فصل 49

CHAPTER 49

THE APPETIZER

SHINING PEARL AND THE PIRATE named Hurky crouched in the thick jungle around the clearing outside the gate to the pirate fort. By moonlight they could see that the gate hung partially open. They had been hiding there for half an hour, not moving a muscle, listening for Scorpion warriors but hearing only jungle sounds.

“They must have left,” whispered Shining Pearl, finally.

“Or they’re sleeping,” said Hurky, his eyes on the fort.

“Either way,” whispered Shining Pearl, “I’m going to go in.”

Hurky looked at her for a moment. “All right, then,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Keeping to the edge of the clearing, they crept to the gate. Reaching it, they stood still for a minute, listening. Shining Pearl glanced up and saw a bright streak shoot across the sky, then another, then another. She had seen shooting stars before, but never three so close together; she wondered if it was a sign.

Hurky’s attention was on the gate. He put his hands on the rough wood and pushed. The gate swung open slowly, making a creak that sounded much too loud to Hurky and Shining Pearl. They waited another minute but heard nothing. They went inside. Shining Pearl jerked to a stop. Just a few feet away, the body of a pirate lay on the ground, an arrow sticking out of his chest, a reminder of the battle that had taken place here when the Scorpions had overrun the fort.

Shining Pearl stared at the body. It looked ghastly pale in the moonlight. Hurky tugged at her arm.

“Nothing to be done about him,” he whispered. “The cap’n’s cabin is over there.” He pointed to a hut across the compound.

They went to the hut, where a piece of canvas served as a door. Shining Pearl pulled it aside and entered. She gagged at the stink of sweat. At first the cabin appeared to be empty, but then she saw something dark on the floor in the corner. She picked it up and examined it by the moonlight. It was a ragged pair of pants, worn, tattered, full of holes. And very smelly.

“That’s what you asked after,” said Hurky, wrinkling his nose. “The cap’n’s pants. He hardly ever took ’em off.”

They left the hut, trotted across the compound to the gate, and slipped out. Hurky pulled the gate shut. Shining Pearl was holding Hook’s pants at arm’s length; even in the open air, they reeked. She started across the clearing, then stopped, her eyes scanning the dark jungle.

“What’s wrong?” whispered Hurky.

“Listen,” she answered.

Hurky cocked his head. “I don’t hear nothing,” he said.

“That’s what bothers me,” whispered Shining Pearl. “The jungle is too quiet.”

“Maybe it’s because of us,” said Hurky.

“No,” said Shining Pearl, pointing across the clearing. “It’s because of them.”

Hurky looked up and gasped. Four Scorpion warriors, each holding a spear, had stepped out of the jungle and were moving across the clearing, spreading out to prevent their prey from escaping. Shining Pearl and Hurky, with nowhere to go, backed up toward the fort. The Scorpions stopped a few feet away. They were grinning, their teeth bright white in the moonlight.

One of them said something. Neither Shining Pearl nor Hurky understood it. Their backs were now against the gate. The Scorpions laughed at them, enjoying their terror. One of them raised his spear and pointed it at Hurky, then at Shining Pearl, then back at Hurky, then back at Shining Pearl again, as if deciding which one to impale first.

The Scorpions found this game so entertaining that they didn’t notice the movement in the jungle behind them. But Shining Pearl saw it: the treetops shaking as the trunks were shoved aside by something huge and powerful coming through. A moment later Shining Pearl saw the two orbs glowing red in the moonlight—eyes, reptile eyes, impossibly big, impossibly far apart.

Now the taunting Scorpion warrior pulled back his spear for the kill. He had chosen his target: Hurky would die first. Hurky did not see the massive thing in the jungle behind the Scorpions; he had dropped to his knees, his eyes on the gleaming tip of the spear that was about to end his existence. Hurky’s lips moved in soundless prayer. The warrior’s hand tightened on his spear; his arm tensed for the kill.

And then the jungle night was filled with a blood-chilling roar, and the ground shook as a massive creature longer than a war canoe lunged from the jungle. The Scorpions turned and gaped at the sight of the giant crocodile known as Mister Grin lumbering toward them, opening jaws huge enough to swallow a standing man in one gulp.

The Scorpion warriors froze for an instant, and that was an instant too long. The huge croc, moving faster than would seem possible for a thing of such monstrous bulk, was across the clearing and upon the warriors, whose spears were no match for Mister Grin’s snapping jaws and long, sharp, jagged teeth.

Shining Pearl reached down and grabbed the arm of Hurky, who was still kneeling and too shocked to react to the carnage in front of him.

“Come!” she said, jerking him to his feet. “Hurry!”

She ran along the fence and into the jungle, Hurky stumbling behind her. They plunged into the undergrowth. Shining Pearl angled to the right, pushing through the thick vegetation until she found the path that led to the place where Smee and the other pirates would be waiting for them. With Hurky right behind, she raced up the path, away from the clearing and the awful screams of the Scorpions.

Gradually the screams grew less frequent. Then they stopped. Shining Pearl was breathing hard, but she dared not slow down. She knew that what had drawn the giant crocodile into the clearing was the pants she held in her hands, which smelled so strongly of the croc’s favorite delicacy: Captain Hook. Now that Mister Grin was done with his appetizer, he would be after the next course.

He would be coming after Shining Pearl.