Explosive Adventures Read Free Page A

two of the pies which Hermione’s father had made. It was dark now, and everybody felt lonely and far from home. The sea around them was gentle, with only the smallest of waves, and the sky above was a great dome of stars. You feel bigger on land, thought Lucy. Out here you feel very, very small.
    The best place for the watch was right at the front of the ship. Sitting there in the darkness, one would see the lights ofany approaching ship and there would be plenty of time to wake Captain Foster. Sam felt very nervous during his watch, but nothing happened while he was up there and eventually the time came for him to go off to wake his sister. He felt very proud of himself, and very pleased that his duties were over.
    Lucy took some time to wake up, but eventually she struggled out of her hammock and made her way up on deck. The hours seemed to pass very slowly, but at last she too was finished, and it was Hermione’s turn.
    Nothing at all happened that night, and the children were beginning to feel a bitmore confident by the time that Captain Foster got up and started the engines again. Soon they were ploughing through the sea once more, with a fresh wind behind them helping them on their way, and wonderful-smelling breakfast sizzling away on the cooker.
    After breakfast, they again took it in turns to sit up on deck and keep a lookout. Other ships were sighted now, but each time that Captain Foster was called he looked through his telescope and shook his head.
    “Banana boat on the way from Barbados,” he would say. Or, “Pleasure yacht from Florida, going over to the Caymans.”
    There was no sign of the pirates, and everybody began to think that the last time they had struck it had just been bad luck. Perhaps that was the last they had heard from them, and the pirates would just be a bad memory.
    Then, shortly after lunch, while Sam was keeping lookout, he gave an excited shout.
    “Captain!” he called. “A ship off to starboard, coming our way, I think!”
    Captain Foster came out of the wheelhouse and put his telescope to his right eye. Lucy and Hermione strained their eyes to see too, but the ship was too far away and it still looked no more than a black smudge on the horizon.
    Captain Foster lowered his telescope and frowned.
    “I don’t like the look of that,” he said. “I can’t be certain – it’s still a bit far away – but I’m going to increase our speed a little and change our course by a few degrees. You keep a very close watch on her, will you?”
    He passed the telescope to Lucy and pointed in the direction of the distant ship.
    “Let me know the moment she does anything unusual,” he said. “I’ll be in the wheelhouse.”
    Lucy took the telescope and trained it on the other ship. She could make out abit more now, but it was still very far away. As she did so, she heard the note of the ship’s engine change slightly as Captain Foster increased speed.
    For the next fifteen minutes, the children kept an eye on the distant ship. It seemed to be on the same course asthemselves, they thought, and very slowly it was getting closer. They were now able to make out its masts, and at one point Lucy thought that she could see one or two people on the deck.

    “Go and tell Captain Foster that it’s following us,” Lucy said to Sam.
    Sam passed on the message and Captain Foster came up on deck and took the telescope from Lucy. He studied the other ship for a few moments, and then lowered the telescope.
    “It’s them,” he said. “I recognise their ship!”
    “Can’t we go any faster?” asked Hermione. “Can’t we just sail away from them?”
    Captain Foster sighed. “I’m going full speed as it is,” he said. “But they’ve got a pretty stiff wind behind them and they’re gaining ground.”
    The children looked at Captain Foster in dismay. Did this mean that the pirates would catch them? And if they did, what then? Would they all be tied to the mast, as the pirates had done to