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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

WHEN MYeyes opened, I was lying in a haht I was back in the Cirque Du Freak I looked over to tell Harkat about a weird dreaons - but when I did, I saw that I was in a poorly built shack There was a strangecurved knife

"Who are you?" I shouted, falling out of the hammock "Where a his knife aside "Sorry t’ trouble ye, young ’un I atching over ye while ye slept We get an awful lot o’ crabs and scorpions here I didn’t want ’e Harkat!" he bellowed "Yer wee friend’s awake!"

The door to the shack swung open and Harkat stepped in The three scars froht with the panther were as prominent as usual, but he didn’t look any the worse for wear otherwise "Afternoon, Sleeping Beauty," he grinned "You’ve been out for - al shakily "And who’s this?"

"Spits Abra forward into the beae hole in the roof He was a broad, bearded ht, with s and curly, tied back with coloured pieces of string He wore a faded brown jacket and trousers, a dirty white vest, and knee-high black boots He was s several teeth, while the others were discoloured and jagged "Spits Abra out a hand "Pleased t’ meet ye"

I took the rip - and shook it warily, wondering who he was and how I’d wound up here

"Spits rescued you froon attack - and drop you He dragged you out and was - waiting for you to dry whenI waded out He got a shock when - he saw me, but I convinced him I was harmless We carried you here, to his - ho for you - to wake"

"Many thanks, Mr Abra hed "I jest fished ye out, same as any other fisherman would’ve"

"You’re a fisherman?" I asked

"Of a sort," he beamed "I used t’ be a pirate ’fore I ended up here, and ’twas people I fished fer But since there ain’tfer em"

"A pirate?" I blinked "A real one?"

"Aaarrr, Darren lad," he growled, then winked

"Let’s go outside," Harkat said, seeing my confusion "There’s food on the fire and - your clothes are dry and repaired"

I realized I was only wearing my underpants, so I hurried out after Harkat, foundon a tree, and slipped thereen patch a stretch of rocky soil The shack was built in the shelter of two sarden out back

"That’s where I grows h I has one ’r then I takes a fancy - but fer brewing poteen My grandfather came fro froht me all his secrets I never bothered before I washed up here - I prefer whisky - but since spuds is all I can grow, I has t’ make do"

Dressed, I sat by the fire and Spits offeredinto the fish, I ate ravenously, silently studying Spits Abrams, not sure what to make of him

"Want some poteen to wash that doith?" Spits asked

"I wouldn’t," Harkat advised me "I tried it and it ive it a h tolerance for alcohol, and could drink just about anything If the poteen had made his eyes water, it’d probably blow o on," Spits encouraged ht blind ye, but Won’t kill ye ’Twill put hairs on yer chest!"

"I’ the jug of poteen aside "I don’t want to be rude, Spits, but who are you and how did you get here?"

Spits laughed at the question "That’s what this ’un asked too, the first ti at Harkat with his thumb "I’ve told him all about myself these last couple o’ days - did a helluva lot o’ talking fer a man who ain’t said a word fer five or six years! I won’t go through the whole thing again, just give ye the quick lon"

Spits had been a pirate in the Far East in the 1930s Although piracy was a "dying art" (as he put it), there were still ships which sailed the seas and attacked others in the years before World War II, plundering the on one of the pirate ships after years of ordinary naval service (he said he was shanghaied, though his eyes shifted cagily, and I got the feeling he wasn’t being honest) "ThePrince o’ Pariahs was ’er name" He beae o’ the waters wherever ent"

It was Spits’s job to fish people out of the sea if they jumped in when they were boarded "Two reasons we didn’t like leaving ’em there," he said "One was that we didn’t want ’em to droas pirates, not killers The other was that the ones who ju jewels or other such valuables - only the rich is that scared of being robbed!"

Spits got that shifty look in his eyes again when he was talking about fishing people out, but I said nothing about it, not wanting to offend the ht, thePrince of Pariahs found itself at the centre of a fierce storm Spits said it was the worst he’d ever experienced, "and I been through just about everything that old sow of a sea can throw at a rabbed a sturdy plank, sos of whisky and the nets he used to fish for people, and ju I know, I’ed aloshes waiting fer me"Mr Tiny! "He told me I’d come to a place far from the one I knew, and I was stuck He said this was a land o’ dragons, awful dangerous fer humans, but there was a shack where I’d be safe If I stayed there and kept a watch on the lake, two people would co eventually, and they could rowing nearby and brought so ever since, five ’r six years near as I can figure"

I thought that over, staring froain "What did he mean when he said we’d be able to make your dreams come true?" I asked

"I suppose he et me home" Spits’s eyes shifted nervously "That’s the only dreaet back where there’s woer than a puddle in sight - I’ve had enough o’ seas and lakes!"

I wasn’t sure I believed that was all the pirate had on his mind, but I let theabout the land ahead "Not a whole lot," he answered "I’ve done soons keep me pinned hereoff too far with the to pounce"

"There’s more than one?" I frowned