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her to look up, shielding her eyes . Standing above her was a tall, burly seaman, obviously uncomfortable.
    “I’ma be needing that rope there, missus,” he told her, careful not to look her in the eye as he spoke . With an apology she leapt to her feet, surrendering her backrest . The sun was well overhead by now, and she leaned over the railing with her arms crossed, clutching her book against her chest . She took a deep breath, letting the salty air wash over her, when she felt again as if she were being watched.
    She dropped her book, and as she bent down to pick it up she covertly looked around . Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lyle, the wind flapping at his greasy hair as he scowled at her . She turned back to the ocean and ignored him, hoping he would go away . The minutes dragged on before she felt him turn his attention to something else.
    “Matthew you incompetent fool! C an’t you do anything right?” She winced . Lyle’s voice was oily and cruel, and she wrapped her shawl more tightly about herself to ward off the sudden chill . She felt bad for Matthew, whoever he was . She was debating going inside to escape the discomfort she felt around the first mate when she noticed something floating in the water .
    At first she thought it was just a piece of drift wood bobbing on the waves, but as it drew closer she realized it was a few planks of wood, probably from the side of a ship, crudely fastened together . And sprawled on top of it was the unmoving body of a boy .
    “Captain, come quickly!” s he cried, straini ng to see if the person was alive.
    “Miss Amber? What seems to be the—” She cut him off by pointing to the raft . “Good Lord, man overboard ! Quickly men, haul him up!”
    The sailors jumped to obey and in minutes had the small boy on the deck, sputtering and coughing water as they pushed on his stomach . Captain Watson took the wool blanket a sailor offered him and dropped it about the boy’s shoulders as he struggled to sit up .
    “Can you tell me your name, lad?”
    “Johnny, sir,” he replied, looking about him . His eyes lit upon Amber and widened, his jaw dropping in surprise . “S’cuse me, Cap’n, but don’t you know its awful bad luck to have a woman on board a ship?”
    He ignore d the comment . “Johnny, is it? Can you tell me how you got to be floating on a raft in the Atlantic Ocean ?”
    “Well sir, I was serving as the cabin boy on the merchant ship Seabreeze , when we was attacked by pirates!” This brought a gasp from the crew . The boy continued, encouraged by their responses . “Aye, pirates. They took my Cap’n aside and demanded to know where he had stored all the goods, and when he refused to tell them, they split him open, spilling his guts all over the deck!” He waved his hands about, excited to have captured the attention of such a large audience . “Then they slaughtered the crew, took everything of value, and burned the ship. I escaped only because they didn’t notice me, and managed to stay afloat on a piece of the wreckage.”
    Captain Watson shuddered, but Amber remained nonplussed . “I’ve not heard many stories of pirates this far north . Do you know the name of the pirate Captain, or his ship?”
    The boy nodded quickly . “Aye, I’ll not be forgetting that ship . A giant frigate, she was, three giant masts, with huge square sails . I counted at least forty guns, and that was only on the port side. It was crewed by over sixty bloodthirsty pirates, armed to the teeth with cutlass and pistol, aching to get their filthy hands on our cargo . The name, I recall, was the Imperial Shadow , the Captai n being called e l Tigre.”
    The crew had gone deathly still, color draining from their faces . One sailor crossed himself .
    “I assume you’ve heard of this e l Tigre, Captain Watson?” Amber asked.
    “Aye,” he spat, “ e l Tigre is a ruthless killer, the scourge of the seas . He’ll take down any ship, paying no heed or mercy to the