The Convicts: The Curse of the Jolly Stone Trilogy by Iain Lawrence

Author:Iain Lawrence
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Thirteen-year-old boys, Social Science, London (England), Ocean travel, Resourcefulness, Tin, Parents, Missing persons, Law & Crime, Penology, Juvenile Fiction, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Runaways, Murder, London (England) - History - 19th century, Fiction, Runaway teenagers, Family, Action & Adventure, Prisoners, General, Tom (Fictitious character), Fathers
ISBN: 9780440419327
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2006-08-22T02:08:55+00:00

From the darkness of the ship came a sudden cry of pain. High and shrill, it jolted through me, setting my nerves tingling, my heart racing.

“Lie still, Tom,” whispered Midgely. His fingers were hooked on the edge of his hammock, but all the rest of him was hidden inside it. “Don't even move,” he said.

The cry came again, then a thump and a scuttling sound. My mind turned the noises into visions: a boy curled on the floor with his hands on his face; feet kicking; fists pummeling.

“Ain't nothing you can do,” said Midge in his whisper. “It ain't you they're after, Tom. Lie still and wait.”

Wait for what? I wondered. No, it wasn't me they were after. Not that night, at least, or not that hour. But my turn would come; I knew it. “Midge,” I said. I reached across and shook his hammock. “Show me where the hull is rotten.”

“Now?” he said.

I didn't wait another moment. I slid from my hammock and crouched on the floor. The faintest of light came in through the grates, making gray of the black space between the floor and the bulging hammocks. With a soft tinkle of his irons, Midgely came down beside me. We crawled below the sleeping boys, along the deck to a distant grating. The light of the stars shining up from the water glowed dimly on Midge's face. He touched the wood at the base of the wall, then rapped with his fist. He did the same at the next grating, and the one after, before he looked at me and said, “Here. Look at the spirketing, Tom.”

“The what?”

He took my hand and put it on a thick plank just above the deck. Even in this faint light I could see a patch of wood darker than the rest. “Tap it,” Midgely said. The patch was soft and spongy.

“That's rot,” he said. “There ain't enough of it here, but that's what it's like. Smell it, Tom.”

I put my nose close to the wood. The smell was rich and earthy, like mushrooms in a cellar. It tickled my nostrils.

“That's what you want,” said Midge.

We went right thrQugh the ship, up and down the ladders. Once we heard the boyish voices of the nobs, and once the march of heavy footsteps. As they came toward us, Midgely pressed me into the shadows behind a ladder. On the deck above, a guard went by in a circle of light from the lantern he carried. It made huge sweeping shadows of his legs.

“You said they didn't come down at night,” I whispered when the guard had wandered by.

“I said they don't stay” said Midge. “They come on their rounds sometimes.”

We held our irons tightly so they wouldn't rasp against the wood, and went up and down, back and forth, until I was hopelessly lost. Then somehow, in the darkness, we parted. I suddenly found myself alone, with no idea where I was. “Midge!” I called, as loudly as I dared. “Midgely!” But there was no answer.

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