by Ryan Gilbert
Taking the letter from Riggs, she examined it as best as she could. While the pirates waited patiently, her eyes scanned the page, unable to find anything that might provide her with a clue as to who the seal belonged to. She brought her hand to her chin, trying to remember.
“Ringin’ any bells, sweets?” Riggs asked, urging her on.
Shaking her head, Julia said, “I can’t quite place a finger on it. It’s familiar, but I can’t recall where I’ve seen it before.”
She handed the letter back to Riggs, much to the crew’s dismay. If she did not know the seal, then the pirates had no idea who they were up against.
“How long will it take ye to remember?” asked Riggs, trying to pry some information from Julia’s mind.
“I can’t say, Riggs. This is something that could take hours… maybe even days,” she said.
The pirate laid his hand on the girl’s shoulder, giving her a reassuring look.
“I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out,” he said with a smile.
“Is there anything other than the seal that you wanted me to look at?” she asked.
“Give me a moment. I need to see if there’s an actual name here,” said Riggs, unrolling another paper, “If there is, then there might just be another person ye have to remember.”
Now that he could see the whole letter, he could actually start reading it. Surely, there had to be some kind of name somewhere. Clearing his throat, he started to read aloud:
“WK,
“I regret to inform you that I cannot offer any of my services at this time. It is not my wish to abandon you, but you are a marked man. Someone in my position cannot even be associated with you. Do you know what awaits me should anyone find out about this?
“A hanging!
“Surely, you would not want to risk a good friend’s life when you could easily elude your enemies. New York would be a better place for you to hide until this whole situation is cleared. One of my most trusted friends, Coote, should be able to help you. Get in contact with him somehow, and he can provide you with a place to stay until you are cleared of your charges.
“In the meantime, if you would entrust me with the coordinates of your cargo, I can have a ship there to take it and keep it safe for you upon your return. We both want what is best for you. All I need is for you to just trust me.
“Godspeed,
H. Hunter”
Riggs rolled up the paper and placed it back in the box. He did not know what to make of the letter. Nobody did. It seemed like it was written in response to someone asking for help. He turned to Julia, but she looked like she was deep in thought, still contemplating the message.
“Coote and Hunter?” he asked.
Before the last word had even left his mouth, she replied, “I don’t know, just give me time.”
She nervously bit at her fingernails, knowing that all of the pirates were counting on her. It was nerve-wracking.
Noticing the stress on Julia’s face, Riggs said, “Don’t fret, love. We’ll find out who these mongrels are. It’ll just take time.”
The Captain rummaged through the rest of the papers, trying to find answers. Picking a random piece of paper, he unrolled it and started to read it, hoping it would answer some of their questions.
“H. Hunter,
“I cannot wait any longer. The Navy is breathing down my neck at every turn. The crew onboard the Prize is ready to hand me over to save their own skin. I have no power… not even over my own crew. I beg of you. I need a place to stay. New York is overrun. Without your help, there is no hope for me. Everything they have said about me are lies. To Hell with piracy! I am a man of the Crown, damn it! I am a loyal subject of King William III of England.
“With regards to the cargo, I am not letting anyone have that precious of a load. You are a dear friend to me, but it belongs to the Crown. That may be the bargaining chip that saves my life.
“I will try to contact Coote, but I cannot hold out for more than a day. The ship is running low on rations, and the men have been in foul moods ever since the burning. If I do not survive, let people know my true legacy.
“I shall see you soon, my friend,
WK”
Much like the first letter, this one raised more questions than answers. Who were these people? Why were they even communicating? It was obvious that WK needed help, but why he needed it remained a mystery. There were no dates on the letters, so Riggs could not even tell when they were written. He rolled the letter up and put it back in the box, right next to the other papers.
“Does anyone have any idea what’s goin’ on?” Riggs yelled.
“Quite frankly, Captain, we know just ‘bout the same as you,” Clint replied.
Taking the box in his hands, Riggs held it out and said, “Take one… maybe ye’ll find some information on who these people are and what their cargo happened to be.”
One by one, each of the crewmembers took a piece of paper to examine. The Captain knew it would be easier if the work was distributed among everyone. It would be easier for dozens of minds to find something rather than just a couple. Clint’s eyes scanned his piece of paper for anything that could help him and his crewmates. Eli and Petey tried to see if they could find any sort of hidden code in the messages, but there was none. Even Coral Jack and Ripper were not having any luck. They were all left scratching their heads in confusion.
“Uh… Riggs?” Valera asked.
“What, Val? We don’t need any more bloody questions,” he replied.
“I know, but… why is there nothing here?”
Perplexed, Riggs made his way to her side and looked over her shoulder. Just like she said, there was nothing on her parchment… not a single word. Taking it from the mermaid, he flipped it over to check the other side. There was still nothing. Holding it up to his nose, he sniffed it, immediately smelling something that was definitely not the salt water.
Motioning to his friends to follow him, they left the rest of the crew to their papers and went into the captain’s quarters. The shade was a welcome change from the rays of the sun beating down on their backs.
At last, Riggs was able to focus. He had an idea of what the paper was, but he had to prove it first. After clearing a place at his table, he took a lantern and placed it in the open space.
“Val, Petey, Ripper, extinguish all o’ the other lights in here. Jack, Eli, Clint, take some cloths and cover the windows. We need darkness.”
“Why, Captain?” asked Clint as he pulled the blanket off the bed.
Riggs held the piece of paper to his navigator’s nose and asked, “What does that smell like?”
Taking a big whiff of the aroma, Clint said, “It smells like… like oranges.”
“And why would it smell like oranges, mates?” asked Riggs, sitting back down in his seat.
By now, the room was completely dark, minus the light coming from the solitary lantern. It was just how Riggs wanted it.
After a lot of thought, Clint said, “Maybe it had orange juice spilled on it.”
“Perhaps… but it ain’t likely,” said the Captain, taking the paper in his hands and holding it up to the lantern, “All o’ those other papers were letters. What makes ye think this’d be any different?”
He pressed the paper against the warm glass of the lantern. Anticipation was building up inside of him as the seconds ticked away inside his head. Slowly, words started to appear on the page, made visible by the heat of the lantern. A grin spread across Riggs’ face.
The paper was a secret message, just like he had thought. As the last of the words appeared, the Captain could tell that this message was far different than the other letters that had been hidden in the box. The words seemed scribbled and scratched on the page, like the person writing them had been extremely angry. With his crew crowded around him, he started to read:
“Hunter,
“Congratulations on figuring out my trick. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought you never cared about me. Oh�
� how foolish of me, because you still don’t give a damn.
“For years, I thought that we had been friends. I saw you as a brother. During my entire time spent at sea, I thought you felt the same way. Never would anything cause you to abandon me.
“Now I realize you are nothing more than a traitorous bastard. You seem to think that betraying me will get you my treasure… a cache the size of which you could never imagine. How you wish to have it running through your cowardly, weasel-like hands.
“I was actually planning to share it with you once I had been cleared, but you had to be the greedy son of a wench that my crew thought you were. My only regret as I lay locked up in this cell is that I can’t see the look on your face once you realize that the treasure will never be yours.
“You will get nothing out of me. Even the most excruciating pain will never get anything out of me. I have already felt that.
“I will warn you now to stay away from me. Should I ever lay eyes on you again, I will kill you with my bare hands if I have to. Granted, I would relish the opportunity to see you suffer the way I have, Robert.
“As I bid farewell to you, you worm of a human being, I will give you one last bit of knowledge to rot your mind until the day you die. Only one Block will know where I hid my precious treasure, and it most certainly will not be you.
“Know one thing, Hunter. The grave of a true mariner isn’t filled with dirt or water, but with what he values most in this world.
“May you burn in Hell…”
Riggs recoiled in shock as he reached the final words. He dropped the paper onto the table, and nearly smashed his head back into Eli’s jaw. Everyone else jumped back, none of them expecting their captain’s sudden outburst.
“What is it, Riggs?” asked Coral Jack.
“What could possibly spook ye dat much?” asked Ripper, holding his captain steady.
Without a word, Riggs got back in his seat and held the paper in his hands. His hands shook a little as he held the paper to the lantern once again.
After a deep breath, he finished the message:
“May you burn in Hell,
Captain William Kidd”
All of the pirates in the room were speechless. If it were not for the creaking of the Red Sky itself, then they could have heard a coin drop because it was so silent. None of the men knew how to respond. Now, the K on the box made sense. The initials in the letters gave more gravity to the situation. The pirates were in possession of the letters of one of the most infamous outlaws of all time.
After several moments of utter, stunned silence, Valera was the first to speak.
“Who’s Captain Kidd?”
Riggs and his crewmates turned to the mermaid, surprise evident in their eyes. In the light of the lantern, she could see the stunned looks on their faces. Folding his hands, Riggs answered her question.
“Kidd is what every pirate dreams of becomin’. Granted, his capture did shock the pirate world, but that’s somethin’ every pirate has to face at some point. Ye’ll never find a pirate more sought-after than him. That treasure in the message… it’s legendary. Nobody knows where it’s hidden. They just know it’ll make whoever finds it rich.”
Clint interrupted, saying, “But the sailors on that ship said he was a privateer… and his letters said he worked for the Crown.”
The Captain dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand.
“He was a pirate through an’ through. Who else would capture a merchant ship and take as much treasure as he did?”
“Well, maybe a…”
Cutting Clint off before he could say anything else, Riggs got up from his chair. It almost seemed like he did not want to hear what his navigator had to say. Instead, he simply handed the letter to Coral Jack.
“I need to let the rest of the crew know what we’re dealin’ with here. Copy this letter exactly as it’s written so we don’t need to do all of… this,” he said, pointing to the covered windows and dark lanterns.
“I’ll get on it at once,” Jack replied.
With everyone minus Jack and Valera following him, Riggs flung open the doors to the main deck. Almost instantly, the attention of the crew rested on their captain.
Looking out at his crew, Riggs shouted, “Mates, we’ve discovered somethin’ that all pirates have wanted for at least ten years.”
The Captain made his way to the center of the deck and picked up the discarded box of letters.
Holding it, he said, “Inside this box was the stuff of legends… the things that men would kill for… would betray for. Lucky for you scallywags, I trust you all enough to tell ye this.”
He handed the box to Eli and hurried up the stairs to the helm. He could feel the eagerness and anticipation as the crew hung on his every word.
“Let me hear ye! Do ye want to be rich men?” he yelled.
“Aye!” the crew shouted, waving their fists in the air.
Riggs placed his hat on his head and said, “Look lively then, mates. We’re goin’ after the treasure o’ Captain Kidd himself.”
As cheers erupted on the main deck, the Captain grabbed the wheel and spun the Red Sky northward. If the letters were any indication, the treasure would most likely be there.
Later that night, Riggs, Julia, and the crew all gathered on the deck to discuss the voyage. The entire day had been spent reading every last one of Kidd’s letters. Some things made sense. Others made no sense at all. Coral Jack had finished copying the hidden message, but the only thing that did was make it easier to read. So many things seemed out of place. It only served to make William Kidd seem insane.
Confusion worked its way through the crew as the ship rested on the open sea, the waves quietly lapping at the wooden hull. Individually, the crew could accomplish nothing. They needed to rely on each other to figure out Kidd’s secrets. All of Riggs’ friends sat on the deck, surrounding a lantern so they could see. They were all quite puzzled.
“There better be plenty of rum for me to make any sense out o’ this,” Clint grumbled.
“Dere’s plenty. Just don’t ‘ave it all in one sitting, ya drunkard,” said Ripper, handing him a bottle.
The navigator just grumbled and took the bottle, setting it at his side for the time being.
“All of ye, just be quiet,” ordered Riggs, “We’ve got somethin’ here more pressin’ than rum. We need to find out who these names belong to. Got it?”
“Aye,” said the crew.
Holding a lantern, Riggs unrolled Jack’s copied message and read the first name that he found.
“Robert Hunter… seem familiar to anyone?”
All of the pirates tried to wrack their brains for names of sailors that they knew, but they had no such luck. After nearly five minutes of pondering, all of them gave up and shook their heads. There was a sense of defeat in the circle of crewmembers, especially in the Captain. If they could not figure out who these people were, then it would be nearly impossible to even start looking for Kidd’s treasure.
“Don’t know if this is a real name or not, but what about Coote?” asked Riggs, moving on to the next name.
“Does he have a first name?” asked Clint.
“Ain’t found one,” Riggs replied.
That just seemed to quiet the crew even more.
For a couple more minutes, it seemed like Riggs would get the same response as before. He was met with nothing but silence. Who were these people?
“Doesn’t anyone know anythin’?” asked Riggs, starting to become a little frustrated.
His friends and crewmates could only sit on the deck, stroking their chins and trying to think of something that might be able to help with the search. Unfortunately, the names were not easily remembered.
Pointing to the box, Coral Jack asked, “Didn’t one of those letters say Hunter had some sort o’ position? Maybe he was a Navy man, like Commodore Hamond.”
Turning to Julia, Riggs asked her, “Know any Navy fellas goin’ by the name of Hunter?”
“I haven’t heard of any commodores by that name… nor any captains or commanders. The only one that I could possibly think of would be…”
Her voice trailed off as she delved deep into her thoughts. Riggs asked his crew the same question, expecting at least one person to have heard of someone that important. To his dismay, he still heard nothing from the closed mouths of his pirate brethren.
“Ye mean to tell me that none of you…”
All of a sudden, he felt Julia grab him by the arm.
“Wait a minute, Riggs,” she said.
He was slightly startled, mainly because there had been nothing but silence for several minutes. Hopefully, it would prove to be a worthwhile interruption.
“Does it say in the letter where Coote’s from?” she asked.
Glancing at the letter again, he replied, “New York… apparently.”
Even in the moonlight, he could see Julia’s eyes darting back and forth randomly, like they were searching for something. To Riggs, it looked like Julia was trying to focus on ten different thoughts all at the same time. It almost seemed like she was staring into blank space.
Suddenly, her eyes opened wide, and she froze. She had just remembered something. Riggs could read it in her expression, but it was an expression that brought with it an uneasy feeling. She looked horrified.
“What’s wrong, sweets?”
“Richard Coote and Robert Hunter… I know who they are.”
“Who are they? Tell us,” Riggs said, giving the girl his full attention.
Staring at the wooden boards of the deck, Julia muttered, “You’re not going to like it.”
“Just tell us!” begged Riggs.
Sighing, Julia said, “Coote was the governor of several provinces back home. Hunter I’m not entirely sure about, but I know he was a high-ranking official.”
“How do ye know this?”
“When I was young, my family traveled north with my father to attend an event in the governor’s honor. I can only remember a couple brief glimpses of Coote. Since I was only a child, he didn’t leave that much of an impact on me. That’s why it took so long for me to remember.”