by Chris Blake
“You’re right,” said Isis. “Let’s go and pay him a visit to cheer him up.”
They found Sal lying on a blanket in a tent with a few other injured pirates. His brow was sweaty. His injured leg was now a bandaged stump.
“Oh, Sal, I’m so sorry about your leg,” Tom said, horrified.
“You poor thing!” Isis said.
Sal smiled and patted his stump. “Oh, I don’t mind so much,” he said. “Pirates get 800 pieces of eight for each limb they lose!”
“You get paid for your stump?” Tom asked.
Sal nodded. “Aye! It’s the pirate code, matey!” Their friend looked suddenly serious. He cleared his throat. “Listen! Thank you for saving me back there … I would have died if it wasn’t for you two.” He patted Cleo gently on her fluffy head. “And you, little beauty … I’m sure you brought me and the Revenge luck!”
Sal needed to rest, so Tom and Isis said goodnight. The stars glittered like diamonds in the twilight. Pirates staggered about the beach, singing and fighting. Some were lying in the sand snoring.
But Tom only had eyes for Blackbeard’s tent. “Now’s our chance!” he whispered to Isis.
“Right. How are we going to get past the guard?” Isis asked Tom, as she peered over at Blackbeard’s tent.
Tom squinted through the dark. He could make out a spotted scarf, a mass of tangled hair and a pile of rags. The pirate was snoring loudly and clutching an empty tankard. “Looks like he’s asleep. But if he wakes up, you’ll have to distract him while I sneak past. Ask him to tell you about his most dangerous adventure, or something. Pirates love to show off.”
Together, Tom, Isis and Cleo started to make their way across the beach. They ducked past three brawling pirates and tiptoed through another group, who were listening to One-eye Pete telling a scary story about the ghost of an angry octopus. Finally, all that stood between them and the tent were four tottering men, singing at the tops of their lungs:
“Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Early in the morning!”
“Just walk past them,” Tom whispered to Isis.
But one of the pirates grabbed Isis’s hands and whirled her round in a drunken jig.
“Sing it with me, matey!” he growled. “This is me favourite shanty!”
“Aargh! Put me down, you toothless oaf! You smell like a pig’s armpit!” she cried.
After two more verses of the shanty, Tom finally managed to pull Isis to safety. They slipped past the snoring guard and crept up to Blackbeard’s tent.
“Let’s hope he’s nodded off too,” Tom whispered, lifting the flap carefully. He peered inside … and breathed in sharply, dropping the tent flap shut again. Blackbeard was awake! He was sitting next to a flickering lantern, with the treasure chest in front of him, counting the gold.
Blackbeard jumped up, knocking over one of the gold stacks with a clank. Drawing his dagger, he snarled, “Who goes there?”
The captain burst through the opening of the tent. The blade of his dagger glinted threateningly in the moonlight.
Tom held his breath, terrified that the pirate would hear him.
“I’ll slit your gizzard, so I will!” Blackbeard shouted. He paced back and forth in front of his tent, looking as though he was about to explode with anger, like one of his firecrackers.
When the captain went back into his tent, Tom and Isis tiptoed across the sand as quickly as they could.
“This is a disaster!” Tom whispered. “We’re no closer to getting that amulet. We’d better think of something fast, or we’ll be stuck here forever!”
“I know you’re out there, you lily-livered scallywag!” Blackbeard barked into the night.
“Thinks he can scare me, does he?” Isis whispered. She sniffed. “Well, I’ve already died once. He can’t exactly kill me again!”
That’s it! Tom thought. He tapped Isis on the arm. “I’ve got a plan,” he said, breathless with excitement. “Follow me!” Running across the sand, he led Isis and Cleo to the moored bulk of the Revenge.
“Er … the amulet’s back there, Professor Smartypants,” Isis said, pointing her thumb in Blackbeard’s direction. “Why are we over here?”
“You know how Blackbeard is really superstitious?” Tom explained. “Believing in all kinds of pirate hocus pocus, like the legend of Davy Jones’s Locker and St Elmo’s Fire …” He lowered his voice to a whisper as they passed a group of pirates sitting round a campfire toasting crabs on the ends of sharp sticks. “We’re going to pretend to be ghosts and scare him!”
“That’s a silly plan!” Isis scoffed.
Tom grinned at her. “No, it’s not. You gave me the idea, anyway, when you said you had already died. Pirates are scared stiff of ghosts.”
Isis stroked her hair. “In that case, my plan is extremely brilliant!”
Tom climbed on to the deck of the Revenge and grabbed a fishing rod. Next, they went back to the singing pirates. Most of them had fallen asleep, and Tom snatched up a flute lying in the sand.
“Do you know how to play this?” he asked Isis.
Isis ran her finger over the shiny silver flute. “Naturally,” she said. She gave a little toot on the instrument. “I was one of the best musicians in the Nile Delta!”
Finally, Tom scooped up a handful of slimy seaweed, which Cleo swiped at.
“What are you doing, exactly?” Isis asked. “This is no time to go fishing.”
Tom attached the seaweed to the hook on the end of the fishing rod. “You’ll see. Ready for some fun?”
Outside Blackbeard’s tent was a palm tree. Climbing up with the fishing rod tucked under his arm was tricky, but with some nifty footwork, Tom and Isis were soon perched at the top among the coconuts. Tom dangled the fishing line in front of the tent.
“We’ve got to get him to come back outside,” he whispered to Isis. “Start playing something spooky.”
Isis put the flute to her mouth and blew. Suddenly the flute came alive with the most haunting music Tom had ever heard. Cleo joined in with a wailing yowl. Before Tom could count to ten, Blackbeard flung back the flap and came out of the tent, dagger in hand.
“Who’s there?” he called.
Tom tried to sound spooky.
“I am the ghooooost of the dread piiiirate, er, Bluebeard,” he said in a trembly voice.
“I have come from Daaaaavy Jones’s Lockerrr.” He started to let out the fishing reel so the seaweed dangled lower and lower. “Ifffff you do not hand over the treasure chest, you’ll be coming to staaaay with meeeeeee.”
Next to him, Tom could feel Isis’s shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
Blackbeard took a step forward into the dark night. Tom dragged the cold, slimy seaweed over the pirate captain’s face.
Batting desperately at the seaweed, Blackbeard shrieked in horror. “Shiver me timbers!” he cried. “Ghosts! Bad omens! I’m doomed. Aaaaarrrgggh!” He dropped his dagger on to the sand. Waving his arms wildly, the pirate captain ran down the beach, as though Davy Jones himself was after him.
“Now’s our chance!” Isis said. “Told you it was a brilliant plan!”
Tom, Isis and Cleo leaped down on to the sand and scrambled into the tent. Tom spotted the chest lying behind stacks of gold. He started to dig away at the amulet in the lid with the dagger Blackbeard had dropped. He wiggled and jiggled the blade. The blue amulet started to loosen and then – pop! – it flew right into Isis’s hand.
“You did it!” Isis shrieked.
Together with Cleo, they ran out of Blackbeard’s tent.
“All join hands,” Tom said.
The blue amulet glowed and a fierce wind whipped round their legs. Tom closed his eyes as sand swirled into the air. Suddenly, the three travellers were caught in a time tornado. The beach became a blur, and the last thing Tom saw, before he was sucked up into the tunnels of time, was Blackbeard, running towards them, shaking his fist.
“You’ll hang for this!” the pirate shouted.
As the trio shot out of the time tunnel, the smell of chlorine stung Tom’s nostrils. He opened his eyes just in time to see water rushing up towards him.
“Aargh! Noooooo!”
Splash!
Tom did a painful bellyflop into the local swimming pool. When he surfaced, clutching his bright-red stomach, a whistle blew.
“Right, out you get, you lot!” the swimming instructor shouted. “See you all next week.”
As Tom swam towards the steps, he saw Isis and Cleo standing on the side of the pool. They were once again wrapped in their mummies’ bandages.
“Well, we’re back,” Isis said. Looking out of the window, she sighed. “And it’s just as rainy and gloomy here as ever, isn’t it, Fluffpot?” She clutched the mummified cat close to her chest. “But at least now I’ve had a swim. This pool’s not quite the Caribbean Sea, is it?”
Tom climbed out of the pool and grabbed his towel from its peg. He was shivering from the cold. His right ear was blocked with water. “No,” he chuckled, looking at the section of the pool that was full of old ladies in flowery swim caps doing an exercise class. “It’s not exactly a tropical paradise.”
With wet hair dripping into his eyes, Tom walked into the boys’ changing room. Isis and Cleo shuffled stiffly after him.
“Hey! No girls allowed,” Tom said. Some of the boys from his class gave him strange looks as they hurried to get dressed.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Isis tutted. “Cleo and I will hide in one of the cubicles!”
“This amulet is gorgeous!” Isis said, pulling the door shut. “You know, it’s exactly the same colour as the Caribbean Sea.”
Shivering, Tom dried himself off and changed into his clothes. When all the other boys had left, Tom called out, “OK, Isis. You can come out now.”
Isis opened the door and sat next to Tom on the bench. She stroked the amulet with her bandaged fingers.
“This goes so well with the colour of my skin, don’t you think?” she cooed, holding the amulet up to her face.
“What skin?” Tom asked, stuffing his wet swimming gear into his bag. “You haven’t got any, remember?”
A gust of wind suddenly blew up and all the locker doors started to bang open and shut.
“Here we go again!” Tom said.
Isis clung to the bench with both hands. The loose ends of her bandages fluttered out behind her. Cleo darted into a locker, arched her back and hissed.
“There’s only one person who whips up a storm like this …” Isis yelped.
“Anubis!” Tom said.
Sure enough, Anubis burst out of a locker. First came his giant jackal’s head – all black and snouty with red glowing eyes. Then came his huge man’s body, seven feet tall and rippling with muscles.
With her paw, Cleo pulled the door of her locker firmly shut. “Meow!”
Anubis towered over Tom and Isis. He folded his arms and glared down at them. “Were you planning on giving me back my amulet?” he boomed at Isis.
Isis looked down at her toes. “Er …”
“Hand it over!” Anubis bellowed.
Isis plopped the glittering blue stone into the god’s huge hand.
“Thanks for sending us on such a nice cruise,” she said cheekily, tossing her head. “It was lovely to get some sun.”
Tom gasped in horror. No! Don’t tease Anubis! he thought.
Anubis leaned into Isis and blasted her with his stinky doggy breath. “Enjoyed yourself, did you?” he snarled. “It wasn’t meant to be a holiday.” He started to tap his bare foot on the changing-room floor. “Hmmmn,” he growled. “It looks like I’m going to have to make the hunt for the sixth amulet MUCH more difficult.”
“I didn’t mean—” Isis began.
“It wasn’t easy!” Tom interrupted.
“SILENCE!” Anubis shouted with a deafening bark.
Isis fell off the bench. Cleo yowled inside her closed locker. Tom hid behind the cubicle’s door.
Anubis bared his teeth and twitched his ears. “I’m surprised you two stupid children have managed to find five of the amulets. But believe me, the last amulet will be the hardest one to find yet.” He turned to Isis and licked his jackal’s muzzle. “And if you don’t find it, you’ll NEVER get into the Afterlife.” He laughed nastily. “You’ll be trapped in the gloomy Underworld FOREVER!”
There was a crack of thunder. Lightning flashed inside the changing room and Anubis vanished in a puff of smoke.
Tom realised he had been holding his breath for ages. He let out a big sigh of relief and stepped out of the cubicle.
“Phew! He’s gone!” Tom said. “Now let’s go home. I don’t know about you two, but I need a snack that isn’t wriggling with grubs!”
With his bag packed and Cleo and Isis stumbling along at his side, Tom thought about their latest adventure.
“Can you believe I almost went for a swim with sharks in the Caribbean Sea?” he said, remembering how scary it had been to walk the plank. “And we lived on a pirate ship! How cool is that?”
“It wasn’t cool,” Isis said. “Those pirates were very smelly and sweaty. And that tub, the Revenge, was definitely not fit for a princess.”
They stepped out of the leisure centre and into the drizzle. Tom pulled his jacket round him and thought longingly of the Caribbean sunshine.
“There aren’t many people that can boast they’ve been real pirates!” Tom said. “It’s the sort of thing most children dream of, you know?”
Isis suddenly stopped in the middle of a busy pavement, full of people hurrying on their way to and from the shops. Cleo looked up at her mistress and cocked her head to the side.
“What’s wrong?” Tom asked.
Looking down, Isis sighed heavily. “What if he’s right, Tom?” she said in a small voice. “What if I don’t make it to the Afterlife?”
Tom’s fearless friend suddenly looked frail and sad. His memories of being a pirate slid to the back of his mind. He put a reassuring hand on Isis’s shoulder.
“Hey, come on!” he said. “Think of all the amazing stuff we’ve done together. All those adventures and challenges we’ve had. No matter what Anubis has sent our way, we’ve succeeded.”
Isis looked up, but her head still drooped slightly.
“We’re a team, you, Cleo and me,” Tom said, taking his hand off her shoulder and wiping the dust off his fingers. “It doesn’t matter where Anubis has hidden it, we’ll find that sixth amulet! We’re in it together. Right to the end, OK?”
Isis nodded. She picked up Cleo and gave her a cuddle.
“Anyway,” Tom said. “We can’t fail. If we did, I’d end up stuck with a mouldy old mummy and her cat forever!”
Tossing her head back and snorting, Isis said, “This mouldy old mummy adds a little excitement to your boring life, Professor Smartypants. You should be kissing my feet.” She peered down at her toes. “On second thoughts, don’t bother. I don’t want my toes to fall off again. That stuff you call superglue isn’t really that super.”
Tom laughed and slung his bag over his shoulder. He linked arms with Isis, and the two of them strode off down the street, singing,
“Yo ho ho, hee hee hee,
It’s a pirate’s life for me!”
WHO WERE THE MIGHTIEST PIRATES?
Blackbeard was a real pirate. Find out more about him and other fierce pirates.
BLACKBEARD, whose real name was Edward Teach, was one of the most feared pirates of all time. Born in Bristol in 1680, Blackbeard terrified his enemies by wearing lit fuses in his thick black beard and daggers, pistols and a cutlass attached to his belt. The flag he flew on his boat, a ship he’d stolen and renamed the Queen Anne’s Revenge, had a skeleton stabbing a heart. Yikes!
CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD was a privateer. Privateers were paid by a government to attack enemy merchant ships during wartime. Captain Kidd was asked by the king of England to attack French ships. But when his ship sailed past a navy yacht, the crew showed their b
ottoms instead of saluting. How rude! As punishment, Captain Kidd lost his crew to the navy. His new sailors were pirates who ignored his orders and attacked a British ship. In 1701, the British government hanged Captain Kidd for piracy. So remember – if you hang out with pirates, people will think you’re one too!
HENRY MORGAN was a navy admiral who became a famous privateer. While the British and the Spanish were at war during the 17th century, the British government gave him permission to terrorise Spanish ships and settlements in the Caribbean. Morgan did so with great success and became very rich in the process. When the war between England and Spain ended, Morgan was having too much fun to stop – so he carried on! Spain was upset when he attacked Panama, but King Charles II knighted Henry Morgan and made him deputy governor of Jamaica.
CALICO JACK was a pirate whose real name was Jack Rackham. He got his nickname from the rough cotton clothes he wore. His flag featured a skull with two crossed swords – the design we associate with pirate flags today – called the Jolly Roger. Calico Jack’s swashbuckling crew included two women – his girlfriend Anne Bonny, and Mary Read, who tricked Calico Jack into thinking she was a man. Sneaky! In 1720, Calico Jack was captured by a pirate hunter and hanged in a Jamaican port, now called Rackham’s Cay.
WEAPONS
Blackbeard and his crew would attack and board other ships and then steal any valuables they found. Find out what weapons pirates used when they attacked.
Cannon: this would shoot iron balls 600-900 metres and needed four men to operate it.
Stinkpot: a clay pot filled with rotten fish or burning sulphur. It was thrown on to the deck during an attack so that it would smash, releasing gas that would overwhelm its victims and make them vomit.
Cutlass: a short, broad and slightly curved sword. Used in close hand-to-hand combat with an enemy.
Chain shot: two iron balls joined together by a thick chain. They were thrown across a ship’s sails to damage them.
Grenadoe: an early hand grenade that is still used today. It was made from iron and filled with gunpowder and sharp objects, and would explode when the fuse was lit.