Free Voyage of the Owl by Belinda Murrell Page B

crescents.’
    ‘Fifteen,’ snapped Saxon.
    Fox looked around at the four anxious, tiredfaces leaning towards him. Mia chattered excitedly in his ear, as if counselling him.
    ‘Twenty crescents, but you kids are on galley duty,’ Fox replied, in a softer tone. ‘Stumpy, my cook, had an unfortunate brawl in the inn last night and will need to sleep it off for a few days.’
    Saxon looked at everyone seated around the table. Ethan nodded. The girls nodded too.
    ‘It’s a deal!’ said Saxon.
    Fox spat in his hand.
    ‘Shake hands – smuggler’s honour!’ Fox ordered.
    Everyone spat in their palms and then shook hands all round. Mia crept down Fox’s arm and shook hands solemnly with everyone too. Fox leant over and pulled out a ceramic bottle from the locker beside him. He pulled the cork out with his teeth.
    ‘Let’s drink to a successful business partnership,’ Fox cried.
    Fox poured out a huge slug of brown liquid into a rather battered tin mug. He downed the whole mug in one gulp. Lily could smell the strong fumes of the liquor from across the table. Fox poured another long slug and passed it around the children.
    Each one took a tiny sip. The smell felt like it was singeing the hair out of their noses. The liquorburnt their tongues and throats. It tasted terrible. Roana coughed and spluttered. Lily gagged.
    ‘Oh, what a bunch of sooks,’ complained Fox. ‘We’ll make sailors out of you yet.’
    He grabbed the brimming mug and knocked it back, smacking his lips in satisfaction.
    ‘You’re right,’ Fox concurred. ‘It is rotgut, and will probably be the death of me. That is, if a Sedah cutlass doesn’t get me first!’
    No-one could answer. Their voices still didn’t work after the sip of rotgut.
    ‘Now I have a riddle for you all,’ Fox added mysteriously. ‘I wonder if you can solve it. Not many people seem to.’
    Fox looked around at the four children, with a challenging grin.
    ‘There is a farmer travelling to market with a fox, a delicious plump goose and a sack brimming with corn,’ he went on. ‘The farmer comes to a wide rushing river, where there is a tiny canoe moored. He can only take one thing across at a time. If he leaves the fox with the goose, the fox will gobble the goose, but if he leaves the goose with the corn, the goose will eat all the corn. How does he cross the river with everything intact?’
    The children stared at each other mystified. Theirbrains were too tired to work, and the riddle seemed impossible.
    ‘I told you it’s hard,’ chuckled Fox. ‘You think on it, and see if you can give me an answer by the end of our voyage. Okay, enough pleasantry. Hand over the twenty crescents, then I will show you to your sleeping quarters.’
    Roana fumbled under the table into the money pouch slung at her waist. She counted out twenty gold crescents. The pouch was woefully thin now with only a couple of coins left.
    ‘Here you are, Master Fox,’ Roana croaked. ‘Twenty crescents.’
    ‘Not Master, just plain old Fox,’ replied Fox, sweeping the coins off the table and into his pocket. ‘Follow me. The crew will be back on board soon. We’ll set sail on the ebbing tide in about half an hour.’
    Fox led the way forward, past the narrow galley and a couple of canvas hammocks. Mia rode on his shoulder, waving cheekily at the following children.
    ‘There are few luxuries on this boat,’ he said over his other shoulder. ‘You can sleep in the sail hold. Everyone takes turn in the galley and with the chores. And you, missy, had better stay out of sight until we are a long way off shore.’ He raised an eyebrow at Lily. ‘The crew don’t hold with femaleson board, except for Mia, of course. They reckon it brings bad luck.’
    Lily nodded and Fox turned back to open a small door, which led into a black cave. The lantern showed a pile of neatly folded canvas sails on the floor. There were a couple of round portholes, which were the centre of the owl eyes painted on the