Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber by L. A. Meyer Read Free Book Online Page A

ain't no use.

    Finally the rig stops and my feet are untied and a hand is put on my neck and I'm shoved up a gangway and pushed down on some sort of bench, as far as I can make out. I can smell the sea and hear the lapping of waves and it gives me cheer. Soon this will be over and I'll go back to collect Judy and we'll...
    But it doesn't happen. My feet are tied again and I hear some bloke say, "Cast off," and I feel us heel over as a sail is set and takes the wind.
Uh-oh.
This ain't any big ship, this is a small boat, by the feel of it, no more than twenty feet long. It's plain that they're taking us out to a ship lying off the coast.
    ***
    Trouble is, it's been hours and hours. Where are they taking us? The waves have been making up higher and higher, and some of the pressed landsmen are moaning with seasickness. And I don't feel so good myself. Lord, what would happen if you threw up with a gag in your mouth? Why, you'd choke and die for sure, and for sure this is a cruel press-gang as they don't have to keep us hooded and gagged by now, but still they do, and I curse them to the deepest pit of Hell for it.

    More hours go by and I've got to go real bad now and I doubt if I can hold it much longer. From the smell of things in this boat, some of the men have already given up. I don't want to mess my silk britches, but I might have to soon and maybe it would be best to do it so I'll be less appetizing to whatever male I'm presented to. I'm speculating on this when I hear a hail and then a bump as we come up alongside something. Something big.
    More shouts and a net is lowered and someone picks me up and throws me in it and a few others are tossed in on top of me and we are lifted up all tangled together and then dumped on a hard deck.
    The net is jerked from one side and I am tumbled out of the net and rolled over the deck. I feel my feet being untied and then the hood is whipped off and the sudden light blinds me for a moment. I'm blinkin' away and after my sight clears, I find I'm looking into the face of the man lyin' next to me, not six inches away, and I gasp in recognition. To me, it is the very face of Horror, itself—the horror of my younger life, the face of Muck, Cornelius Muck, Muck the Corpse Seller, right here, right now, lying beside me, tied and gagged and eyes rollin' around, just like me! I'm taken back, back to when I was a little girl and Muck was slingin' my dead baby sister over his shoulder right after my mum had died on That Dark Day when my whole world fell apart. It's Muck, all right, bearded now, with longer hair, but still the accursed Muck and that little girl in me is kickin' and screamin' in terror.
Don't let him get me! Don't let him take me!

    I twist away from Muck and look up to see a seedy-lookin' cove dealin' out coins to what my reeling mind sees to be the head of the press-gang, who then bows to this cove and ties the purse around his waist and turns to leave. He goes down to his boat, the boat that brought us here, and casts off.
    Wait! You can't leave yet! Wait for me—
    "MMMMMmmmmmpfff!" I try to yell through the gag. Desperate, I hunch over and manage to pinch twixt my knees a piece of the gag stickin' out of my mouth. I jerk back my head and the spit-soaked rag comes out of my mouth and I get to my knees and I shout, "Stop that boat, you fool, and let me go! I'm a girl!"
    There is a sudden dead silence. I look about and see that I am on some sort of ship, and I look over the starboard side and see land about a half mile off. I try to struggle to my feet, despairing to see the boat pull farther and farther away, but I can't with my hands tied behind me. I can only remain on my knees.
    The seedy-lookin' man peers down at me and smiles. His shirttail is out and his trousers are stained and dirty. He is unshaven and his hair is unruly and uncut. He opens his mouth and says, "Girl, eh? We'll see." He comes up to me and he grabs me by the arm and yanks me to my feet. With his