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Jack stared at hi Survival
"I’riht, bound froht’ve learned to feed yourself We lost our cook, Mr Mugridge, in a scrape a fewdo with Finn, but he’ll be in no condition to ht that once they chucked hi
"You’ll do his job," Ghost went on "I’m less inclined to kill those who are useful to me Go and acquaint yourself hat’s in our stores It’ll besoon and we’ll want a bit of breakfast And then, for lunch, we’ll be having a special treat"
Jack shuddered at the way Ghost said that, and the captain bared sharp teeth in a grin that seeer than smile
"What’s that?" Jack asked
Ghost gave hi his decision Then he grunted and strode forward, leaving Jack standing on the aft deck without an answer
The first thing Jack did was clean the galley In the months since the previous cook had been "lost," Finn had rease and filth Every surface bore a layer of gri, and Jack set to work long before dawn By the time the sun had risen over the eastaves, he was prepared to cook, although the best he could offer was a s, and rashers of fatty bacon He had inventoried the food available and wanted to conserve the vegetables and meat that were still relatively fresh for dinners
From a quick conversation with Louis he had learned that there were chickens in the hold to provide eggs, and eventually they, too, would be eaten What alley already, having been acquired at their last landfall, only two days before There was reportedly plenty of salted beef and pork, plus dried beans and baskets of sea biscuits, also in the hold But Jack wasn’t allowed down there to check
Even so, he reasoned that though their heading was to the southwest, toward Japan, Ghost reater stores of food They were a sh provisions to iven the threat of scurvy without etables, and half a bushel of apples coer store of fruit He reasoned that it must have been kept only for the officers, but he would not serve it without asking the captain first
In a bucket in a corner, Jack discovered the pelican that had been shot on the deck the previous night This, then, was the treat the ht have turned it into a stew, but the captain’s orders were to preserve the flavor of the bird Jack would fry potatoes and onions in the pan with a liberal dash of spices, and it would make for an excellent lunch But he hi apart from the crew’s special treat He could not eat the creature whose portentous arrival last night had saved his life He wished that he had the gift of life, so that with the touch of a hand hewas not to be Instead, the bird would end up in the bellies of the monsters who crewed the Larsen
Ghost’s remark about lunch had seemed ominous in the darkness before dawn, but now it only confused Jack Could the captain have had an inkling that the pelican had sonificance for Jack? Surely not Which rim expression, Ghost had spoken in jest He seemed an unlikely jokester, but Jack could not read the coht into sharp relief the observations he had been accuh men ere now his crewmates, and their captain
Ghost had been hewn fronorant brutes, and though he e of theerous, he bri behind Ghost’s eyes, the dark and voracious intellect, yet the captain had no manners and no fundamental morality, and Jack could only think thefrom this devil ship far more problematic
"How ye farin’, Cooky?" caalley
Jack tried not to flinch at the nickna Jack" I have a na enough to get off this godforsaken craft
"Tell the men their breakfast is ready," he said "They can eat in shifts at the table there Since no one’s popped up and announced theotta feed the captain and Mr Johansenslips by ye, eh, Cooky?" Kelly jibed
He walked through theprofanities at his fellow sailors as a way of suh for one of the brutish pirates, but still Jack chafed at the invisible bonds of his shipboard captivity He ran through the faces of the crew in his head Aside from Ghost and Johansen, there were Kelly and Louis, Vukovich and Finn, and the huge, uglyiant African, his skin black as pitch, was called Tree The fat otten to ask Louis the names of the silent, bearded Scandinavian twins
Any one of the to kill hi one How could he sleep aht ht They don’t need to wait until you’re asleep And none of theh to kill you unless their captain orders it These points were true, but the former troubled him considerably As he prepared breakfast, he had been wondering about the strength and agility of Ghost and his crew Finn could have torn hith was beyond the power of ordinary men So if the men aboard the Larsen were not ordinary, which Jack’s own experiences made easy to believe, then ere they?
"Sore rualley
Other athered behind him, and Jack took that as his cue He had no desire to spend ti theht of hiswhile he waited to be fed
Jack picked up a huge tray bearing a tureen of oatmeal and plates of biscuits and bacon At the last s for the captain and his first h the cabin to the captain’s quarters