Compass to Flint's Treasure

Chapter Four: A Bottle of Rum

Jack Sparrow grew more and more frustrated as the day ended. He sat down on the beach beside a fire and pulled the cork from his bottle of rum with his teeth. His crew walked over to him and stood a few feet behind him as he swigged away. "Jack, we've searched everywhere. No sign of her," Gibbs said. Sparrow swallowed hard, "she couldn't have just vanished." Will turner stepped closer to Jack, "I don't know if you've noticed but Rackham's ship is gone." Jack turned and looked up at Will, then toward the bay. He stood and looked at Will, "where are they going?" "I don't know, but he certainly left in a hurry," Will replied. Sparrow raised an eyebrow. "Well let's ask around! Someone around here must know where they're going!" Sparrow announced to his crew. "I know where they're going," a voice called out a few yards from the fire. The ragged man from the opium cave stood there glaring at Sparrow and his crew. Jack made his way over to the man, "what do you know?" "What's it worth to you," the man responded. Jack took a deep breath, glanced over at his crew and back at the ragged man. He pulled a small sack of coins from his pocket, "fifteen shillings, that's all I've got. (A lie)" He handed the man the cash. "A woman came asking about Hornigold's ship—" "what did she look like?" Jack interrupted. "Pale, black hair, a gold chain from her ear to her nose." Jack perked up, "that's her!" The man continued, "A few hours later Captain Jack Rackham came asking about the woman. Another woman shows up yelling that they were heading for Tortuga."

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Laròn laid on a hammock with her hat covering her eyes. She laid on top of her satchel with the compass stored inside. A large man sat on a barrel a few feet from her chomping away at an apple. Loud footsteps stomped down the rickety steps. "Woman! We're here," the man called to Laròn. She jumped up fixing her hat back onto her head and threw on her satchel. When she got up to the deck it was dark and the skies were so clear you could see a million stars and a full moon. Captain Hornigold stood by with his hands behind his back as he watched Tortuga coming up on the left. "We drop anchor here!" The captain called out as he approached Laròn. "John will bring you by dinghy to shore. He will accompany you as you retrieve my gold and bring it back to me as per our agreement," the captain gestured to the large apple-eating man standing behind her. Laròn just nodded. John and Laròn took the dingy ashore and hopped out of the boat pulling it onto the land. John stood tall and close to Laròn as he waited for her to start moving to retrieve the cash. "John is it?" Laròn asked. She was stalling. She was afraid to bring this strange man to one of her many hiding places. She knew she had to but it pained her. John just grunted. Slowly she turned and began to walk. They walked far along the shore line then made their way through some trees inland. This was the long way; the complicated way. If she wanted to, she could've walked straight from the first tavern that stood just feet from where they left the dinghy. She figured the more complicated, the more difficult it would be for him to remember if he ever decided to find it again. Soon they stood in front of a small dark wooden shack. Three steps led up to the porch where a lantern hung next to the door. Laròn reached into her satchel to pull out the flint to light the lantern. She grabbed the lantern and turned to John, "this is going to sound off but would you mind terribly...waiting out here while I fetch the gold?" "I can't do that. My orders were to accompany you."
"And you have. I'm just not comfortable with you coming into my place."
"How do I know that you won't run away? You may just slip out of a window or back door and take off."
Laròn thought for a moment, "what if I keep talking to you while I'm in there—I'LL SING! I'll keep singing out loud so you'll know I'm still here. Deal?" John crosses his arms and looked around. He knew he couldn't trust her but didn't have a clever enough response. "Fine...be quick...and keep singing. If you dare run I'll break your tiny legs." Laròn turned toward the door and began:

"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum...."

Laròn walked in with the lantern and shut the door behind her as she continued to sing. She made her way over to a creaky floor board and quietly lifted it and pushed it aside as she continued singing:

"The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike
The bosun brained with a marlinspike
And cookey's throat was marked belike
It had been gripped by fingers ten;
And there they lay, all good dead men
Like break o'day in a boozing ken.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."

She felt around in the floor pushing boxes and trinkets; small treasures she acquired over years of pirating under Jack Sparrow. Finally she felt a sack of gold four times the size of the one she already handed off to Hornigold. She stood and quietly replaced the board. She could hear John outside the door humming along with her:

"Fifteen men of the whole ship's list
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore
And the scullion he was stabbed times four
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped down in up-staring eyes
In murk sunset and foul sunrise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."

Finally Laròn emerged with the cash. She held it up to John as he stepped toward her. He grabbed it and weighed it in his hands. He kept his eyes on her as he opened the sack and pulled out a few coins to inspect. He just gave her a nod and headed back to the dinghy. Laròn watched him get farther and farther away. Her hand grasped her satchel as her thumb grazed along the edges of the compass. She thought to herself that she needs to find somewhere to hide the compass until she can find a way to go after the treasure herself. It needed to be somewhere no one would look. Just then she remembered on the far side of the island were small caves that you couldn't reach unless you swim into a small cavern covered by thick vines and rocks. No one would ever look there. Laròn made her way there and dug a hole between two large rocks and buried the compass a foot below the surface and then pulled the large vines between the rocks. She was confident there was no way the compass could ever be found. She pulled herself out of the water and started walking back to her shack. She put one foot on her front step and listened as music blared from the tavern just a few yards away. "I need a drink."