Port of Spies

by Brian James

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1 - Anchors Away!

  Chapter 2 - Part of the Crew

  Chapter 3 - Shop Till You Drop!

  Chapter 4 - I Spy!

  Chapter 5 - Rotten Report

  Chapter 6 - Stowaway On Board?

  Chapter 7 - Pillow Proof!

  Chapter 8 - Pirate-Proof Plan

  Chapter 9 - Trapped!

  Chapter 10 - Sink or Sail?

  For all the little pirates in the sea.—B J

  To Katie and Steven, for all of our childhood

  adventures—whether real or imagined.—JZ

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Text copyright © 2007 by Brian James. Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Jennifer Zivoin. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. S.A.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2007009634

  eISBN : 978-1-101-50038-5

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  Chapter 1

  Anchors Away!

  “Arrr! Last one there’s a rotten fish!” I shouted to my mates at Pirate School. Then I held on to my pirate hat as I raced across the deck of the Sea Rat.

  “You better start swimming then, because that’s going to be you,” Aaron said.

  “Not if you slip on the slimy boards,” I yelled back.

  Racing across the deck was dangerous. It was really easy to slip and crash into a really big ouch!

  But sometimes, being a pirate meant ignoring danger. Even the ouch kind of danger!

  This was one of those times.

  I stuck my hands out in front of me and grabbed the railing just in time to stop myself from sliding overboard. “I win!”

  Aaron and Vicky got there next, at the same time. They’re twins, so they do a lot of things the same. They even look the same, only Vicky has long hair.

  “I’m second,” Aaron said.

  “We tied!” Vicky argued.

  “Arrr! That’s only because I slipped,” Aaron grumbled.

  I rolled my eyes. Sometimes Aaron was a sore loser.

  Just then I saw the most amazing sight. “Shiver me timbers!” I shouted. “There it is! King’s Island, dead ahead!”

  King’s Island was the most famous port in this part of the sea.

  “Blimey! It’s the biggest town I’ve ever seen!” Vicky said.

  “Aye!” Aaron shouted. Even though Aaron liked to argue with Vicky, he had to agree about King’s Island.

  “I’ve been a pirate my whole life, all nine years and three-quarters, and I’ve never seen an island like that,” I said.

  Just then, Gary came running up. He was my best mate at Pirate School. He was also the clumsiest pirate kid on the seas. He slipped right into me!

  CRASH!

  “Sorry, Pete,” he said.

  “Arrr! That’s okay,” I said, helping him up. “If I hadn’t stopped you, you would have been shark bait for sure,” I said.

  “Aye!” Gary said, putting his pirate hat and his glasses back on. He sure was lucky to have a best mate like me!

  We went back to looking at King’s Island as the Sea Rat sailed closer. The island was polka-dotted with stores and houses. They were all painted bright colors. Some were green and others were purple. Some of them were even pink.

  “King’s Island sure is one pretty place,” I said.

  “Aye!” my friends agreed.

  Then I scratched my head and looked around. Seeing all the pretty buildings made me think of Inna. Inna loved pretty things. But she was nowhere in sight.

  “Great sails! Where’s Inna?” I shouted. “I know she wouldn’t want to miss seeing this!” I was about to go belowdecks to look for her, when all of a sudden she came walking up the galley stairs. She was wearing a fancy dress and her hair was all shiny. She must have taken a bath, because her face looked squeaky clean.

  “Arrr! What took you so long?” I asked.

  “I was making sure there were no wrinkles in my dress. And then I brushed my hair twice and tied it with a new ribbon,” she told us.

  “Why’d you do all that?” Aaron asked.

  Inna made a huffy noise. “Because I want to look my best when I go into town.”

  We all rolled our eyes. Inna was the only pirate kid in the whole world who liked to get dressed up.

  Inna’s big blue eyes got even bigger as she saw the town for the first time. She clapped her hands and shouted, “It’s the most beautifulest place ever!”

  We couldn’t wait until we dropped anchor and got to explore. None of us pirate kids had ever been to King’s Island. The ships we had been on before we came to Pirate School never even sailed close to it. But Captain Stinky Beard told the crew that our ship was going to dock there for a whole day to get supplies. Pirates don’t get to see big towns very much, so this was going to be a special treat.

  “I heard you can get anything you want there,” Vicky said.

  “Aye!” Gary said. “I heard they have stores that sell fresh-baked cookies!”

  Since the ship was low on supplies, we’d been eating seaweed slop for days. Thinking about cookies made my stomach grumble and my mouth a little drooly.

  “Arrr! I heard there’s a store that sells shiny jewelry,” Inna said.

  “Oh, barnacles! Who cares about that stuff?” Aaron said. “The best sword-maker in all the seas lives there! I can’t wait to get my hands on one of those!” he shouted.

  Vicky crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. That’s the face she made when Aaron acted like a show-off. And Aaron always acted like a show-off. So Vicky made that face a lot.

  “I just hope Rotten Tooth doesn’t make us stay aboard and scrub dishes,” I said.

  “AYE!” everyone agreed.

  Rotten Tooth was our teacher at Pirate School. He was also the first mate. That meant he was the double boss of us and could give us stinky orders, like making us scrub things.

  If it were up to him, we’d never learn any pirate stuff. Good thing Captain Stinky Beard was the boss of him. Pirate School was all the captain’s idea, and he made sure ol’ Rotten Guts taught us more than just ho
w to be deckhands.

  “Arrr! I hope he gives us the day off,” Gary said.

  “Aye, me too!” Aaron agreed.

  “Aye, me three,” Inna said.

  Vicky hoped so, too. But she didn’t want it to look like she was agreeing with Aaron, so she didn’t say so. She just nodded her head instead.

  Soon our ship sailed closer to the harbor. The harbor was crowded with a whole fleet of ships.

  “Avast! There are no other pirate ships,” Vicky said.

  I took a look around. She was right.

  “Arrr! I’m glad!” Inna said. “I don’t want any rival pirates messing up my day.”

  “But sometimes, it’s bad luck to be the only pirate ship,” Gary told us. “I heard that in a pirate tale once on my old ship.”

  “Arrr! We don’t know for sure if we’ll be the only pirates. There might be others on the island in disguise,” I said. “Most towns don’t really like pirates. So sometimes pirates need to be real sneaky. It’s in the pirate code.”

  “Aye?” my friends asked.

  “Aye!” I answered.

  I knew all about the pirate code. I had learned the whole thing before I ever even came to Pirate School.

  “Aye!” a voice boomed over my shoulder. It was Captain Stinky Beard. “Being sneaky is a smart idea,” he said. Then he turned to the crew. “Lower the flag!” he bellowed.

  I smiled proudly.

  My mates were pretty proud of me, too.

  “Good work, me lil’ shipmate,” Captain Stinky Beard said to me. “It be better to stay out of trouble. We’ll get our supplies and then get sailing!”

  “Aye aye!” we said.

  I leaned forward and took another long look at King’s Island. Even if we weren’t going to do any piratey stuff like search for treasure, it sure was going to be a fun place to explore once we weighed anchor.

  Chapter 2

  Part of the Crew

  The whole crew headed ashore. Just as we were about to step off the ship, Rotten Tooth stepped in front of us.

  Our path was completely blocked.

  That’s because Rotten Tooth wasn’t only the ugliest pirate on the Sea Rat, he was also the biggest.

  He leaned in so close that his pointy green beard almost poked me. “Arrr! Where do ye mangy sea pups think ye be going?” he growled.

  Inna stepped right up to him. She was afraid of lots of stuff, like snakes, and getting dirty. But for some reason, she wasn’t at all afraid of Rotten Tooth.

  “Arrr! We’re going into town with the rest of the crew,” she told him.

  “Aye? Is that a fact?” Rotten Tooth said.

  “Aye! It’s a true fact!” Inna said, folding her arms. “The cap’n says you have to treat us like part of the crew, so there!”

  “Aye! Inna’s right,” Vicky said.

  It was true. When the Sea Rat was attacked by rival pirates, we saved the day. Even Rotten Tooth said we did a shipshape job. And he promised Captain Stinky Beard that he would treat us like real pirates.

  “Aye! I remember,” Rotten Tooth admitted. Then he reached into his pocket and took out a really, really, really long list and handed it to us. “That’s why I’ll be giving ye the ship’s shopping list,” he said.

  I gulped.

  It was the longest list I’d ever seen.

  I started to read it out loud.

  “Four barrels of beef. Ten pounds of butter. Fourteen boxes of candles. Twelve barrels of oatmeal. Twelve barrels of seaweed. Three boxes of soap.” I stopped reading when I got to the hog’s head because it made me feel sickish. I stuck out my tongue and finally said it out loud.

  “Yuck!” Gary said.

  Inna’s face turned as green as her dress.

  “Double yuck!” she yelled.

  Vicky grabbed the list from my hand and waved it in Rotten Tooth’s face. “Arrr! What’s this have to do with being a pirate?” she asked.

  “Aye!” Aaron shouted. “Pirates are supposed to swashbuckle, not shop!” Then he started jumping all around and swinging his arms again like he was holding a sword. Only he wasn’t watching where he was swinging, and he swung his arm right into Rotten Tooth.

  Rotten Tooth picked Aaron up with one hand and growled.

  “Uh-oh! I think we’re in big trouble,” Gary whispered to me.

  “Aye, matey! Really giant trouble,” I whispered back.

  Rotten Tooth looked even madder than the time Aaron made him fall into the fish-gut tank. I thought for sure he was going to toss Aaron right into the sea.

  But then Rotten Tooth didn’t look so mad anymore. He put Aaron down. He took the list back from Vicky and put it in his pocket. “Arrr! A promise be a promise. And I promised to treat ye pollywogs like one of the crew,” he said.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears!

  We were going to be able to explore King’s Island after all!

  We all smiled. Then we started to walk down the gangway. We got halfway down before Rotten Tooth stopped us again.

  “But before ye go, I have a little Pirate School lesson for ye,” Rotten Tooth said. He reached into his pocket and took out the list again. “In a pirate crew, the newest recruits always do the shopping! Now get to it!” he shouted, shoving the list into my hand.

  We all moaned and groaned. Sometimes being part of a pirate crew was tough work!

  “Arrr! And another thing,” Rotten Tooth said as we headed ashore. “Keep ye eyes and ears open. Landlubbers be very suspicious of pirates . . . especially wee pirate kids.”

  Chapter 3

  Shop Till You Drop!

  “Yo-ho-ho!” I shouted when we walked into the general store. I was really excited. “This is the biggest store I’ve ever been in!”

  “Aye,” Vicky agreed. “We wouldn’t even be able to fit all of this stuff on the Sea Rat!”

  There were rows and rows of shelves stretching from wall to wall. They were piled high with all kinds of food. Some I’d never heard of before, like a giant orange thing called a pumpkin.

  “Avast! They even have toys!” I said, pointing to a shelf on the far wall. It was filled with toy ships.

  “Gangway!” Aaron shouted, and rushed toward the toy section.

  He didn’t get very far, though, because Vicky grabbed hold of his belt. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked, taking out the shopping list.

  “Soggy sails, Vicky’s right,” I said. “We have to do the shopping or we’ll never finish before it’s time to set sail.”

  “Then let’s hurry,” Inna said. “If we finish early, we might have time to come back.”

  “Aye, good thinking!” Aaron said.

  We started in the first row of shelves and picked out anything that was on the list. Then we went to the next row and did the same thing. By the time we got to the third row, I started to get the feeling that someone was following us. I was just about to check when Gary got my attention.

  “Pete! Do we need any of these things?” he asked.

  I turned my head and saw Gary standing next to a stack of oranges. He picked up the top one to show me.

  I checked the list.

  “Nope, no oranges on the list,” I said. “You can put that back.”

  Gary leaned over to put the orange back on top of the pile. But he leaned too far and the oranges started to wobble. I rushed over, but before I could stop them . . . WHOOSH!

  All the oranges tumbled over and rolled across the floor.

  “You dirty urchins! Look what you’ve done!” an old man yelled. He was the shopkeeper, and he didn’t look very happy.

  “I’m sorry,” Gary said.

  “Aye, we’ll clean it up,” I promised.

  The old man grumbled as Gary and I started to pile up the oranges. “I should throw you out of my store,” he said.

  “But we’re going to buy all of this stuff,” Inna told him.

  The old man looked at the supplies we’d gathered. “That stuff costs money,” he said.

  In
na reached into her pocket and took out a bunch of gold coins. The old man didn’t seem as mad after that. But he still watched us closely until we were done stacking the oranges. Then we grabbed our stuff, paid, and left.

  “Rotten Tooth was right. Some people don’t like us pirate kids,” I said to Gary.

  “Aye!” Gary said back.

  “Arrr! Maybe he just doesn’t like pirate kids who knock things over,” Aaron said.

  “It’s not my fault,” Gary said. “Those oranges were slippery.”

  “Arrr! Hogwash,” Aaron told him. “You knocked that stuff over because you’re a blunder head.”

  Vicky dropped the stuff she was carrying. Then she put her hands on her hips and made a growl. She didn’t like it one bit when Aaron acted like he was better than everyone else.

  “Arrr! Sometimes you’re a blunder head, too!” Vicky said.

  “I’ve never blundered in my life,” Aaron said. Then he lifted his chin and half-closed his eyes to make his know-it-all face. He made that face a lot.

  Vicky made a huff. “Arrr! What about the time on our old ship when we were playing and you blundered overboard? Or the time here at Pirate School when you blundered into the fish-gut tank?”

  Aaron’s face turned a little reddish. “I guess that was pretty daft,” he admitted.

  “Aye, that’s what I thought, Captain Big Mouth!” Vicky said.

  “Quit bellyaching!” Inna shouted at them. Then she went all quiet. “Everyone is staring at us,” she whispered.

  I took a look around.

  Some of the townspeople were standing around watching us. Other people were watching us from inside the stores. And still more people were watching us from their windows.

  “Arrr, everyone act normal,” I whispered.

  “Aye aye,” my friends whispered back.

  So we started acting normal. We did things that normal, non-pirate people did. I started to whistle and tap my head. Vicky walked in circles. Aaron and Gary put their hands in their pockets and kicked at stones on the dirt road. Inna walked over to the dress shop and smooshed her face against the window to look at all the dresses.