Free The Great Galloon and the Pirate Queen by Tom Banks

slack.
    â€˜It must be twice as big as the Sumbaroon now!’ said Stanley, to gasps of consternation.
    â€˜Why is it doing this? Who has made it so?’ asked a woman who was carrying a small child on one hip.
    â€˜Isabella,’ said the Captain, quietly.
    â€˜Nonsense!’ cried Abel, who clearly thought he was being supportive. The look the Captain threw at him was perhaps the angriest look Stanley had ever seen him give.
    â€˜I do not speak lightly, Mr Abel,’ he said, that word ‘Mr’ holding more displeasure than a tirade of abuse from a lesser man. ‘She is an engineer beyond compare. My brother took years to create the Sumbaroon, a pale imitation of my own sweet Galloon. Only Isabella could improve it so in a few short weeks. She must be working under duress.’
    There was a silence, during which the Brunt laid a great hairy hand on the Captain’s shoulder.
    â€˜Look!’ cried Stanley, to which Rasmussen’s irritated voice replied, ‘We can’t!’
    â€˜The new vessel seems to be … to be standing up, on its dozens of little metal legs!’ said Stanley. ‘It’s rippling them, like an insect would. And now it’s … yes, it’s swimming to the riverbank!’
    â€˜It will never make it through the dense forest!’ cried the Sultana of Magrabor. ‘Surely?’
    â€˜It’s not heading for the forest,’ said the Captain. ‘It’s heading …’
    â€˜For the Lethal Force waterfall, Captain Meredith Anstruther,’ said the Brunt.
    Stanley watched, and commentated, as the machine hauled itself out on the rocks, making the assembled crocodiles scatter like so many tiny mice. The great machine, part military tank and part slithering creature, then threw out from its front end a couple of whippy cables with hooks on. They seemed to penetrate the waterfall itself, which was barely more than steam by the time it reached the pool, and cling to the wet rock behind. The thing, which Stanley was already thinking of, and describing, as the ‘FishTank’, then seemed to be able to climb up the rockface behind Lethal Force. Its legs rippled and moved in waves. Its pair of cables repeatedly threw themselves forward, finding a hold and pulling the craft inexorably upwards.
    â€˜What’s “inexorably”?’ said Kollick, the Captain’s no-nonsense steward.
    â€˜Er, “unstoppably”,’ said Stanley.
    â€˜Then say “unstoppably”. There’s no glory in baffling your audience!’
    â€˜Sorry,’ said Stanley, and continued his commentary.
    The FishTank was now a few dozen feet above the pool, and the battering it was receiving from the waterfall seemed to be doing it no harm at all. Down below, the broken parts of the Sumbaroon, so long the Galloon’s entire aim and focus, were being dispersed by the mighty current. It was no more than so much scrap iron.
    â€˜How quickly can you stoke us up, the Brunt?’ said the Captain, sharply.
    â€˜Quickly, Captain Meredith Anstruther. The furnace is still hot.’
    â€˜Then I have but one thing to say.’
    â€˜Woop woop!’ cried Rasmussen, in anticipation. ‘Oh – we should tell you about what we heard on the Examinator!’
    â€˜Not now, Ms Rasmussen,’ said the Captain. ‘First this – ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS, IF YOU DON’T MIND HELPING ME OUT ONCE MORE IN MY HOUR OF NEED, THANK YOU KINDLY!’
    The great voice filled up the room they were all in, and filled Stanley’s head with fear and excitement. The Brunt plopped him carefully on the ground, and loped over to the corner of the room where he kept his tools. The room was already emptying, as the Captain’s command/ request was obeyed/ fulfilled.
    â€˜While the craft is on the cliff face we have the advantage,’ said the Captain to Ms Huntley, who was listening intently. We must try and press that