Port of Spies Read online

  After a while, the landlubbers stopped staring at us.

  I wiped my forehead and sighed. “That was a close one,” I said.

  “Aye,” Vicky said. “We almost forgot the sneaky part of our mission.”

  “What mission?” Aaron asked. “Rotten Face only sent us to get this stuff because he didn’t want to do it himself!”

  “Aye,” I said. “But Rotten Tooth also told us to keep our eyes and ears open. That means we have to start spying. It’s our secret duty.”

  “Aye aye!” Gary said. Then he scratched his head. He always did that when he was thinking really hard. “Pete?” he asked. “What are we spying for again?”

  I called everyone over and we made a huddle.

  Then I made sure no one was spying on us.

  The coast was clear, so I whispered real quiet, “We’re spying for rival pirates.”

  Everyone gulped! Rival pirates were serious business.

  Aaron made a fist. “If I see any of those pirates, I’ll show them who’s boss of the seas!” he said in a loud whisper.

  Vicky rolled her eyes. “Blimey! You won’t see them, because they’ll be in disguise, blunder head!”

  “Oh, yeah,” Aaron said. “I forgot.”

  “Vicky’s right,” I said. “They’ll be sneaky like us. We have to look for anything suspicious and report it back to the ship.”

  “I vote we look in the jewelry store,” Inna said.

  “I vote we look in the sword store,” Aaron said.

  “I vote we look in every store,” I said.

  “Aye aye!” everyone agreed.

  We put our hands in a circle and whispered our pirate cheer. “Swashbuckling, sailing, finding treasure, too. Becoming pirates is what we want to do!”

  We picked up the boxes and headed into the candle store. The lady in that store gave us a mean look as soon as we walked in. In fact, everyone in the store gave us mean looks. I was starting to think that King’s Island was full of spies!

  Chapter 4

  I Spy!

  “That seems pretty suspicious to me,” I said when we walked by a hat store. “They don’t have a single pirate hat, only tall hats and straw hats.”

  “That is pretty strange,” Vicky said.

  “Aye, it means other pirates must have bought them all,” Inna said. Then she started to make a list of suspicious things.

  Next we passed a store that sold maps.

  Aaron stopped to look. He squinted his eyes and looked real close. “Sink me! There’s not even one treasure map in there.”

  “Who would want a map if it didn’t show you where treasure was?” Gary asked.

  Vicky shrugged her shoulders.

  “Aye, it doesn’t make sense,” I said.

  “Maybe those pirates who bought all the pirate hats got the treasure maps, too!” Inna said.

  “Aye, that makes sense,” I said.

  Inna sure was one smart pirate. She added the part about the maps to the list, too.

  Just then, I thought I saw a pair of eyes peeking at us from a doorway. “Arrr! I think we’re being followed,” I whispered.

  “By who?” Gary asked. Then he turned around to check.

  Vicky nudged him. “Don’t look, blunder head,” she whispered. “You’ll give us away.”

  “Aye,” I said. “I think we’ve been followed into every store.”

  “Blimey! Why didn’t you tell us?” Inna asked.

  “Because I wasn’t sure,” I explained.

  I made a shh noise to my friends and sneaked over to where I saw the peeking. I took a deep breath and jumped around the corner.

  No one was there.

  “Maybe it was nothing,” Vicky said.

  “Or maybe it was a spy and they spied you coming and sneaked off,” Inna said.

  “I don’t know what it was. But there’s definitely something fishy about this town, and it isn’t just the smelly fish market.”

  “Aye,” my mates agreed, and we kept walking.

  By the time we walked past the bakery, we were starving. It was hard work looking for suspicious stuff and shopping at the same time. So we decided to buy some cookies to keep up our strength.

  Just to be safe, we asked Gary to wait outside with the boxes.

  “Mmm,” Inna said as we walked in. “It smells delicious!”

  “Aye!” I said. Then I reached for a cookie sitting on the counter.

  “Don’t touch!” a lady yelled from behind the counter.

  We all jumped back.

  I could tell by her face that she didn’t like us at all. The corners of her mouth were droopy and her eyes were buggy.

  “But . . . we just wanted to buy some cookies,” I said.

  The lady picked up a rolling pin and waved it in the air. “I know what you wanted! You wanted to steal my cookies!” she shouted.

  “No we didn’t!” Aaron shouted. “We were going to pay for them!”

  “Liar! Thief! You stole a cookie, didn’t you?” the lady shouted.

  We gulped!

  “Let’s get out of here,” Vicky said.

  “Aye!” I agreed. “That lady’s crazy!”

  We ran outside and picked up the boxes.

  “What’s going on?” Gary asked.

  “We’ll tell you later, mate,” Vicky said. “But now . . . just run!”

  We ran as fast as we could, but the lady from the bakery was running after us. “Thieves! Thieves!” she yelled.

  Soon there were a whole bunch of townspeople chasing us. My heart was beating at top speed. If they caught us, they’d find out we were pirates. And if they found out we were pirates, we’d be in big trouble.

  “Follow me!” Aaron shouted. He turned the corner and we all went after him.

  Then . . . CRASH!

  I bumped right into Aaron. Vicky bumped into me. Then Inna and Gary bumped into Vicky.

  “Dead end,” Aaron said, staring at the wall in our path.

  “Follow you? I should have known better,” Vicky said to Aaron.

  But there was no time to argue, because just then the crowd came around the corner. We were trapped.

  “You’re in big trouble now,” one man said.

  “Yeah, we don’t like thieves on King’s Island,” another one said.

  Inna stepped up to them. “We’re not thieves!” she shouted.

  “Aye!” Aaron shouted. “We’re pirates!”

  Vicky clasped her hand over Aaron’s mouth. “That’s supposed to be a secret!”

  “Oh, yeah,” Aaron mumbled into Vicky’s hand. “Sorry, mateys! We’re just sailors.”

  “Arrr! It’s too late now, Captain Big Mouth,” Vicky said.

  “Pirates!” the lady from the bakery shouted. “Pirates aren’t welcome on King’s Island! All pirates are thieves!”

  “That’s not true,” Inna said. “We paid for all this stuff.”

  “Aye,” I said. “Just ask the shopkeepers, they’ll tell you.”

  I saw someone push through the crowd. Maybe it was a rival pirate coming to snatch us away. But when he made his way to the front, I could see that he was a boy like me.

  He had blond hair like me. And he was just as tall as me. But he wasn’t wearing pirate clothes like me.

  “Leave them alone,” the boy said. “These are my friends.”

  “But they’re pirates,” one of the men said.

  The boy laughed. “They’re not real pirates. We’re only playing pirates.”

  The grown-ups made huffy noises. “We should have known,” one grumbled. “Silly kids,” another one said. Then one by one they started to leave. Even the lady from the bakery left after we showed her that we didn’t steal any cookies.

  “Why did you stick up for us?” I asked.

  “Because,” he said, “I’ve never seen any real live pirate kids before. In fact, I want to be a pirate when I grow up. I want to be the captain of my own ship one day,” he told us. “Captain Jack, because that’s my name.”


  “Aye, me too!” I said. Then I jumped up and down. “Only my name’s Pete, not Jack!” I told him.

  We were all happy to meet Jack. He was the first person on King’s Island who didn’t give us dirty looks. Plus, he wanted to know all about being a pirate and going to Pirate School.

  “Have you ever found any treasure?” Jack asked.

  “Aye! Shiny treasure,” Inna said. She showed Jack her necklace and told him that it was from the first treasure she ever found.

  “Have you ever seen any sea monsters?” Jack asked.

  I shook my head.

  “But we did fight a giant snake once!” Gary said.

  Inna gave Gary a mean look. Inna absolutely, positively hated snakes more than anything in the world. “Arrr! I told you not to bring up that snake ever again!”

  “Sorry. I forgot,” Gary said.

  Jack wanted to know all about it, but it was getting late.

  “Arrr! We have to get back to the Sea Rat,” I said.

  “Aye, we have to report all the strange things we saw,” Inna said.

  “Our whole ship might be in danger,” Gary added.

  “Then you’d better hurry,” Jack said. “I’ll show you a shortcut.”

  “Thanks, matey!” I said.

  “Aye, you’re not so bad for a landlubber,” Aaron added.

  “And you’re not so bad for a big mouth,” Jack added.

  That made us all giggle. Except for Aaron, who frowned.

  Then Jack showed us the way back to the docks. He waved good-bye as we boarded the ship. We waved, too, and promised to visit if we ever came back to King’s Island again.

  Chapter 5

  Rotten Report

  Rotten Tooth was waiting for us on the deck of the Sea Rat. We formed a straight line in front of him. Then we gave him a salute. Even if he was mean and rotten, he was still our teacher.

  “Pirate Pete reporting for duty,” I said.

  Rotten Tooth scratched his pointy beard and flashed a green-toothed smile. “Arrr! Did ye sprogs get everything on the list?”

  “Aye aye!” Vicky said.

  “Every last thing,” Inna said. Then she pinched her nose. “Even the hog’s head,” she told him.

  Rotten Tooth went over to the boxes and started to count them. But pirates aren’t very good at counting, so he stopped at five. “Arrr! I’ll take ye word for it,” he said.

  Then he told us we were dismissed for the day.

  “Arrr! But don’t you want to hear our report?” I asked.

  Rotten Tooth looked confused. “What report be that?” he asked.

  I looked at Vicky and made a silly face.

  She covered her mouth to hide a giggle.

  “He forgot about the sneaky part of our mission,” I whispered.

  Only I didn’t whisper it quietly enough, because Rotten Tooth heard me. He had the best hearing on the ship. Sometimes I thought he could hear things that hadn’t even been whispered yet.

  “Arrr! What’s this about a sneaky part?” he asked.

  “You told us to keep our eyes and ears open,” I reminded him. “We did! And we saw a lot of suspicious stuff,” I said.

  “Aye! We think there are rival pirates on King’s Island,” Gary added. “We think they might have followed us around.”

  Rotten Tooth started to snicker. He didn’t believe us. So Inna pulled the list from her pocket. She stepped up to Rotten Tooth and showed it to him. “Aye, and here’s the proof!” she said.

  Rotten Tooth started to read the list.

  Then he started to laugh. Soon he was laughing so hard, he filled the sails.

  “What’s so funny?” Aaron asked.

  Rotten Tooth folded the list and tried his best to stop laughing. “Ye scurvy litter have a wild imagination,” he said. He said there was nothing suspicious about the stuff on our list.

  “Aye? What about the hat store?” I asked.

  “Aye! And the map store?” Aaron added.

  “Aye, and the mean looks?” Gary asked.

  Rotten Tooth laughed again. Then he told us that those stores sell things for landlubbers, not pirates. “And all landlubbers think pirates be a bit dirty. That’s why they gave you dirty looks. Ye savvy?”

  I thought about that. I reached under my pirate hat and scratched my head. I guess landlubbers wouldn’t need pirate hats or treasure maps.

  “Soggy sails,” I moaned. “All our spying was for nothing!”

  “Stow that talk, little matey!” a voice boomed.

  I looked up and saw Captain Stinky Beard standing next to Rotten Tooth. I gave him a quick salute and he saluted back.

  “Let me see that,” he said to Rotten Tooth. Rotten Tooth handed the captain our list. Captain Stinky Beard read it very carefully.

  We all gave each other nervous looks. We were afraid he would start laughing, too.

  “Hmm! King’s Island has been known to have its share of spies,” he said after a while. Then he scratched his beard and gave us a serious look. “This is a shipshape list,” he said. “Good work, buckoes.”

  We were all so happy that we almost started dancing. But it’s not real piratey to dance in front of the captain, so we didn’t. We just clapped our hands and smiled.

  Captain Stinky Beard folded the list and gave it back to Rotten Tooth. “Arrr! Ye better keep an eye out in case any of these spies try to stow away on board,” he said. “And ye kids can help, too.”

  “Aye aye!” we said excitedly. It was our first mission that came directly from the captain.

  “Aye, Cap’n!” Rotten Tooth said, only he didn’t sound as happy as us.

  When the captain left, Rotten Tooth made an angry face and crumpled up our list before shoving it in his pocket. Then he mumbled and grumbled. He thought our list was a waste of time. That was fine with us, so long as the cap’n didn’t think so.

  As the Sea Rat got ready to set sail, we were prepared to take on our new duty. We were going to search the ship for spies!

  Chapter 6

  Stowaway On Board?

  The next day at sea, Rotten Tooth made us stock the storage room with the fresh supplies. He said it was the job of the newest members of a pirate crew. I started to think he was going to use that excuse for every boring job on the ship.

  “This stinks!” Vicky said.

  Gary made a sniffy face. “I don’t smell anything,” he said.

  “Arrr! I mean this job is no fun!” Vicky said.

  “Aye! You can say that again!” Inna said. She was in a grumpy mood because Gary had spilled a bag of flour. It was all in her hair and on her dress.

  “Aye! How are we supposed to search for spies when we’re stuck stocking shelves?” Aaron said. Then he folded his arms and plopped down on one of the boxes.

  “Maybe if you helped, we’d get done faster!” Vicky said.

  “I am helping!” Aaron said.

  “Are not!” Vicky shouted.

  “Am too!” Aaron yelled back. “I’m supervising!”

  Vicky marched right over to Aaron. “Who made you the boss, Captain Big Mouth?”

  “I did,” Aaron said.

  I didn’t like it when my mates fought. I jumped between them just as Vicky was giving Aaron a shove.

  I crashed right into the pile of supplies!

  Vicky rushed over to help me. “I’m sorry, Pete,” she said.

  “That’s okay,” I said. “It didn’t hurt.”

  As I stood up, I saw that one of the barrels of oatmeal was already open.

  “Avast! That’s a clue!” I shouted.

  “A clue that Vicky’s just as clumsy as Gary?” Aaron said.

  “Blimey! Not that!” I said, and pointed to the open barrel. “That!”

  “Arrr! It might have been made by a pirate spy!” Vicky said.

  “Or maybe it’s just a mouse,” Gary said.

  Inna gave him a mean look. “I told you not to bring up mice!”

  Gary scratched his head. “You said not to br
ing up snakes.”

  “Same thing! They’re both icky!” Inna shouted.

  “Shh! I think I heard something,” I told them. There was a creaking sound by the door to the storage room.

  “Arrr! Maybe one of the spies from town followed us on board,” Vicky said.

  We all crept toward the door.

  I took a peek into the hallway and thought I saw someone. I held up my hand for everyone to stop. “On the count of three, we’ll jump out,” I whispered.

  “Aye aye!” they said.

  Then we all counted quietly.

  “One. Four. Three!”

  We all jumped out into the hallway. And we came face-to-face with . . . Clegg!

  “Ahoy there!” Clegg said.

  Clegg was the oldest pirate on the Sea Rat. He was also our friend. He always told us great pirate stories. But right now, we didn’t want to hear a story. We just wanted to know if he saw anyone snooping around.

  “Ahoy,” I said. “Did you see anyone else out here?”

  “Arrr! Just ye little shipmates. But I don’t see much,” he said, tapping his eye patch. Clegg only had one good eye.

  I made a frowny face.

  “Who are ye looking for?” he asked.

  “A stowaway,” I told him.

  “Aye?” Clegg asked.

  “Aye! A sneaky, spying stowaway!” Vicky said.

  “Or a mouse?” Gary said. Then he covered his mouth real quick as Inna glared at him.

  “Well, I’ll be sure to keep one eye out for the critter,” Clegg promised.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Then we went back to stocking the shelves. We stocked them as fast as we could. As soon as we were done, we were going to look for the stowaway. If there was one on board, we’d find him!

  Chapter 7

  Pillow Proof!

  Searching for spies was hard work. After the shelves were stocked, Rotten Tooth gave us the afternoon off. He said we could do whatever we wanted as long as we stayed out of his way. So we searched the ship for spies.

  We searched above deck and belowdecks.