Free Jim Morgan and the Pirates of the Black Skull by James Raney

speaking to Lindsay himself! No, it was less the soldiers’ moral quibbles than the fact that for this particular adventure, we shall be doing some travelling, young Morgan. Oh, the places we’ll go and the things we’ll do!” The Count laughed. “These sort of quests require a different sort of man, Jim. Wouldn’t you agree, Splitbeard?”
    At the sound of his name, another pirate swaggered through the stable doors. He was not a terribly large man, nor overwhelmingly powerful, but one look told Jim this was a true pirate of the seas – and a dangerous one at that. Long years beneath the sun had burned his skin dark as smelted bronze. Two daggers and a pistol leaned ready against his hips, tucked into a dirty sash about his waist. From beneath a blood red bandana about his head fell a single lock of black hair. Black also was the beard from which Splitbeard drew his name. It fell in two braids like a forked dragon’s tongue over his chest, tied off at the ends with jagged shark’s teeth. When the man spoke, a thick accent from somewhere far to the south of England drenched each and every word.
    “You speak the truth, oh magnificent Red Count. Dangerous work requires dangerous men, yes? And the sea is very dangerous. But only Splitbeard the Pirate and the Corsairs of the
Sea Spider
have faced more than flesh and blood or earth and water and lived to tell the tale.”
    “Where have you been, pirate?” Bartholomew snapped, apparently quite unimpressed with Splitbeard’s boast. “We pay you well for your services and your men, not to wander around like a useless lay-about!” But Splitbeard only smiled and laughed as though the insults were jokes.
    “Alas, I was but surveying these once most beautiful grounds, oh great son of the Red Count. It was furthest from my desires to insult your graces by suggesting you needed my aid corralling such…fearsome quarry as this.” Splitbeard slapped Jim hard on his shoulder and squeezed him tight, drawing a wince on Jim’s face. “I assure you all is well, oh pale Bartholomew.” Splitbeard finally released Jim with a small push and wandered over to his men. He leaned casually against a stable wall as though he were quite bored. “When the time comes, you shall see all that Splitbeard is, and will know that he has been worth every piece of gold he will be paid.”
    “And you shall be paid handsomely,” the Count said. “Once we find what we came for.”
    “What have ye come for, eh, Cromier?” MacGuffy said stiffly. He forced himself back to his knees, still bent over from the kick to his ribs. “Can ye not see that ye’ve left the boy nothin’? He’s as penniless as I am, with naught but the clothes on his back left to him, ye vile sea serpent!”
    “Oh, please – do you really think you can play dumb with me, MacGuffy?” said Cromier. “You know perfectly well why we’re here. And so do you, don’t you, Jim?” Cromier came to stand directly in front of Jim, looking down on him with a knowing smile on his face.
    “You’re still looking for the Treasure of the Ocean.” Jim whispered. His thoughts flashed back to that night so long ago. With Aunt Margarita’s help, Count Cromier had killed Jim’s father for the secret to the Treasure of the Ocean. Bartholomew would have done the same to Jim if he had not escaped on his pony, Destroyer.
    “Right you are! And you are going to help me find it.”
    “I don’t know where it is! I promise you that’s the truth! It disappeared. I saw it for just a moment in the Pirate Vault of Treasures. Butthen it all disappeared like smoke. It’s gone. Gone forever, just like everything else that was ever my father’s or mine. You’ve won, alright. So just leave us alone.” A lone, burning tear dripped onto Jim’s cheek. It ran fast down to his chin and fell like a raindrop onto the earthen floor between his feet.
    “Oh, Jim, Jim, Jim,” the Count said. His tender voice hardly masked the mocking cruelty beneath it.