The Little Jane Silver 2-Book Bundle. Adira Rotstein

would be powerless to stop it.

      That evening Bonnie Mary mentioned her reservations to Long John.

      He chalked the crew’s low spirits up to boredom. Though they had not been at sea long, as maritime voyages went, if boredom was indeed the culprit of the crew’s widespread malaise, then they were in deep trouble.

      Of all the enemies a captain may face at sea, boredom is one of the most difficult to combat. Ask any ship’s captain and he’ll tell you straight off he’d much rather deal with scurvy. At least one can suck a lime for that.

      Bonnie Mary and Long John decided a little light weapons practice might provide some entertainment and improve crew morale. Swords were all good and well at close range, but for the long-range tactical response a musket on one’s shoulder was vastly preferable. With no ships in sight to attack at the moment, the crew had to be kept in fighting form through target practice, too, and so the floating buoys with their fluttering paper targets were put out.

      They bobbed about in the ocean now, still attached to the Pieces by their mooring ropes. Long John had a standing bet with the crew that anyone who bested him in shooting practice was to receive a ration of double biscuits and grog for a week. So far, only Bonnie Mary and Sharpeye Sharpova had ever done it, and that at very close margins indeed, but this never prevented the rest of the crew from trying.

      Long John, Changez, Lobster Duncan, and twelve others took their turns first. The paper targets were pulled in, the holes counted and new ones put out.

      Long John leaned back against the foremast to prepare for a nice relaxing smoke. He hoped he wouldn’t win by too much this time. He turned out his pockets before realizing he’d left his pipe in the cabin.

      “Little Jane—”

      “Yes, Papa — Sir!” said Little Jane, happy to be called upon for something.

      “Fetch me pipe, from the cabin.”

      “Aye-aye, sir,” she said and caught the key ring he threw to her.

      She put her small hand through the brass hoop of the key ring. Wearing the tangle of keys like a bracelet, she scampered off below decks.

      Little Jane went down to their cabin in the stern of the ship and unlocked the door. Her father’s pipe took some finding. Shots continued to go off overhead as she searched. She finally discovered the elusive object languishing in the corner by the rubbish bin where it must’ve landed after taking a tumble off the desk.

      Walking through the narrow passage midships Little Jane noticed she was not alone below decks. Just down the narrow hall she thought she spied Ned Ronk, going about some business, completely unaware of her presence. She watched as he locked the door to the powder room, the chamber where the guns and gunpowder were stored, before climbing up the ladder to the main deck.

      She could think of no good reason for the boatswain to be down there when he was supposed to be topside watching the shooting practice.

      What sinister purpose can he be up to? she wondered. As soon as her nemesis was safely out of the hold, Little Jane went to the powder room to see.

      The door was locked as always. She tried a few of the keys from the bunch her father gave her, and was unsurprised to see them fail. There must’ve been forty keys or more on that ring. Not to mention that the locks on the Pieces were often rusty. Even with the right key, Little Jane failed to open them more often than not.