Stormy Seas: Part 20

    “Cap'n sure seems mad at you,” Clark said outside my door. I was sitting on the stool as far away from him as I could get. I was guessing from the length of time he had been there that he was supposedly guarding me.
    “After awhile she stops being nice to people who make her mad.”
    “Why do you let a woman order you around anyway?” I asked him.
    “We'd have all been hanged years ago if not for Stratt,” he said. “She knows pirating better than anyone else.”
    “I wonder how she learned it,” I scoffed.
    “Thinking about joining our humble crew?” he laughed.
    I ignored him. I was tired of talking to him anyway.
    I sighed to myself, considering my predicament. It seemed like there was nothing for me to do but listen to Clark talk all the way back to England.
    You got yourself into this foolish mess, I thought. Surely there must be some way to get yourself out of it again.
    I reached up to the porthole near my head and started fiddling with it to see if I could open it. It was far too small to escape through, and even then there was nothing but open ocean for me to escape to, but it gave me something to do.
    “Think of it this way,” Clark was still talking out in the hall. “All your little friends will be amazed that you survived all this. You'll probably be some sort of hero.”
    I rolled my eyes and continued fiddling with the porthole, hoping for a latch of some sort. I grew tired of fiddling very quickly. The whole thing was tightly bolted together.
    I decided to change tactics, and possibly see some more of the ship. Maybe I would get another idea.
    “Where is the lavatory?” I asked Clark.
    “There's a bucket in there,” he laughed.
    My eyes narrowed at the laughter coming from behind the door. I grabbed the bucket by the handle, stood up, and smashed the bucket against the wooden door. Hard.
    The laughing stopped as soon as the bucket hit the floor.
    “I want to speak to the Captain,” I demanded. What I really wanted was to get out of this cell, and maybe find some way to send help for Eldon and the others.
    “Stratt's not going to build a toilet for you,” Clark said in response.
    I kicked the door to make sure I still had his attention. “Not about that!” I practically screamed.
    “What then?” he asked.
    “About everything,” I said.
    “Captain's busy,” he replied.
    “Busy ordering everyone around?” I prepared to give the door another good kick.
    “Busy interrogating another prisoner,” he said.
    “Another prisoner?” What other prisoner? Who else are they holding for ransom?
    “He escaped earlier and they trapped him in the coal store.”
    “Who?” I asked.
    “From your ship, they said his name was Palmer.”
    “Eldon!”
    I realized too late that I had said his name aloud.
    “Aha!” Now I really had Clark's attention.
    A key turned in the lock and Clark swung the door open. “Maybe Stratt would like to see you.” He grabbed me by the arm and half dragged me out into the hallway.
    “Captain?” Clark knocked politely on her door, still holding my arm so tightly that I was beginning to lose feeling in my fingers.
    “What is it?” Stratt's sharp voice demanded from inside.
    “A friend of the prisoner's,” Clark said.
    He waited until Stratt allowed him to open the door. She seemed curious but when she saw me she didn't look the least bit surprised.
    Eldon turned around to see me and didn't look surprised either. He was standing in the middle of the room with his hands tied behind his back and every inch of him smeared with coal dust.
    “So is that how you ended up on that ship?” Stratt asked me. “I was wondering.”
    “We met on board,” Eldon answered casually.
    “Too bad.” Stratt was laughing at us with her eyes.
    I noticed a Transligraph in a little cupboard behind Stratt's desk. I had used one before on an airship with Aunt. It was used to send and translate messages without having to know morse code. It must mean that, for all her knowledge of ships, Stratt had not learned to use morse code and needed this machine to send, receive, and intercept messages at sea.
    “What will happen to Vivian?” Eldon was asking Stratt. They had resumed their conversation.
    “We're holding her for ransom,” Stratt said. She sat down on her desk and took off her feathered hat.
    “Good,” Eldon said.
    Clark was still in the room. If he left I might be able to knock Stratt out and send a message for help out before she came around. I began looking for something to hit her with.
    “Won't you sit down Miss Winters?” Stratt said to me. She waved at the armchair she had been sitting in earlier.
    “Thank you,” I said politely. I took a more strategic seat in a wooden chair a little more to the side. Clark was watching us all.
    Stratt dismissed him with a wave and he left, shutting the door behind him.
    “Aren't you wondering what will happen to you now?” Stratt asked Eldon. “I obviously can't keep you around now that I know you can escape, and I'll have to show your friends that they won't get away with anything they try.”
    “You'll slit my throat in front of them?” Eldon asked. I was horrified for a moment but then I saw how Stratt was reacting.
    “I take no pleasure in slitting throats, Mr. Palmer,” she said. She was smiling. I was getting the impression that she liked Eldon.
    “You don't seem very old fashioned, so I'll rule out walking the plank,” Eldon continued.
    Stratt stood and started circling him. “I can be old fashioned when it strikes my fancy,” she said.
    She had her back turned to me for a moment. I glanced at the Transligraph and then for something I could club Stratt over the head with. My eyes met Eldon's, which were looking at me sternly.
    “No!” he mouthed.
    “I was thinking about something else though,” Stratt came around in front of Eldon again and leaned close to him. He stared straight ahead instead of down at her smiling sensuously up at him. “I'm always in need of more crew,” she said. She had her back turned to me.
    I stopped listening and stood as quietly as I could and tried to keep my skirts from rustling. I opened the little door to the Transligraph and started tapping out my message on the keys. They made faint clicking sounds as I typed out the words “Help. Prisoner.” The S key stuck and made a sharp metallic click when I released it.
    Then there was another click. The sound of a pistol cocking right behind my head.