in Bartholomew Cromier’s direction. “We’ll meet again, captain,” Steele vowed. “And I promise I will finish what I’ve started then.” Then Dread Steele raised his voice so that all his men could hear. “Back to the sloop! To the sea, you dogs, for your lives depend on it!”

  The pirates collected the defeated soldiers’ muskets and swords, backing away for the first few steps before turning in a mad sprint down the cobblestone street.

  “What do we do?” Lacey cried.

  “Is that a talking bird?” George stared at Cornelius in amazement, but Jim was too caught up in events unfolding around them to answer.

  “Come on! Come on!” Cornelius urged. Without really thinking where he was going or why, Jim, along with the Ratts and Lacey, ran right along beside the fleeing buccaneers, all the way back to the docks. As they ran, Jim heard the sound of Bartholomew Cromier raging at both the soldiers there with him and those on their way.

  “Pathetic! Pathetic! You don’t deserve to call yourselves marines! Now get those other men here on the double. Regroup! Regroup and prepare to give pursuit!” The pounding rhythm of fast-marching soldiers followed Bartholomew’s screams, loud and thunderous and frightening. It followed the little clan and the pirates all the way to the piers at the water’s edge.

  When they had reached the sloop, Jim and his friends rushed straight away onto the gangplank, following the pirates aboard the small vessel. Captain Steele came aboard last, slicing the mooring ropes away with his sword.

  “Mister Gilly, get us out of here!” Steele growled.

  “Aye aye, sir,” said Mister Gilly, practically yawning the answer in his sleepy voice.

  Just as the sloop floated out from the edge of the pier, the platoon of soldiers, led by the enraged Captain Bartholomew Cromier, burst from the streets and onto the docks. Cromier, his dark hair in stark contrast to the white, snow-covered streets and buildings, formed the marines into a firing line.

  “Form up and fire!” He screamed.

  Bright yellow flashes sparkled at the end of the muskets, followed by two-dozen cracks and puffs of white smoke. The children and the pirates ducked for cover, but the soldier’s aim had been rushed and the musket balls pelted harmlessly off the sloop’s hull. With the flowing waters of the river rushing toward the sea, the stout sloop slipped quickly out of range of a second volley.

  During the escape, the action on the deck was loud, filled with salty, pirate curses and the sounds of hard labor, but when Jim strained his ears, he could still hear Bartholomew Cromier screaming from the pier. “This isn’t over! I’ll see you in irons or at the bottom of the sea, Steele. And you, Jim Morgan! I’ll see you dead before this is all over. The last thing you see will be your father’s secrets in my hands! That treasure will be mine! Do you hear me, Morgan? Mine!”

  Jim stared at the rapidly shrinking figure on the shore and a deeper chill than the winter wind made him shiver. Yet, just then, a comforting arm wrapped around his shoulder, and then another. It was George on one side and Lacey on his other. Peter and Paul leaned in close as well, and together, they kept warm on the deck of the ship.

  As the sloop sailed down the river toward the sea, sliding through the waves to the sound of Dread Steele’s orders and his men’s replies, Jim slipped away from his friends for a moment and made his way to the prow of the ship. Leaning against the guardrail, the cold air pulling against Jim’s unruly hair as he watched the ripples peel away from the sides of the ship, he reached inside his pocket and took out his little box. Taking a deep breath, Jim finally withdrew the tattered parchment of his father’s letter and unfolded the note, only to stare with stunned eyes at a completely blank page.

  A bloom of despair panged in Jim’s chest. Had Hudson picked up the wrong piece of paper? Had he gone through all of this just to find a blank piece of paper in the end? But slowly, as moonlight lingered on the yellowed page, swirls and curves of ink wound their way into visibility before Jim’s eyes, and a small smile cracked open on his face.

  “More magic,” Jim said, shaking his head, marveling at all he had never known about his father. Finally, Jim read the last words his father ever meant for him.

  My Dearest James,

  If you are reading this letter, then I have finally fallen to one of my many enemies after all these years. The poison began its dishonorable duty the moment it touched my lips, thus I have no time to write all that I would wish to my son. Yet I hold onto some small hope, for this is an enchanted parchment, kissed by the light of a full moon, and it will empower these few words to say more than my weakening hand is able.

  I will waste no time speaking of the dangers of your Aunt and her new friends – as you will undoubtedly learn that it was they who poisoned me. They seek a great treasure gathered from the depths of the sea, James, and, if you have any of strength in your blood from me, and even more so I hope, from your mother, then the treasure will find a way of finding you, and you will be able to keep those wicked fiends from achieving their dastardly aims. For with such a treasure in their grasp, there would be little end to the miseries they would inflict on their fellow man.

  But even more than that, I pray also that you will take this necklace from around my neck for your own. It belonged to your mother, James, and though she died long ago, when you were but a newborn babe, it was she that taught me of the greatest treasure of all. Of that treasure, I have no fear of your Aunt or the Cromiers’ looting, no matter what manner of magic or evil they dare to brandish.

  For this treasure may not be stolen. No map leads the way to its location nor should it ever need to be hidden or buried beneath the sand. This treasure cannot be bought or sold – it may only be given from one to another. The greatest treasure on earth is love, James Morgan. Love between brothers, between the truest of friends, love between a father and a son. – love of a family, whether born or found. If you find this treasure within you, James, then you will be wealthier and happier than any King or Lord, no matter their rank or stature.

  Whatever adventure befalls you after tonight will surely not be your last, my son. So be brave and be kind, and always, always remember, my greatest treasure was ever, and ever shall be, you, my son.

  Love,

  Your Father, Lord Lindsay Morgan

  Wiping a tear from his eye, Jim looked up from the seal beneath his father’s signature to where the Ratts and Lacey huddled around a little stove on deck, laughing as Peter and Paul imitated the pirate crew around them. This was his family now, Jim knew. And he was certainly glad to have them.

  Jim came back down to join his friends, just as Dread Steele gave the order for the sloop to luff the sails and moor up at a small pier near a lighthouse, where the river opened into the sea.

  “This is where we must part ways, I’m afraid,” Dread Steele said, just as Cornelius Darkfeather flapped down to a rest on his shoulder.

  “Can’t we come with you?” George said, looking crestfallen.

  “Not this time, Master Ratt. It will be rough sailing for me
and my men for some time, I’m afraid. But fear not, I will not leave you without help. Follow the little path from this pier to the cottage at the base of the lighthouse. The real MacGuffy, the one on whom I modeled my most current disguise, lives there, having retired from pirating some years ago. Jim, I’m assuming that the letter from your father displays his seal?”

  “It does,” replied Jim. “And it’s even written on magic paper.”

  Dread Steele smiled. “The old rascal,” he said, shaking his head. “He never could do anything less than magnificently.”

  “Is that why you came to our house in London, Captain Steele?” Jim asked. “Is that why you helped me? I thought you and my father were enemies.”

  “Even a pirate knows a good man when he sees one, Jim Morgan. Even when that good man is his adversary. And you’re well on your way to becoming just such a good man yourself, like your father. But don’t get the wrong idea completely about me, Jim,” Steele added with a sly grin. “I am a pirate after all, and there was the small matter of a certain treasure.”

  “Right,” Jim said, smiling back. “I’m afraid it disappeared, sir,” he said, only a little sad now that he had thought long and hard about the unfortunate fate of all that gold and wealth piled up around him. “Vanished like smoke when I took the Amulet.” But Dread Steele just widened the toothy grin that glimmered in the moonlight.

  “Lost treasures tend not to stay lost for long, young Morgan, especially not when Dread Steele goes looking for them. Even though it has disappeared for now, your father’s treasure is still out there, somewhere. But I imagine that if we let slip a small rumor that you already handed that treasure over to us, a certain Captain and his red-haired father would probably forget all about you and focus their attention on us, wouldn’t you say, Cornelius?”

  “I would indeed, Captain,” the raven cawed happily. “In fact, I’ve already been concocting a rather colorful version of the story that involves a small army of skeleton warriors and talking sharks - really quite brilliant if I do say so myself. I think a certain whisper of the tale into the ears of a few of the chaps at the Inn of the Wet Rock will do the trick.”

  “And as for you, Jim Morgan,” Steele said, placing a firm hand on Jim’s shoulder. “While it may take some time, MacGuffy will take you and your sealed letter to the proper authorities, who will relieve your aunt of her current position as head of your house. Which would leave you, the true Lord Morgan.”

  “You know,” Jim said, almost as much to himself as anyone else. “I thought so long about going back home and being the Lord Morgan myself, but now that I finally get to, I’m not sure that’s what I really wanted after all.”

  “But Jim,” Lacey said softly, taking him by his arm. “What else could you possibly want?”

  Jim looked back into Lacey’s blue eyes but then found his gaze drifting past her, out over the ocean to the moonlit white horses on the waves. The strong smell of the ocean salt and the scent of a sea breeze caught his nose and Jim’s smile widened and spread over his face. Perhaps he knew what he wanted after all.

  “Just like your father,” Dread Steele said quietly, looking at Jim’s smiling face. “Perhaps one of these days we shall meet again, Jim. And wouldn’t that be something? The Lord Morgan and Dread Steele sailing off on some reckless adventure together?”

  “It would be something, indeed,” Jim replied.

  But the time finally came for pirates and the children to say their goodbyes, including a kiss from Lacey on the top of Cornelius’s feathered head, which sent the pirate crew into a fit of coarse laughing and guffawing at the stalwart Raven, who ignored it all and bowed dashingly to the young lady.

  And so it was that Jim, the Ratts, and Lacey stood on the little pier, watching the sloop sail out of the river and onto the ocean waves, heading off to who knew where.

  “That was some adventure, Jim,” George said, putting his arm around his friend. “You know, it may have been the best decision I ever made to let you join our gang.”

  “You?” Peter and Paul protested, hands on their hips. “It was our idea! You said he didn’t stand a chance of becoming a proper thief, George,” Peter added.

  “Did not!”

  The Ratts set in on each other, laughing and hollering as they wrestled each other down to the ground in a pile of kicking and punching limbs.

  “I guess it’s finally back to ordinary for us,” Lacey added, shaking her head at the Brothers Ratt. But Jim was still smiling, the mischief that once glimmered in his little boy eyes shining in them anew.

  “No,” he said, turning to lead his newfound family up to the lighthouse. “I don’t think we’re going to have another ordinary day for the rest of our lives. And knowing that, I can’t wait to see what great deeds we happen upon the world tomorrow.”

  THE END