Port of Spies by Brian James

Author:Brian James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2010-12-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Rotten Report

Rotten Tooth was waiting for us on the deck of the Sea Rat. We formed a straight line in front of him. Then we gave him a salute. Even if he was mean and rotten, he was still our teacher.

“Pirate Pete reporting for duty,” I said.

Rotten Tooth scratched his pointy beard and flashed a green-toothed smile. “Arrr! Did ye sprogs get everything on the list?”

“Aye aye!” Vicky said.

“Every last thing,” Inna said. Then she pinched her nose. “Even the hog’s head,” she told him.

Rotten Tooth went over to the boxes and started to count them. But pirates aren’t very good at counting, so he stopped at five. “Arrr! I’ll take ye word for it,” he said.

Then he told us we were dismissed for the day.

“Arrr! But don’t you want to hear our report?” I asked.

Rotten Tooth looked confused. “What report be that?” he asked.

I looked at Vicky and made a silly face.

She covered her mouth to hide a giggle.

“He forgot about the sneaky part of our mission,” I whispered.

Only I didn’t whisper it quietly enough, because Rotten Tooth heard me. He had the best hearing on the ship. Sometimes I thought he could hear things that hadn’t even been whispered yet.

“Arrr! What’s this about a sneaky part?” he asked.

“You told us to keep our eyes and ears open,” I reminded him. “We did! And we saw a lot of suspicious stuff,” I said.

“Aye! We think there are rival pirates on King’s Island,” Gary added. “We think they might have followed us around.”

Rotten Tooth started to snicker. He didn’t believe us. So Inna pulled the list from her pocket. She stepped up to Rotten Tooth and showed it to him. “Aye, and here’s the proof!” she said.

Rotten Tooth started to read the list.

Then he started to laugh. Soon he was laughing so hard, he filled the sails.

“What’s so funny?” Aaron asked.

Rotten Tooth folded the list and tried his best to stop laughing. “Ye scurvy litter have a wild imagination,” he said. He said there was nothing suspicious about the stuff on our list.

“Aye? What about the hat store?” I asked.

“Aye! And the map store?” Aaron added.

“Aye, and the mean looks?” Gary asked.

Rotten Tooth laughed again. Then he told us that those stores sell things for landlubbers, not pirates. “And all landlubbers think pirates be a bit dirty. That’s why they gave you dirty looks. Ye savvy?”

I thought about that. I reached under my pirate hat and scratched my head. I guess landlubbers wouldn’t need pirate hats or treasure maps.

“Soggy sails,” I moaned. “All our spying was for nothing!”

“Stow that talk, little matey!” a voice boomed.

I looked up and saw Captain Stinky Beard standing next to Rotten Tooth. I gave him a quick salute and he saluted back.

“Let me see that,” he said to Rotten Tooth. Rotten Tooth handed the captain our list. Captain Stinky Beard read it very carefully.

We all gave each other nervous looks. We were afraid he would start laughing, too.

“Hmm! King’s Island has been known to have its share of spies,” he said after a while.

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