Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy

shakin'.

'Well, enough playing with toys,' says the Captain, strolling casually about, as if he were taking a turn round the park on a sunny day instead of being shot at with murderous intent. The Master, too, is standing all cool with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the set of his sails, awaiting the Captain's next move.

'Mr. Greenshaw, when I give the signal, bring the ship to port so that the starboard guns will bear. After the broadside, bring her back on this course.'

'Aye, Sir,' says the Master. Seeing the Captain and the Master so easy and all should help me quiet the shakin' in me knees, but it don't. Maybe it'll be all right. Maybe the pirates will give up. Please, God, don't let me disgrace myself.

'Starboard guns,' shouts the Captain through his trumpet to the crews of the big guns below us, 'hold steady. Aim your guns but hold steady. Fire on my order.'

I lifts me quiverin' sticks and waits. The Captain looks at the Master and nods. Mr. Greenshaw speaks in a low voice to the man at the wheel and the ship begins to turn to the left. I waits, me legs all jelly.

The Dolphin turns some more. Then further she turns. The wind spills out of some of her sails. Still she turns.

'Fire!' bellows the Captain, and I hammer on me drum and there's that awful crash as the guns all roar out as one and the Dolphin herself heels over from the blast.

There's a cheer from the crew: The pirate has been hit hard! Some of her guns ports are shattered and her foremast is down! It's broken about a third of the way up and the huge sail is dragging in the water, slowing the corsair down to a crawl. Some of the pirates are swinging axes, desperate to cut the sail away. Some of the pirates are getting into small boats. That's it, I prays. Run away!

'Hold fire,' orders the Captain. 'Starboard guns, reload with grape. Aim to clear their decks. Fire only on my order.'

With that order, I knows we means to take the corsair, not sink it. We are taking a chance in order to take a prize.

The Master has brought the ship back in direct pursuit of the pirate and we draw even closer. She can't run from us now, but some of the pirates are still puttin' up a fight. I can hear the grapeshot rattlin' down the barrels.

'Same again, Mr. Greenshaw,' says the Captain, and again the Dolphin swings to port. I watches the Captain and wait.

'Fire!' says the Captain, and again I hit the drum and again the guns shout out their terrible bark. The powder smoke whips back across the deck, stingin' me eyes. I sees the pirate has downed men all over its decks. We're drawing closer and closer. I sees red comin' out of their scuppers. Dear God.

Then there's a splinterin' crash and I'm up in the air and flat on me back and knocked most out of me senses. The Dolphin shudders. Then there's another blast. There's smoke and screamin' and cryin' from down below. The pirate's guns have fired point-blank into our side.

In spite of her injuries the ship pulls up beside the corsair. There's another horrible crash as the pirate gets another broadside into us. Such awful screaming.

'Man the Boarding Party to starboard,' yells the Captain. 'Get the nets across! All hands to the Boarding Party!'

I gets to my feet and stumbles down the ladder, numb with terror. Got to find Jaimy.

The men are grabbing cutlasses from the rack. The nets and hooks are already across to the pirate. Our Marines are up in the rigging, firing down at the pirates below, keeping them away from the netting. I sees Jaimy up at the front of the mob by the rail, waiting for the order, cutlass in hand. The men are howling like demons. I grabs a cutlass and it's heavy in me hand and I knows I'll never use it but...

Jaimy, you fool, I want to shout. Wait! You're only a boy! Let the others do it!

'Away the Boarding Party!'

Jaimy is the first one across the net and I sobs and blindly follows across, tryin' to hold me water and knowin' I ain't gonna be able to, and now I've lost sight of Jaimy and I slips on the deck and falls down 'cause it's covered with blood and there are dead men everywhere and I gets up all smeared with blood and where's Jaimy and there he is headin' aft and I heads off after him but slips again in the slick blood and falls over a pirate lyin' there without a face but with two primed and cocked pistols in his belt so I drops me cutlass and pulls one out and goes after Jaimy again.

I comes round the after cabin and there he is, lookin' confused, like he don't know what to do, and then next to me the cabin door flies open and this pirate comes out with a chest under his arm and a great curved sword in his fist and he heads for the side but Jaimy is in his path and Jaimy doesn't see him and the pirate raises his sword above his head.

'Jaimy!' I screams and Jaimy turns to see his doom and I raises the pistol in both hands and pulls the trigger and the gun bucks in me hands and smoke flies in me face and then the pirate ain't doin' nothin' but kneelin' there bleedin' through a hole in his chest, his life runnin' out of him. Jaimy looks at the pirate and then at me, all stunned.

The pirate drops the chest and it falls to the deck and pops open and gold coins spill out and across the deck, and Mr. Lawrence is there beside me and some other of our men and they scoop up the gold pieces and when they're doin' that, Bliffil comes up from behind the bulkhead where he's been hidin' and sinks his sword into the still kneelin' pirate. The pirate topples over and Bliffil raises his now bloody sword in a great show and howls in triumph. I don't think Mr. Lawrence saw what Bliffil did, but I seen what Bliffil did, and he knows I seen it.

All the pirates are now dead or gone and I turns to go back to the ship. The ships have been made fast together so it's easy to get across this time. Before I go over, I am sick and throws up. I walks on and everythin's all bright and clear but not real somehow.

The men are putting the cutlasses back in the rack. They looks at me walking up, the pistol still in me hand and the blood on me face and arms and hands and on me clothes gettin' all stiff and turnin' brown, and I sees them as if all twinkly and jerky and slow. Real slow. Bloody Jack, I hears someone mutter. The Master-at-Arms takes the pistol from my hand, almost gently, and I turns and walks down the passageway. Men are washing the bloody deck with hoses and buckets but I hardly sees 'em, and the reddish foam swirls around my ankles and runs out the scuppers but I hardly feels it. In my dream I hear that many of our men are injured and four of them are dead. It's Martin and Dobbs and Mr. Leigh, the Midshipman in charge of number-six gun, and Benjy.

Benjy's dead, too.

I walk by the number-six gun and there he is, pinned to the wall with a jagged splinter in his chest, his own heart's blood spilled down over his shirt. A man bends down and yanks out the splinter and Benjy slips down to the deck like a little rag doll.

I do not scream. I do not cry. I only turns and walks on, down, down to my deepest hidey-hole where I lies down in the dark and pulls my knees to my chin.

Bloody Jack.

Chapter 17

It falls to a sailor's mates to sew him up in his hammock when he's dead and put the cannonball in to make him sink, and since I'm the one handy with the needle, I'm the one what sews Benjy up in a piece of canvas, him being too small for a hammock and him not having one, anyway, while the others stand around crying and grieving. Jaimy goes and gets the ball from the number-six gun and we puts it at Benjy's feet and I sew the canvas up toward his poor face. His eyes are half open and so's his mouth, and I can't stand the thought of him being down in the dark depths with his mouth open, so I sends Tink to get a length of light line and we binds Benjy up so his mouth is closed. Before I sew the canvas all the way up, I reach in and close his eyes with my fingertips. Then I do up the last few stitches and we see Benjy's face no more.