Seven Dead Pirates Read Online Free PDF Page A

almost to his knees.
    Suddenly, he turned, revealing a face that would have made Lewis leap backward if he weren’t already plastered against the wall. It was pockmarked all over, with a lumpy nose, and a smile that revealed several missing teeth. But it was his eyes that caught Lewis’s attention. The right one, brown, glared at him fiercely. The left was nothing but a slit, showing white between half-closed lids.
    Lewis forced himself to lower his gaze, bringing it to rest on the soft leather sash around the captain’s waist. Tucked into it were a cutlass, a knife and an old-fashioned pistol. And there, clutched in the captain’s right hand, was the last piece of the puzzle—a faded black three-cornered hat.
    The hat was a dead giveaway.
    “You’re …” he tried, and then again, “you’re … a pirate.”
    “A pirate? Well, lad, that ain’t a word I likes. You may call me”—he bowed low, sweeping the ground with one hand—“a gentleman of fortune.”
    Narrowing his right eye, he gave Lewis a searching glance. “And besides, a man cannot be a pirate without he has a ship. That’s why your great-granddad sent
you
.”
    Lewis’s head was throbbing. “I—what do you mean, sent me?”
    “Well, roughly speaking, it’s this.” Captain Crawley stroked his chin. “We needs you, young Lewis. Me and the boys.”
    “The boys?” squeaked Lewis. “You mean, there are … more of you?”
    “Oh, aye,” said Crawley, and he yelled back over his shoulder. “Come on out, mates!”

I n front of the red door, a new cloud swirled and shimmered. As Lewis watched, it formed itself into a thin, ragged, hunched-over sailor with a long nose and a wide, wet mouth.
    “Jack the Rat,” said Captain Crawley. “Make your bow to the lad, Jack. Nice and polite now.”
    Jack didn’t bow so much as bend his knobby knees, visible through the rips in his pants. The knees, like the rest of him, were filthy. Narrowing his eyes, he peered at Lewis with a look that a spider might give a fly.
    Lewis flinched, but his attention was drawn immediately to a third misty figure. It took shape as around-bellied man with pink cheeks and a greasy white beard. He looked almost like Santa, if you could ignore the jagged scar that sliced down his forehead and divided his right eyebrow in two.
    “Is that ’im?” said the man.
    “Aye,” said Crawley.
    “A bit small, ain’t he?”
    “Shut your trap, Moyle,” said Jack the Rat. “He’s big enough for what
we
wants.” He grinned wetly at Lewis, licking his lips in such a terrifying way that Lewis was convinced the apparition meant to
eat
him.
    Lewis struggled again. But when a fourth pirate appeared, an arm’s length away, he was shocked into stillness. This pirate was
precisely
at arm’s length, and the way Lewis knew that was because this pirate—a terrifyingly large man—was the one who was pinning him to the wall. He’s a giant, thought Lewis. He’s out of a fairy tale! Easily eight feet tall, the pirate had black hair, a thick black beard and coarse black hair covering what could be seen of his body. His hands, big as roasting pans, rested on Lewis’s shoulders.
    “You puts up a good fight,” rumbled the giant. “I had to use two hands to hold you.”
    “See?” said Jack the Rat to no one in particular. “The lad’s big enough.”
    “Big enough for what?” squeaked Lewis. Normally,he was shy with strangers. But when a person is shocked to the bone, as Lewis was, and wondering if he’s about to be eaten, shyness is apt to get pushed aside.
    “Now don’t be afeared,” said Captain Crawley softly. “Barnaby Bellows is like a big puppy, ain’t you, Bellows?”
    The giant leered into Lewis’s face. “I likes the lad’s red hair,” he said, his breath reeking of dead fish. “Red hair shows spirit!”
    And that was just the beginning. Three more pirates followed. There was Skittles, tiny, bald and missing an arm. Jonas came next, lean, brown-skinned and