The Ship of Lost Souls 1 Read Online Free PDF

child awaiting punishment in the headmaster’s office. “I bet you think we’re monsters, don’t you? But try to see it from a pirate’s point of view. We’re not that bad, really. We share. We commiserate. And all those deadly sins . . . gluttony, sloth, using the captain’s name in vain . . . we don’t do that. Well, all right, sometimes we do, but only when . . .”
    Jem stopped listening and searched for words to fill his open mouth.
    Thomas poked his great head through the door like an anxious Saint Bernard. “He all right?” he asked Pete, nodding toward Jem, who finally found a few words to spew.
    â€œAll right?” Jem twisted to look back at Pete, aware that his voice was shrill and panicked. “All right? You killed . . .” And he sank back to the floor, unable to complete the sentence. “You—you didn’t really, did you?”
    â€œUm . . .” Thomas tugged nervously on a lock of his hair.
    Pete pierced him with a glare. “Yes. Yes, we did, Thomas. The boy’s right. His uncle’s dead.” He stood up.
    â€œBut—” Thomas began.
    â€œStop it.”
    â€œYou stop.”
    â€œBoth of you stop!” Jem cried, scrambling to his knees. “What’s going on? Did you or didn’t you make him walk the plank?”
    The pirates exchanged glares, then Thomas bowed his head and kicked at the floorboards.
    â€œLook here, boy,” Pete said, lifting Jem up by his small shoulders and leaning him against the wall like a rag doll. “You’ve got to understand the pirate life. We do what we must to get by. It’s a dangerous place, the tropics—with its cursed beasts and crazy squalls. And then there’s your old king and his men, traipsing around like they own the place, pillaging and plundering more than all of us pirates put together. Except they’re stealing from the land and the people, or what’s left of them. Thought they’d just take a jaunt across the drink and nip up a few unclaimed islands. Well, we pirates like to throw a few obstacles in their way. It’s right honorable of us, really.”
    Thomas nodded. “He’s right. Being a pirate ain’t so bad. It’s a way of life. Like bein’ a . . . a blacksmith. Or a priest. Ye do what you must. Ye’ll see.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, I’ll see?” Jem didn’t like the sound of that.
    Just then the door swung open and in walked Captain Wallace, looking slightly more disheveled than he had when he left. His blue coat hung off one shoulder and his spectacles sat crooked on his small snout. The captain looked from Thomas to Pete, then settled his gaze on Jem.
    â€œWell now. That’s done.” He pushed the bridge of his spectacles up his nose with his index finger and straightened his coat. He cleared his throat. “Yes. Well. Let that be a lesson to you.” The three pirates exchanged a glance, then Thomas shrugged and shuffled out of the cabin. On his way out he patted Jem’s head.
    Jem ducked out of his reach. He squeezed his eyes shut and replayed the events of the last few minutes: the pirates bursting into the room and seizing Uncle Finn, the splash he’d heard even through Pete’s rough hands. His uncle was gone. Floundering out there in the dark waves . . .
    Jem shook his head and fought the panic rising in his chest. He couldn’t think about that. Not now. The man before him was dangerous, and Jem was at his mercy.
    â€œAnd so, boy,” Captain Wallace began, “it comes down to you. You now know what happens to men who defy me. You wouldn’t want that to happen to you.” He gestured toward the door through which Uncle Finn had disappeared. “But you wouldn’t let it, would you?” The captain’s eyes narrowed as he stepped closer to Jem. “You’re smarter than