عشق حقیقی ریش‌سیاه

Chapter four

Blackbread’s True Love

The men on Captain Pike’s ship were very different from the British sailors of the Queen Anne. They played cards all night, and if they lost, they fought with each other.

They were only sailing to the Bermuda Triangle to find Blackbeard’s treasure and steal anything else they could. Their ship looked like the Queen Anne, except for the flag flying above the sails.

It was black, with a white skull and crossbones on it. This was the mark of the pirates.

Some of the men were about to throw a man into the sea for cheating at cards when Captain Pike stopped them.

“What’s going on here? Are you trying to kill each other before we find the gold?”

“This one was trying to cheat us at cards. We can’t have that, can we?”

“That we can’t my friend, but we’re waiting for a treasure much bigger than the one you play cards for. Put him in the stocks for a day and let him think about things there.”

The stocks were two pieces of wood with three round holes in them. The men placed the prisoner’s head and hands in the holes. Then, they lowered the top and they locked him inside. He had to stand up the whole time.

Captain Pike was standing next to his First Mate, Santiago, at the wheel of the ship. Santiago asked him about the danger of finding Blackbeard’s Treasure.

“They say no one can take Blackbeard’s treasure. Why do you think you can?”

“I think that Blackbeard and I are the same kind of pirate. He wanted everything, and he knew how to get it. When I see that treasure, when I put my hands on it, there’s nothing that can make me lose it.”

There was a pirate in a small seat above the sails, looking at the ocean through a telescope. This was called the crow’s nest, and he was the first to see Blackbeard’s ship sailing ahead of them. He whistled to the men below: “Ship, straight ahead!”

Captain Pike put a telescope up to his eye. He saw Blackbeard’s empty ship, then yelled to the man who was steering.

“Go straight for it! This is what we’re looking for!”

Captain Pike and some of his men went aboard the empty ship, but they couldn’t find any treasure. Santiago thought they made a mistake.

“Maybe this isn’t Blackbeard’s ship. It could be a ship lost at sea.”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

Captain Pike went below to Blackbeard’s cabin and Santiago followed him. It was dark and the captain had to light a candle. He walked with the candle to one of the cabin walls where there was a round, old picture of a woman.

She was a beautiful dark woman with large, dark round eyes. Her black hair was tied at the back of her head, and she had a gold necklace with a round, green stone around her neck.

“Who is it Captain?”

“It’s a woman who was once the Queen of one of these islands. They say Blackbeard was in love with her. They say she was the reason for his death.

He came here to marry her and give her all of the jewels he had. No one ever saw him again, and no one’s ever found the treasure. This must be his ship.”

They went upstairs and Captain Pike told his men to begin taking up the boards on deck to see if the treasure was hidden and where.

While the men were doing this, Pike saw a clear rectangular spot left by the chest after Captain Scott took it. The whole deck was grey and dirty except for this one spot where the chest was for so many years.

“Stop!”

The men stopped searching and looked at Captain Pike. He raised his hand in the air and looked at the clean spot on the deck.

“Someone has been here before us!”