Hunt for the Panther 3 (9781101610923)

by Delaney, Rachelle; Guerlais, Gerald (ILT)

  Jem tried not to laugh. “It’s, um, nice,” he said. “But Smitty, think for a moment. What’s the most important thing in the world to Sina?”

  Smitty thought about this, then concluded, “Kapu.”

  “True,” Jem admitted. “But other than her brother. What’s the second most important thing to her?”

  “Um…” Smitty thought again. “The island, maybe? She’s big on nature.”

  “Exactly.” Jem looked pointedly at the clip.

  Smitty untangled it from his hair and looked from the clip to Jem and back again. “I don’t get it.”

  Jem sighed. “Smit, someone offed a tortoise to make that.”

  Smitty’s mouth fell open, and he dropped the clip. “You’re right! Blimey, Sina would hate that.” He looked at Jem. “Wow, you saved my hide, Fitz. Thanks a million. But what am I going to get her now?”

  Fortunately, before Jem could begin brainstorming gift ideas, Tim began shouting from the ship’s wheel.

  “All hands on deck!” he hollered. “Mysterious vessel, dead ahead!”

  Jem and Smitty scrambled to their feet and ran over to the wheel. Liam, Emmett, and Edwin were already there, pointing at something in the distance. Tim dug the spyglass out of his pocket and raised it to his eye.

  “What is it?” Jem squinted. He could just make out a tiny black dot on the horizon.

  “What the flotsam?” Tim murmured. He lowered the spyglass and handed it to Jem without taking his eyes off the speck in the distance. “You’re not going to believe this.”

  Jem pressed the spyglass to his eye. It took a moment for him to find the boat, which turned out to be even smaller than he’d thought. In fact, it was tiny.

  “Is it… a dinghy?”

  “In the middle of the ocean?” said Liam.

  “Look closer,” said Tim.

  Jem stared harder at the tiny bobbing boat, until the two passengers inside it came into view. Both were sunburned to a crisp, as if they’d been adrift on the open ocean for days. One—a tall man with a red bandana wrapped around his head—had a single oar. The other man was wearing a tattered coat several sizes too big for him. He seemed to be directing the man with the oar, who looked ready to throw him overboard.

  “What is it?” Edwin tugged on Jem’s shirtsleeve. “Who is it?”

  Jem lowered the spyglass and looked at Tim, whose incredulous expression, he guessed, mirrored his own. “It’s… it’s…”

  “Exactly,” said Tim.

  “But how… ?”

  “No idea.” Tim turned the wheel, steering them toward the dinghy. “But we’re going to have to find out.”

  The Lost Souls hauled the Dread Pirate Captain Wallace Hammerstein-Jones and his right-hand man, Iron “Pete” Morgan, out of their dinghy and onto the Hop. The pirates flopped onto the main deck like fresh-caught flounder, gasping for water. Liam tossed them each a canteen.

  Edwin tied their rowboat to the bow of the ship, and Smitty bound their hands and feet. Pete and Captain Wallace might have been in trouble, but they were still enemies of the Lost Souls. The last time Jem had seen them, in fact, they’d been trying to steal the treasure. Fortunately, the Lost Souls had been able to chase them off before they could spot any rubies.

  The pirates guzzled their water until Jem began to wonder if they might burst. Finally, Captain Wallace set down his canteen and took a long, deep breath. He looked around him, his rodent eyes taking in each of his captors one at a time. “Phooey,” he said.

  Smitty unsheathed his cutlass and pointed it right between the captain’s eyes. “Well, Cap’n,” he said cheerfully. “Long time, no see.”

  Captain Wallace groaned and squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Aw, don’t be like that,” said Smitty. “We’ve got so much to catch up on. Look, I’ll start. Let me tell you all about the girl I love.”

  The captain groaned again and covered his face with his bound hands.

  “All right, then.” Smitty tsked. “You start. Tell us how you and your man ended up in a dinghy in the middle of the sea.”

  Tim prodded the captain’s boot with his toe. “Come on. Out with it.”

  “I’ll explain.” Pete set his canteen aside. “Thanks for that, by the way. Always knew you young’uns weren’t such a bad lot.”

  Jem raised an eyebrow. Pete was smarter than most pirates, but he still wasn’t to be trusted.

  Captain Wallace glared at him, but Pete ignored him. “Too bad I can’t say the same for your former crewmate,” he continued. “He’s the reason we were out there for days, with no water and barely a speck of food.”

  “What?” Jem said. “What did you say?”

  “There would have been more than a speck if you hadn’t dropped the hardtack overboard,” Captain Wallace muttered.

  “Look, I said I was sorry, didn’t I?” Pete looked as if he’d had to restrain himself many a time from dropping the captain overboard, too.

  “Sorry isn’t good enough, butterfingers!” cried Captain Wallace.

  “Wait!” Jem yelled. “What are you talking about? Do you mean Lucas?”

  Smitty turned his cutlass on Pete. “What about Lucas?” he asked. “What happened?”

  “The blasted little biscuit-eater mutinied!” Captain Wallace cried. “On me! The Dread Pirate Captain Wallace Hammerstein-Jones! Terror of the Seven Seas! Feared by sailors from one shore to—”

  “Right, we get it.” Smitty silenced him by pointing his cutlass back between the captain’s eyes. “What about Lucas?”

  “Lucas Lawrence convinced nearly every pirate on board the Dark Ranger to turn against the captain and follow him instead.” Pete gritted his teeth. “Stupid child. I knew ever since I laid eyes on him that he’d only be trouble.”

  “Oh no,” Jem whispered as his stomach plummeted.

  “Oh, you did, did you?” Captain Wallace sneered at Pete. “Then why didn’t you say so?”

  “Say so!” Pete cried. “I said so every day, at least a dozen times. You didn’t listen!”

  Captain Wallace opened his mouth to respond but couldn’t seem to come up with a good argument. “Anyway,” he huffed, “Lucas and his crew took off with the ship, leaving us the bloody dinghy and one oar. Me! In a dinghy! The Dread Pirate Captain Wallace Hammerstein-Jones! Terror of the—”

  “We get it!” the boys cried in unison, and Captain Wallace fell silent with a pout.

  Jem turned to his crewmates, who looked as stunned as he felt.

  “So Lucas is the new captain of the Dark Ranger?” Emmett asked.

  Jem nodded, thinking hard. Lucas had taken a great risk, angering Captain Wallace. He must have been confident in his new allies. Or maybe, knowing the boy’s hunger for treasure, he’d just gotten sick of seeing someone else take the lion’s share of the spoils. On most ships, the captain took half of whatever the crew plundered. Either way, this meant big trouble—enormous trouble, even—since Lucas knew exactly where to find the greatest treasure around.

  Tim shook his head. “Lucas is the last swab alive who should have control of a ship.”

  “Let alone the entire tropics,” Pete added.

  All heads swung toward him.

  “The… what?” Jem said.

  Pete took one last swig of his water, draining his canteen. “The entire tropics,” he repeated, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “Surely you’ve heard of the Rebel?”

  “Yes, but—” Jem fell silent as he realized what Pete was saying.

  “That’d be Lucas.”

  “All good pirates come to order!”

  The Lost Souls gathered in front of Jem, stopped whispering among themselves, and looked at him expectantly, their faces illuminated by firefly lanterns. All had just learned that their captain would be away for several weeks and that their sworn enemy was planning to take over the tropics. A few of them gnawed on dirty fingernails. A few more had eyes the size of guava fruit.

  Jem’s knees wobbled. It had been a very, very long day. After
interrogating the former Dark Ranger pirates and learning the terrible news, he and the crew had sailed back to Island X, then slogged through the jungle for five hours to reach the rest of the Lost Souls. Thankfully, no one had been eaten up by a panther in their absence.

  While Tim and Smitty spread the news and gathered everyone for a meeting, Jem took a moment to compose his thoughts. Something had been nagging at his brain since they’d set the pirates adrift in their dinghy again. Why did Lucas want to be the most powerful pirate in the tropics? He was treasure-hungry, of course, but was that all? Somehow, Jem thought not. He needed time and space to ponder it, though. And just then, he had a meeting to lead.

  He sighed. All he really wanted to do was curl up in bed and forget everything that had happened—a real bed, with a blanket and pillow. And a good book, too, like one of the adventure novels he used to read back in the Old World. Those were the days—when he could read about adventure without having to live it.

  “So the captain’s really staying in port to be with some Old Worlders?” a boy named Monty asked in disbelief.

  Jem nodded. “She had no choice. Her uncle’s a high-ranking King’s Man, and they couldn’t have him getting suspicious. If he found out about Island X, there’d be trouble.”

  The Lost Souls exchanged uncertain glances.

  “It’s going to be okay, though,” he added, assuming a brave face. “We’ll be fine here without her for a few weeks. I’ll be your Deputy Captain.”

  “Our what?” asked Gil.

  “It’s like a substitute captain,” Jem explained. “Just a title.”

  “Oh.”

  “And what about Lucas?” Ronagh elbowed her way to the front of the crowd. A small black monkey perched on her shoulder—Jem recognized it as the troublesome one Kapu kept as a pet. Its hands were tangled in Ronagh’s hair, and its eyes were wide like everyone else’s. “Did he really mutiny against the Dread Captain Hammer–What’s-his-name?”

  Jem nodded, struggling to maintain his brave face. “That’s what Pete and Captain Wallace told us. He aims to have the biggest ship, the fiercest crew, and control of all the treasure in the tropics. They’re calling him the Rebel.”

  “What’s a rebel?” Ronagh wrinkled her nose.

  “Someone who won’t listen to authority,” said Jem.

  “Well, they got that part right,” Ronagh told the monkey on her shoulder, who tugged on her earlobe.

  “But he’s only thirteen,” Elmo pointed out. “Why would they follow him?”

  Tim shrugged. “No one in port seems to know that. In fact, Liam and I heard some merchants say that the earth shakes when he walks.”

  “A cabin boy told me that if he looks at you, you’d better run and hide,” Edwin added.

  “Maybe when they actually see him, they won’t be so scared?” Elmo said hopefully.

  Smitty shook his head. “You know Lucas. He could pass for sixteen, maybe even older.” He took a step closer to Sina and tried once again to put a protective arm around her, but she shrugged him off.

  Jem wished Scarlet were there to make sure Sina and Kapu understood what was going on. He’d tried his best to act it out for them when they’d arrived for the meeting, but he wasn’t sure how effective his imitation of pirates cowering in Lucas’s presence had been.

  “I bet he’ll steal a big old schooner,” said Charlie.

  Tim shook his head. “He wouldn’t settle for anything less than a man-o’-war.”

  “Bet he won’t even settle for hardtack on board,” cried Sam.

  “Yeah,” said Emmett. “It’ll be only roast chicken and pudding for Lucas.”

  “Or pudding for every meal!” cried Elmo.

  Jem’s stomach growled, and he tried not to think about pudding.

  “I’ll bet he gets a real intimidating uniform,” said Smitty, who loved a good uniform. “Something sleek, I bet. Maybe silver or gold,” he added wistfully.

  “The Rebel.” Tim shook his head in disgust. “I can think of a better word for him.”

  “Yeah!” Liam piped up. “Like—”

  “We all know he’s a biscuit-eater,” Jem cut in, although he expected Liam had something worse in mind. “But the fact remains that we’ve got trouble on our hands. We don’t know when Lucas is going to show up with his new crew, but we know he will eventually. Scarlet will be spying in port, learning all she can about his plan. And hopefully, she’ll be back in time for us to scuttle it.”

  The Lost Souls nodded.

  “I hate to say it, but we’ve got more trouble than that,” Gil spoke up, stepping to the front of the crowd. Never a particularly clean pirate, Gil was now permanently covered in dirt from the garden.

  “What now?” Jem sighed. He couldn’t take much more bad news.

  “I saw a track this morning, near the squash garden. A big track—bigger than any I’ve ever seen.”

  “You mean…” Jem couldn’t even bring himself to say it.

  Gil shrugged. “I’ve never seen a panther track before, but this ain’t no smelly wild pig.”

  “I heard a howl in the middle of the night,” Sam added. “At first I thought it was Charlie having a nightmare, but he says it wasn’t.”

  “It wasn’t,” Charlie insisted.

  “Right.” Jem took a deep breath, trying to keep his thoughts straight. “Well, I’m going to start building doors on the tree houses, to reinforce them. Who’ll help me?” Three boys raised their hands, and he nodded, thankful that at least the crew was cooperating with their Deputy Captain. The island was giving him plenty to worry about without them.

  “Tim. Liam. You still awake?”

  “Mmph,” came the mumbled reply.

  “Smitty?”

  “No. Go to sleep.”

  Jem sat up in his hammock and reached for his lantern. He gave it a shake, and the fireflies awoke, flickering sleepily. Sorry, he told them silently. But this is important.

  “I’ve been thinking,” he began.

  “Look, Fitz, I know you’re all about this thinking thing, but it’s the middle of the night,” said Smitty. “I barely slept last night, and I can’t keep my eyes open. Can we talk in the morning?”

  Liam mumbled in agreement.

  “This’ll just take a minute. Swig? You awake?”

  “Unfortunately,” Tim grumbled. “What is it?”

  “I need you to tell me what you heard people saying about Lucas in port.”

  Tim sighed and sat up. “I told you already.”

  “Tell me again,” Jem insisted.

  “That merchant said that he heard the earth shakes when Lucas walks,” said Tim.

  “Mm-hm.” Jem nodded. “What else?”

  Smitty flopped onto his side to face them. “I heard an old toothless sea dog say that the captain was sneaky—he’d steal everything you own, and you’d never notice nothing.”

  “Anything,” Jem corrected him.

  “Fitz, if you’re going to correct my grammar in the middle of the night, I might have to clock you one.”

  “Sorry,” Jem said quickly. “But was there anything else? Anything about why he wants to be the most powerful captain in the tropics?”

  “What captain wouldn’t?” Smitty yawned. “You’d never have to worry about anyone raiding your ship or stealing your men. You’d have all the money you wanted, and no one to answer to.”

  “True, but…” Jem tapped the lantern, thinking hard.

  “A barmaid in the tavern said he planned to fill his big old ship with servants,” Liam mumbled.

  Jem stopped tapping. “What?”

  Liam yawned and stretched. “More than just the odd cabin boy, she said. These would be slaves, forced to do all the worst and most dangerous jobs, like scaling to the crow’s nest in a hurricane. And cleaning the long drop for eternity.”

  Jem looked up at Liam, then over at Smitty and Tim. “Uh-oh,” they all said together.

  “You think…” Tim began.

  “That’s us?”
Smitty finished.

  Jem nodded. “Scarlet shamed Lucas. Remember how she left him on the Island of Smelly Wild Pigs when he stole my knife? This isn’t about the treasure. It’s about—”

  “Revenge,” Tim finished.

  Smitty gave a low whistle, and even Liam sat up, now fully awake.

  Jem nodded. “Lucas is going to make us pay.”

  Scarlet awoke to a strange sound. In the darkness of her room, she listened hard for a minute before realizing that what she was hearing was nothing.

  Absolutely nothing.

  There were no aras squawking good morning. No bugs buzzing around her ears. No sleepy murmurs from Ronagh, one hammock away. She was completely, utterly alone.

  Also, she was very warm, flattened between a heavy blanket and a soft mattress. In fact, she was almost… cozy. It felt completely unnatural.

  She flung off her blanket and jumped out of bed, feeling her way through the darkness to the small window between the two beds the admiral had set up for herself and Josephine. She’d noticed it when she’d arrived the night before but had been too exhausted to look out. She felt around for the shutters, then yanked them open, flooding the tiny bedroom with morning light.

  She’d desperately hoped the window would look out to sea, maybe even give a view of Island X, but no such luck. She could only see the street below, which even now was bustling with merchants heading to the docks to hawk their wares. A horse clopped by pulling a cart full of limes and papayas, its hooves caked with red mud. A rooster strutted across the street, followed by a maid cursing it for escaping its pen.

  Scarlet shut her eyes. She’d survived her first night in the admiral’s house, in the middle of Port Aberhard and miles from her home. Just twenty more nights to go, give or take, she told herself. I can do that, right?

  Someone knocked on the door, and before she could holler that she wasn’t yet decent, the door swung open and in marched one of her father’s maids. A short, round woman with flyaway blond curls and a long gray dress, she gave Scarlet a once-over and tutted softly. Dressed in only a nightgown, Scarlet reddened and folded her arms across her chest.