The Curse of the Phantom Pirate by I. J. Parnham

Author:I. J. Parnham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Culbin Press
Published: 2022-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Jim Dragon’s first review of the site on the edge of Springdale was a disappointment. He had been anticipating exploring it ever since he’d escaped from Laramie Todd and for the last day he’d resisted the temptation to leave his newfound colleagues, preferring instead to cement his cover story that he was a part of the theater company.

He wasn’t sure whether he’d done that successfully as the theater owner hadn’t questioned him about why he was with the company, but Mr. Giggles seemed to think that he had a right to be there. So at the theater he’d made himself scarce for as much as he dared and, when nobody had drawn him into what seemed as if it would be a lengthy debate about theatrical matters, he’d sneaked away while it was still light enough to explore.

On the way to Springdale he’d kept an eye out for Laramie, who would surely be heading back to Fairport Town soon. Although he hoped that if he did encounter him he wouldn’t be recognized as when he’d been with Pierre only one of Laramie’s men had seen him clearly and that man had been killed.

He sat down on a large rock and tried to recall the few frantic minutes he’d spent here loading rocks on to his wagon. He concluded that he’d taken them from an area near to the building, which he’d learned earlier was the storehouse for the theater.

He shuffled along and found a few holes that looked as if they could have been made when he had prized out rocks. He hunkered down and fingered the dirt in them, using the dying rays of the low sun to seek out a glow that might pinpoint the gold nuggets he suspected were here.

He didn’t spot anything so he shuffled sideways and tossed a few short and broken lengths of wood aside to better examine the ground. He still failed to find anything interesting so he used one of the pieces to scrape dirt away, again without luck. Then he paced backward and sat down with his back resting against the storehouse wall.

“What could be so valuable that Laramie Todd paid good money for it and then attacked Pierre?” he said to himself while rubbing his lucky shark’s tooth.

Then he picked up a piece of wood and raised it to eye level, something about it attracting his attention. It took him a few moments, but when he worked out what was interesting, he smiled and punched the air.

When he’d been chucking rocks into the wagon he’d thrown a few lengths of wood like this one aside. Now that he thought about it he recalled that in his rush to work quickly some pieces had got caught up with the rocks, meaning they would have ended up in the wagon.

He leaned closer to the wood and narrowed his eyes, and after a few moments his gaze caught on a thin and short length of what appeared to be gold. He fingered the object, finding it cold to the touch.

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