Chapter Ten
"Captain," said one of the men. "Let's put the bag on him! He'd bring a rich ransom."
"You can't do that!" Elizabeth cried. "You're under a flag of truce."
"He fired on us!" the man complained.
"Only a warning shot," she replied. "Jack, if he'd intended to damage you, he could have! You can't kidnap him."
"I can do whatever I like, Missy; I am a pirate," Sparrow said with a grin. "But, calm yourself." He spoke more loudly. "The Commodore's more valuable to us a free man. He can order the fleet to hunt Stanley instead of us."
By now the Commodore and two men were in a boat crossing the water to the Black Pearl. Elizabeth reached to hold Will's hand, as it occurred to her that he could misinterpret her defense of Norrington.
"He's very brave to come over here, alone and unarmed," Will told her, approvingly.
Elizabeth squeezed his hand, reminded of why she loved him.
***
Will watched with interest as the three Navy men came aboard the Black Pearl, covered at every moment by a number of pistols and rifles. Tight-lipped, they submitted to being searched by a pair of unwashed, half-clad buccaneers. The guard was dropped when it was determined that they were, indeed, unarmed, but Norrington was holding something which one man took from him and handed to Jack. Jack unfurled an admiralty flag.
"Welcome aboard, Commodore," said Jack. "What's this for?"
Norrington stepped forward. "This ship will become my flagship. I'm commandeering her to pursue the Tarantula."
Jack shook his head, and, at a signal from Gibbs, all the weapons that had been lowered were raised and again aimed at the soldiers.
"This is my ship, Commodore, and I'm not about to allow her to be commandeered." Sparrow tossed the standard aside, where it fell, crumpled, on the deck. "Let's begin again. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Commodore Norrington." Jack made a dismissive motion with his hand, and the weapons were lowered, slowly. "I am able to offer you aid. We can provide you with equipment and lumber for repairs, as well as an escort to Port Royal, or whatever anchorage you prefer. All you have to do is listen to what Will and Elizabeth Turner have to tell you. What say you to that?"
Norrington gave the crumpled standard a passing angry look, and when Jack mentioned Elizabeth, Norrington sought her out with a surprised expression. "We're wasting time, Sparrow. The Tarantula is getting away. I don't care what tale you have to tell. Captain Stanley just attacked a Royal Navy ship! Under a pirate standard!"
"*My* standard, Commodore. The skull and crossed scimitars is *my* standard. Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth stepped forward and took a deep breath. "John, George Town was attacked by a ship that looked just like the Black Pearl, except that it had dolphins on the afterdeck instead of . . . that." She nodded her head toward the afterdeck's ornaments.
"Turner?" Jack called next.
"Captain Stanley has an exact duplicate of the Black Pearl's figurehead hidden under black sails in steerage. I saw them. He says he hand-picked his crew of men for their brutality. He's been pretending to be the Black Pearl. He nearly hanged me for finding out."
The Commodore listened attentively.
"Why?" he asked, simply.
"He's looking for the Isle de Muerte," Jack answered. "Turner was to be his cipher. He attacked you because he thinks he knows where it is, now, and he doesn't need to play Navy man anymore."
"So the Isle de Muerte is where he's headed."
"He thinks he is. Surely you don't believe I told him its true location."
"But you know where he's headed."
Sparrow smiled slowly. "I know where he's headed."
The Commodore tapped his foot. "Mr. Turner?"
"Sir?" Will answered, automatically.
"Where is Stanley headed?"
Jack gave Will a cool look.
Will did not hesitate. "Commodore, my conditional enlistment is over. I have nothing more to tell you."
Jack bowed gratefully to Will, his hands together, and then gave Norrington a cheerful grin. "Now here's the plan, Mate. We load up the lumber for you and when you and your men are safe aboard your little boat, I'll shout the location across to you, savvy? And we'll be on our way."
In fact, the lumber was already loaded in the small boat. The Commodore left Jack and ordered the two other men to row the boat back to the Deadly Earnest. Then he returned to the conversation.
"You're not going?" Jack asked, sounding disappointed.
"I'm not going. We must pursue the Tarantula and stop her!"
Jack looked astonished. "We 'must' do nothin' of the kind! Besides, he's flying a pirate banner now. Under the Code I can fight him if he steals from me, but I can't betray a brother pirate to you."
"But, Jack," Elizabeth objected, "those people he murdered. They're entitled to justice."
"All well and good, love, but I see no profit in it for us. The Commodore knows we aren't the ones who committed those crimes, and that's all I wanted."
"He stole your name," Norrington said. "Don't you want revenge for that?"
"What's in a name? He didn't steal my ship. I may not like his tactics, but it's really none of my business."
"Jack," Will said. "You set the Deadly Earnest up to be attacked. It's your fault they can't pursue him."
Jack squinted in what Will had come to realize was a wince.
"Jack," put in Elizabeth, "please do this. You owe me. Then we'll be square."
Jack looked from one Turner to the other, dropping a lot of his usual façade. He looked genuinely regretful. "It's not for me to say, Lass. This is a pirate ship. We all decide what to go after, not just me. Why would the men do this? Risk their lives for what? There's nothing to tempt them."
Will saw his wife's eyes narrow in thought, then widen as she had an idea. "A pardon!" she whirled to Norrington. "A full pardon for the whole crew, for any past crimes."
"I don't have that authority," Norrington replied archly.
"But you could get it. I know where," she insisted.
Norrington looked out at the deck of pirate faces turned toward him. Now that the small boat was loaded and launched, most of the crew had gathered on deck, listening.
Jack watched him, a tension in his usually relaxed body.
"There's a matter of justice there, too . . . " Norrington fumbled with the words.
"I imagine Stanley will be very difficult for the Navy to hunt, since he knows all the Navy's weaknesses," Will commented.
"Is a pardon on the table, Mate?" Jack asked. "You've got to give me something to offer them."
Norrington looked from Jack to the Turners, and back again. He looked out to sea, where the Tarantula had fled.
"Yes, yes!" he declared. "Capture or kill Stanley and his crew, and I'll get a full pardon for you and all your men."
"And women?"
"What? Er, yes. The whole crew."
"Pardon for *all* past crimes?" Jack asked, looking to the side, at Gibbs.
Norrington followed his gaze, and froze, seeing Gibbs. The two men stared for a long moment. "Yes," Norrington choked. "All past crimes."
"Elizabeth," Jack asked. "Will he keep his word?"
"He'll keep it, or I'll blacken his honor to all of Society," she said.
Jack looked blank. "So?" he asked.
"He'll keep it," Elizabeth stated.
Jack whirled and leaped up to stand beside AnaMaria at the helm, facing the crew. "What say you?" he called. "Do we chase and attack the Tarantula in return for pardons?"
For a few moments the crew looked at each other. Then AnaMaria cried, "Aye!" and raised a fist in the air.
"Aye!" answered the crew, waving their weapons.
"Wind in the sails!" cried Cotton's parrot.
"Hands aloft!" Jack bellowed. "Set the sails!"
The crew leaped into action.
"Turner!" yelled Gibbs. "Lay aloft to loose the topsails."
And with no further ceremony than that, Will was a member of a third ship's crew in as many weeks. He kissed Elizabeth's hand, then obeyed, glad to be able to help.
He noticed immediately a difference between Jack's crew and the Navy crews. Everything here was done with a will, whereas, on both of the other ships, the sailors lifted no hand until they were ordered to it, and cared not whether their job was done fast or slow, unless there was a lash behind them. Rather than neatly defined stations - each man responsible for his assigned lines and hawsers - everyone on the Black Pearl seemed to know every job, and the nearest man to a needed task leaped to it.
Gibbs had sent him to the topsails, but had not specified which one. Since he was nearest the foremast, Will "laid aloft" there, the other crewmen making room for him with friendly nods.
In moments the topsails were sheeted home, the head yards braced aback, and the fore-top-mast staysail hoisted.
"All ready forward?" asked Jack.
"Aye, aye; all ready," answered Gibbs.
"Let go!"
"All gone, Cap'n!" and the vessel's head swung off from the wind under the force of her backed head sails, and they were under weigh.