“We’ll overtake them, we will!” Samuel heard him boast to his officers. Under torture, the mayor of Portobelo had revealed the route the fleet would be following back to Spain. There would be no usual stop in Havana. Instead, the galleons would veer to the south, picking their way through the notorious Hidden Shoals.
As the privateer fleet navigated this course, Captain Blade ringed his vessel with lookouts and placed dozens of men in the highest rigging to scan the horizon for sails. Even when the skies darkened four days later and the rains came, he would not allow them to abandon their posts.
The next morning, with eighteen-foot waves crashing over the bowsprit, gunner’s mate Blankenship was hurled from the mizzenmast as the barque heeled in the violent seas.
Even York felt the need to plead with the captain for the safety of the crew. “Sir, the ratlines are not fit for man nor beast with the sea in this condition! We’ve lost one already!”
“And we’ll lose many more,” Blade predicted. “That’s what the scum are for. Better to lose a few hands than the Spanish fleet!”
Samuel, who was cleaning up the captain’s breakfast dishes and stumbling on the unsteady deck, exclaimed, “But sir — ”
York silenced him with a sharp slap across the mouth.
It stung, but Samuel realized the barber had just done him a favor. For if the man had given Blade a chance to deliver the blow himself, it surely would have come from the bone-handled snake whip.
“Captain,” York persisted, “what might a lookout spy in such weather? Do you not know the size and nature of this storm?”
“That I do,” agreed Blade. “’Tis a monster gale stretching a hundred miles in all directions around a pinhole of clear blue sky. Aye, that’s the beauty part.”
Samuel could not contain himself. “Beauty? Such storms destroy ships, with all hands lost!”
“Perchance they do,” Blade acknowledged. “But if we’re in it, so are the Spaniards.” He emitted a diabolical cackle. “Die we might, boy. But if we live, by God, we’ll all be filthy rich!”
About the Author
GORDON KORMAN is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the Island series and the Everest series, as well as The Chicken Doesn’t Skate, the Slapshots series, and Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire. He lives on Long Island with his wife and children.
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Gordon Korman.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.
SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First printing, July 2003
Photography: Kelly La Duke
Cover design: Ursula S. Albano
eISBN 978-0-545-62812-9
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.