The Time Pirate Read Online Free PDF Page B

he and his sister strolled along the leafy lane that led from the lighthouse to the coast road going to the south end of the island. The morning sunlight through the trees was beautiful, almost magical. But then he’d never really lived anywhere else.
    The island roads were unpaved, and there were no motorcars on Greybeard at all, not one, and more cows than humans. Still, as Nick had learned over the course of one amazing summer, there was plenty of excitement to be found on his little island. Oh, yes. More than enough adventure to satisfy any boy anywhere. For a lifetime.
    All the excitement in the world, in fact.
    Because young Nicholas McIver had now, through the most curious sequence of events, come into possession of Leonardo da Vinci’s Tempus Machina.
    It was a Time Machine.
    A miraculous time machine, for all love! This magnificent device, a gleaming golden ball, had allowed Nick, along with his friends Gunner and Lord Hawke, to conquer time and space, using the machine to travel through time, doing good wherever he was needed. Why, he’d even helped Lord Nelson himself, in addition to rescuing his dog Jip and Lord Hawke’s two little children, Alex and Annabel, from an evil pirate named Billy Blood!
    Perhaps, he sometimes thought, no,
really
, the golden orb provided even a bit more excitement than he could handle. After his last adventure with the golden orb, he’d insisted Gunner lock the thing away in the great gun vault at his inn. It had a combination lock and Nick made Gunner swear never to give him that combination, no matter how much he might plead or beg.
    Still, Nick had long ago decided, excitement and risk were good for any boy. Especially one who wanted more than anything to be a hero. It took adversity to mold a boy into someone worthy of being called a man. And if he was stong and bold enough, even a heroic man. That’s what he thought, anyway. And that’s what he was bound and determined to become.
    Heroes, he knew, were molded in the face of danger. And so, instead of running from it, Nick raced after it. Or, at least, didn’t turn away when he encountered it.
    â€œA good ship is never tested in calm waters, Nicholas,” as his father was fond of reminding him.
    And now that the Germans were coming, the waters surrounding the Channel Islands were anything but calm. U-boats could be seen offshore at all hours of the day and night. Squadrons of German fighters, Messerschmitts they were called, roared overhead with frightening regularity.
    His father, a spy for Winston Churchill himself, believed an invasion of the Channel Islands was imminent. There would be adversity aplenty then, all right, bags of the stuff.
    And when the Germans, the Nazis, did come, when they invaded Nick’s beloved Channel Islands, where his family had lived for generations, what then? More excitement and danger than anyone could reasonably expect, he’d wager. But he’d be ready for them, sure he would. He and Gunner and Lord Hawke and Commander Hobbes and even little Katie, who’d proved herself brave beyond measure in their last adventure through time.
    They’d all be ready when the Nazis came.
    Now, as he and Kate made their way along a curving path that led up toward the Black Forest, Nick was thinking about these Nazi invaders. He’d need some way to fight back, defend his island, protect his family, his home. That’s why his recent dream had been so powerful, he now understood. If he and Kate could possibly find what he hoped lay somewhere in the forest, it might be a way for him to—
    â€œJipper!” Nick cried, “Come back here!”
    The dog Jip, barking loudly, had raced ahead of the children and disappeared inside the dense and tangled wood.
    â€œI have a bad feeling about this place, Nicky,” Kate said, her brow furrowed with worry.
    â€œDon’t be silly. There’s nothing in there can hurt us. Nothing but songbirds and