by J.A. Sprouls
Chapter 13
It took about a month to get the ship down to a manageable size. There was still a good sized mast in the middle of the boat that could accommodate a large sail and it sat high enough off the ground that it couldn't be easily boarded by just anyone. He had insisted on keeping four cannons and each was rigged to move easily to different points of the ship. That way they could attack from just about any angle. They kept the portion of the deck that was elevated where the wheel was for steering the ship and they had even managed to retain the crow's nest. But it was a much smaller version of the other one so only Lark or Pill would be able to use it. The Flummery had been cut down from being twenty wagons in length to about five wagons. So it made maneuvering it much easier than it had been.
Jethro had brought all his blacksmithing tools with him when he joined the pirates, so he did not have too much trouble fixing up some gears and pedals using different pots and pans from the ship's galley. The left-over wood and material was used to make a house for the pirate crew inside the back portion of the cave.
Pill, Lark and Wicket would go out hunting every day. They mainly managed to hunt prairie dogs and birds, like quail and pheasant, for rations. They tried to eat off the land while in their hideaway so as to retain the ship's rations for when they were out on the plains looking for wagon trains to pillage and plunder. After a morning of hunting, Wicket usually helped out with the building of either the house or the new ship.
The captain was rather pleased with the newer and smaller ship. It was still large enough to present a formidable presence and to scare the wagon train people, but small enough that getting away wouldn't be too much trouble. Everything was falling into place and he would soon have his revenge on the Wind Hag.
As he stood there admiring the ship Wicket came up to Pigtail, "She's a real beauty, Captain. I don't doubt that she will be the scourge of the plains in no time flat. In fact, I bet we manage to get her going faster than any ship in the water could go. I really like that shark type fin that Jethro added to the front of the ship. He said it would help cut through the air faster. Kinda like the bow of a ship cuts through water. He said it also made it look oh so dynamic, too. So I guess it makes the ship air - oh - dynamic. Hey! That's a new word. I invented a new word. How cool and intelligent is that?" Wicket had still been smarting from Tally's 'stroke of the smarts' in coming up with the idea of having some sort of alternative power source so he was constantly trying to prove he was the smarted of the two.
"Yep, you're right about that. A new word is something to be proud of inventing. Not everyone could do that." Pigtail had grown tired of always trying to appease Tally and Wicket's egos so he decided - just to be a little mean - and so he added, "though I think Tally had something there with an 'alternative power source.' It could be one of those coming things you're always talking about. I mean we can't keep using horses and oxen to power things. Nope, there will come a time, mark my words, when horses and oxen are passé and not able to carry the full work load. So we will need to find something else to power things with."
Wicket hated that the captain had said this but he wanted to show him that he could be the bigger one of the bunch. "Yep, I suppose so. In fact, I bet we could build some type of mechanism that could use the wind the Wind Hag gives us and use that to power things up. Just what things, is beyond me. But in the future there just might be a lot of little things that need power to work and there just ain't gonna be enough horses and oxen to meet the demand."
Pigtail slapped Wicket on the back and said, "True, true. Now, what's for supper? I'm starving."
They headed back to the house to find Pill and Lark in the galley preparing supper. The girls had noticed that they had been relegated to doing the cooking and neither was happy about it. Both thought that they could help with the building but the guys seemed to think they couldn't handle it.
At supper that night they ate quail and tumbleweed hearts. Pill had discovered that the bottom portion of the fresh green tumbleweeds were edible (she figured this out by feeding it to Tally without his knowledge.) They tasted pretty good if you added enough of the prickly pear jelly to it.
After eating, Pigtail announced that it was time to get the ship ready for sailing because they were ready to make their first foray into the world of land piracy.
"Excellent, I've been looking for a good fight." Tally said happily, but realizing that he may have hurt Wicket's feelings, quickly added, "Not that fighting with you isn’t fun. It's just a lot more verbal rather than physical. I like a rousing good fist fight every once and a while and since I'm not gonna fight you, Wicket, then I need to find someone I can fight."
"No offense taken. In fact, I know what you mean. I've been hankering for good fight too. I just hope the people of the wagon trains are properly frightened and awed by the majesty of our ship cruising the plains that they don't try to resist too much with guns or knives. I'm not looking for a knife fight, that's for sure." He shuddered at the thought of having to fight with knives.
"Speaking of weapons, I think Jethro and I will each have a gun. Wicket, since you don't like knives how about we let you have a whip?"
"That sounds excellent, Captain, sir." Wicket said with obvious relief in his voice.
"Pill and Lark will each have a slingshot. Lark can show you how to use it Pill. Jethro said she's a mighty good shot with it."
"Oh, so I get to have a weapon too. Neat. I won't let you down Captain, I promise." Pill said rather pleased that she was going to be given the chance to help out just like the guys.
Pigtail continued, "I think the most important thing is that we swoop down on them quickly and surprise them. That will be the best thing to do. Now, when you're out at sea you don't have much to hide behind, so other ships and ports can see you coming miles away. So they are usually prepared to fight by the time we reach that point. Out here, it's different. Jethro has mapped out some of the regular paths and trails taken by the wagon trains and he has also located some rather nice places to keep out of view until they pass by us. After they pass by we sneak up from behind and attack that way. Jethro said most wagon masters are focused on what is up ahead and not behind. He did mention that in Indian country they do have a lookout that watches for Indians coming up from behind. But since this area isn’t known for Indian attacks, they don't generally have lookouts. That will, of course, change once word gets out about our piracy. So it will be the first few wagon trains that a sneak attack will be most beneficial."
Tally raised his hand, "I've been thinking a lot about that, sir. I was wondering if you think maybe camouflaging the ship would be a good idea."
"Camouflage? How so?" Pigtail inquired.
"Well, I thought we could paint the ship to look like the area. You know a bunch of tans and browns and some spots of green. We might blend in to the surrounding area enough that people won’t see us coming until we are right up on them."
"Great idea, Tally," Wicket said sarcastically. "I'll just hop on over to the paint shop and grab a couple of gallons of paint. Then we can be ready to go in no time."
Jethro said, "Actually, Indians use pigments from the local plants to make colors for their clothes and pottery. We could do that I suppose. But it may take a long time to gather enough pigments to paint something as big as our ship." Tally was secretly pleased because Jethro obviously thought his idea had merit.
"We could do the bow of the ship first. That will be the part of the ship they would be looking at anyway. And as time goes by we could paint the rest of it." Tally added.
"That's a pretty good idea, Tally, but we will have to hold off on it till after our first raid. I want to get the word out that we are the scourge of the plains and that no one is safe traveling across the Wind Hag's domain. That will really knock her reputation down quite a few notches. And I think that will tick her off no end. So I want to get going early tomorrow morning. I suggest every one of you get a good night's sleep, okay?"
"If we ca
n't paint her now how about we get some of the grass and shrubs and tie them to the bow to help disguise her?" Tally didn't want his idea to get lost totally in the preparations for sailing in the morning.
"I don't think we can afford to use the man power to get her ready in that way. I need her ready to sail and the preparations are going to take long enough for just that. Using the time and energy to camouflage the ship will detract from that and we just can't afford the time. It was a good idea, though. We'll just have to execute later, after our first raid. Goodnight, everyone." With that said he headed for his cabin to get some sleep.
Tally looked at Wicket with disgust, "You just can't let me have my ideas can you. You just have to shoot them down, don't you."
"Not at all," Wicket replied. "I just thought it was silly to think we could find that much paint in such a short time. We're not exactly in the middle of a town, now are we?"
"Yeah, I know, but we might raid a wagon train with a paint dealer on it and we can steal his samples and paint the ship that way." Tally offered.
"Now how many paint dealers are you going to see traveling out west?"
"You never know. They will have buildings out there that will need paint, so someone has to sell it. But I do think your idea of a store just selling paint is stupid. Who ever heard of such a thing? The next thing you'll try to convince me of, is there will be some type of store that will supply you with all your building needs. Like that is gonna happen. We all know that stores have a little of this and a little of that for just about anything you might need but none of them specializes in just one area." Tally chuckled at the thought of this.
"You never know, it could be another one of those coming things." Wicket felt the need to point this out so he didn't feel so stupid at the thought of a specialty store.
"You are just so filled with these 'coming things' that you don't see the reality of life. If these things are so doggone important then why don't you open a specialty store, or open a sushi restaurant or one of the hundreds of other things that you have come up with. You're not gonna do that because that would prove that you don't know a blasted thing about what you are talking about. You're just too stubborn to admit it." With that Tally turned and headed to his bunk leaving Wicket standing there fuming. Well, he'd show Tally. Some day he would act on one of these great ideas and make it rich and then he would rub all that money in Tally's face. That would show him. He sulked off towards the ship to start preparing it for the morning's journey. He didn't feel much like sleeping at the moment.
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