A few days after the Captain recovered from his illness, the children awoke to Manx’s barks and sailors’ shouts.  Prince Edward, Lucie’s young brother, and Lucie had spent the night at Pearly Beetle.  They had slept on the floor of Mona’s room because the guest rooms were occupied by the crew of the Sweet William. 

All three sat up from their blankets and listened to try and understand what was happening.  The sounds blended together and the children couldn’t tell what was going on.  Mona threw off her covers and ran to the window.  Prince Edward and Lucie followed.  Mona gasped.  There, anchored next to the Sweet William, was a terrifying ship.  A black and white flag flapped on the mast. Mona could just make out its skeleton symbol. She shivered. The Jolly Roger leered and waved over the water.

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“They’re early,” she whispered.  Through her open door, Mona could see several sailors on the landing.  The children hurried into the hall.

“We’re under attack!” shouted the Captain. 

“Where’s Nanny?”  Mona asked him.  He didn’t seem to hear her. Mona grabbed his hand and asked again. 

“Out, out—she left me responsible,” said the Captain distractedly.  He put a hand over his eyes. “She’s gonna be awful mad when she comes back.” 

“How do you know we’re under attack?  Those pirates might be friendly enough,” said Lucie.

“Oh, no, Miss Lucie, those are them same pirates we tricked and they’ll be wantin’ their treasure and— revenge! Ther ship’s called the Water Strider, and the Captain’s Emilio Mercy, cause ‘mercy’ is what people ask fer when they meet ’em.  He’s famous fer the steal glint that sparks in his eye.  Well, if ya see that glint, ya won’t be livin’ long after that.”

“Captain, how could his eye spark?  And if you don’t live long after you see it, how could he be famous for it?” asked Mona. 

The Captain didn’t answer because just then there was a loud clang at the door.

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“Don’t let ’em break the fort!” yelled the Captain, as he ran down the stairs to try and reach the door in time.  The girls, Prince Edward, and a crew of half-dressed sailors rushed forward after the Captain, but the door flew open before anyone had reached it. 

Pirates swarmed into the hall.  For a moment, their weapons gleamed and reflected the sunlight.  Both men and women filled the room.  The pirates wore ordinary clothes, but with more tatters and stains than the average crew of sailors exhibited.  Their faces were of every color and shape, but all were drawn into the same haunting scowl.  Mona recognized the pirate captain because he was tall, handsome, dressed extraordinarily well, he wore a fancy hat, and because of a sudden flash of steel in his left eye, just as Captain Malarkey had described.

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Mona gulped down her heart.  No one moved and Pearly Beetle was dead quiet.  Manx too stared at the pirates.  All of a sudden, there was a loud thud as Captain Malarkey dived from the stairs and hit the pirate captain with the full force of his body.  They rolled on the ground as other sailors jumped off the stairs and knocked pirates to the floor with a racket like the fall of bowling pins.  The pirates had not expected an attack from above, so many lost hold of their weapons as they fell.  Fighting crashed against the furniture and wrestling bodies turned up the fine, ancient rugs. A few pirates broke free of the Captain’s crew, but most were held tight as bedfellows. Pirates who stood were knocked down again by sailors using whatever was nearest at hand as weapons.  Some sailors broke off table legs; others held umbrellas above their heads ready to strike.  It was hard to hear anything above the grunts and cries of men and women.  The sounds of battle were not elegant.

Captain Malarkey had released Captain Emilio Mercy to enter the thick of it all, bellowing like a bull elephant.  The Captain rushed at a party of pirates with an artful piece of driftwood.  The tides seemed to have turned to favor the sailors and they were able to greatly reduce the number of conscious pirates.  The children watched as one sailor knocked a pirate with a metal watering can.  Tall and yellowish, the sailor smiled and waved triumphantly at Mona.

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“Oh, what would Nanny say,” shouted Mona, as she looked at the broken furniture. 

“This is fun!” shouted Lucie, as she watched pirates chase sailors from the hall to the parlor.  Prince Edward started to climb toward the fight as though to join, but both Mona and Lucie reached down to stop him.

“I think we should try to stop them before Nanny gets home—” began Mona.  Lucie didn’t respond.  She was completely enthralled in the battle.  Mona waited a few seconds, but Lucie still didn’t reply.

“Lucie,” Mona said.

“Okay, okay, how’ll we stop them?” asked Lucie. 

Mona thought for a moment.  “Maybe, if we close all the drapes, it will be too dark for them to see and they won’t know who they’re fighting—so they’ll stop.”

“We can try it,” said Lucie. 

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The girls went for the windows.  Lucie carried Prince Edward.  They passed a pirate on the ground.  He bore a number of sizable red bumps like bee stings.  Mona drew the drapes on one window and then another.  The room grew dimmer, but light still shone from one of the adjacent rooms.  They dodged the standing brawls and made it into the parlor.

“There,” said Mona, as she pulled shut the last two drapes over the huge parlor windows and Lucie, with a squirming Prince Edward tucked under one arm,  closed the curtains on the other side of the parlor. 

A number of angry shouts rose out of the darkness.  The darkness made it difficult to discern furniture from figures of pirates and sailors.  Mona tried to find Lucie and Prince Edward, but suddenly, she was slapped like a mosquito and hit her head against the wall.

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“Ouch,” she said and rubbed her head. 

“Sorry, thought ya was a pirate,” floated Captain Malarkey’s voice out of the darkness.  She was about to pull herself up when she heard a peculiar noise.  A number of eerie screams had risen throughout the chaos at times, but above the quieted battle there came another sound.  A long and low hiss and the bright summer day broke from the open front door.  Mona saw from whence the sound came.

“Nanny,” she called brightly.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” demanded Nanny.  She clopped towards the window and opened the drapes.  The sailors and the pirates slunk from the light as it displayed evidence of the battle.  They hid their weapons behind their backs and waved swollen fingers.  Emilio Mercy winced when the light shone on his face and a deep gash was visible across his left cheek.  Mona saw the steel glint had vanished from his eye.

Nanny’s lips pursed further and further as each drape was drawn until she looked like she had just finished a bucket of lemons.  When the rooms were bright again, Nanny turned to the pirates and the sailors.  Her glasses were lowered to the very tip of her nose.  Mona had never seen Nanny so angry. 

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“Now, you listen to me,” she said to everyone, “you all were coming here as guests.  You arrived early and you waged war on our house, on us, and on our current visitors.  See here, we can talk about this and get it straightened out, or you can leave, but I warn you I’ll call the Coast Guard if there is one more inch of fighting here.” 

Nanny took a deep breath. In an obvious effort to calm herself, she pressed her palms together, slowly lowering them, still clasped, to her waist. “Now let’s try to resolve this mess. Whatever could possibly have caused this—” began Nanny, but Captain Malarkey interrupted her.

“Wait, wait, Miss Nanny—hold here a minute! Pirates were on their way to Pearly Beetle?” He appeared dumbfounded. The Captain turned toward Emilio Mercy, then swung back to Nanny. “How could ya be letting them stay on the island? Why didn’t ya didn’t warn us? They’re after our lives, Ma’am. Probably kill you and the children just ta make clean of it.”

“Well,” said Nanny, “I didn’t expect them early, and anyway, it’s no business of yours to know who my guests will be. Mona and I are not concerned with rivalries of the sea.”

 “Ma’am, we’s early ’cause of the summons we received in this here jar,” said a pirate on Nanny’s left.  He had very dark skin and a pretty green belt around his waist.   

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Nanny peered at the jar. She slowly tuned and looked at Mona. Pirates, sailors, and the Captain followed her gaze.

Feeling all eyes on her, Mona felt her cheeks turn red. “Sorry,” she murmured.

“When we done seen the very ship that had stole our treasure a few weeks back, “continued the pirate, “we was angry.”

“That’s correct.  Our deepest apologies,” said Captain Mercy.  He bowed to Nanny, but she put her hands on her hips and ignored him.

“Humph,” said Nanny, “See Captain Malarkey—your comeuppance—not that you haven’t received enough already.  But now you can give back their cargo and make up for what you started.”

“But Nanny,” cried Mona, “the Captain was cursed because of that treasure!  He should get to keep it.  And it’s all my fault the pirates came early.”

“It’s up to the Captain,” said Nanny. “I’m not his mother.”

She turned on her heel.  “But Captain, I warn you, if you don’t return that treasure—and I mean every last nickel of it—you won’t ever come to Pearly Beetle again.” 

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No one spoke for several minutes.  The Captain seemed to weigh his options on a mental scale, but his heart was heavy.

“Alright,” said the Captain gruffly, “we’ll return it.”  He turned away from Nanny and slunk into the parlor.

“Now, there seem to be a number of wounded men.  We’ll send for a doctor.  Mr. McCreedy?” Nanny turned to Captain Malarkey’s first mate. 

Despite being first mate, Mr. McCreedy was a seedy little man with sticky yellow hair, whom no one much liked. He had crawled up the ranks of men partially due to Captain Malarkey’s pity and the kind Captain’s attempts to help anyone who resembled a sinking ship.

“Yes’m.”

“Please go to shore to get a doctor, while I bandage everyone as best I can and straighten up this mess.  Everyone else, sit down and don’t touch anything.”

Yes’m,” grumbled Mr. McCreedy. 

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The girls set Prince Edward up on the floor of the parlor with books and toys, then went to help.  Nanny brought the injured men into the kitchen.  Captain Malarkey and Lucie carried in extra chairs.  The rest of the sailors and pirates migrated into the living room and parlor. Mona followed the healthy crews into the living room to make sure they could seat themselves without getting into another fight.  The sailors scrunched together on the couch with their limbs pressed up against each other.  They whispered, flipped through coffee table books, whistled, and looked often in the direction of the pirates. 

On the other side of the room, pirates dozed in armchairs, or sat cross-legged on the floor reading newspapers and magazines.  Manx sat down by a pirate with a wooden arm who reached down and rubbed the dog’s ears.  Manx licked the pirate.  They all looked a bit unnatural.   Mona felt she ought to offer them something.

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“Does anyone want chicory coffee?” asked Mona.  No one spoke.  Those who were not reading, whispering, or dozing eyed each other and then stared at Mona.  Mona shook her head and left the room to help Nanny, Lucie, and Captain Malarkey, who were bandaging the injured. 

As she walked, Mona inventoried the damage to the house. She mentally took note of the living room and lounge. Despite the battle, it did not look as though Pearly Beetle was badly damaged.  A coffee table had been broken and one of the legs had been ripped off.  Several chairs had been upended and the lining was badly torn on one.  Nanny’s watering can leaned against the wall.  It had a large dent in it.  There was blood on the floor in some places and the rugs were wrinkled up and turned all wrong, but Mona considered these things trivial, and thought Pearly Beetle to be lucky overall.  She proceeded to the kitchen.

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