Whaling City Vampires: Love Beyond Death

  Chapter 10

  Evening came with claps of thunder and driving rain accompanying bright flashes of lightening that turned the darkness into glimpses of daylight. The usual sounds of the household overhead could not be heard over the concert of the weather when Amy and Ruthie arose. The heavy precipitation in addition to the humidity of the previous day made the basement more musty smelling and darker than ever.

  "Must we go out in this weather, Ruthie?" Amy pouted as she stood outside her coffin, "My dress will be ruined as well as my hair. Besides, no one will be out in this weather to feed upon. I'm sure even your dockworker will have found shelter from this storm."

  "Now, Amy," Ruthie scolded as she began to dress, "if your dress is ruined, we can get you a new one tomorrow after the rain is over. As for your hair, nobody's gonna see it anyways."

  "Well, I'll know it's in ruins. If Robert returns tonight, I want my hair to be the way he expects it to be," Amy stopped pouting at the thought of a new dress and began to fix her hair, "I suppose I can wear my cloak and keep the hood over my head tonight."

  "That's a good idea," Ruthie pointed toward Amy with her hairbrush as she brushed her own hair, "If he truly loves you like you say, he'll be so happy to see you again he won't care how your hair looks."

  Pulling their cloaks snuggly around themselves, the hoods completely over their heads except for the exposure necessary to be able to see where they were going, the vampires departed the lair in search of the pirate. Rounding the corner of the house they peered out from under their hoods to be sure no guards or loiterers were near the courthouse. The weather worked in their favor in that respect and they were quickly across the muddy street and moving carefully down the slope alongside the courthouse building toward the rear where the jail cells were located. Amy seemed to know exactly where to go and Ruthie followed close behind.

  "How do you know which cell he is in?" Ruthie asked as Amy deliberately stopped below a cell window.

  "I used to skate on the pond here in the winter when I was a girl, "Amy explained, "The jailer would step outside occasionally and visit with the children at the pond. He would tell us stories of criminals and vagrants he would keep watch over. His office is toward that end of the building and he fills the cells closest to his area first. So I'm thinking the pirate must be at this end of the building as he was the latest prisoner taken in."

  "Let's turn to vapor and get up to the window," Ruthie suggested.

  "Yes, but be careful," Amy warned.

  "Will other prisoners be able to see into his cell?' Ruthie asked with concern.

  "No," Amy answered, "there are brick walls between the cells. I meant to be careful the jailer isn't nearby when we drop in."

  "You mean we are actually going to make ourselves known to the pirate?" Ruthie asked incredulously.

  Ruthie, smiling in excitement to meet a real pirate, vaporized and Amy, wafting up the wall, followed her to the cell window directly above their heads. No movements were seen or voices heard as they traveled from the window to the floor of the cell. The man lying with his back toward the girls on a mat against the wall that divided his cell from the next seemed to be asleep. Amy found a lamp and a match and filled the cell with light and in doing so dimmed the effect of the lightening that could still be seen flashing outside the window.

  Amy held the lamp over the prisoner to allow Ruthie to get a glimpse of his face. Ruthie cautiously leaned over him to peer into as much of his sleeping face as could be seen as his eyes quickly and alarmed opened. Surprised, Ruthie jumped back away from him slightly as Amy still held the lamp steadily over him.

  "Would you mind moving that light away from me?" He asked angrily, "there ain't nothing to do here but sleep and now you're depriving me of even that." The pirate hadn't seen who was holding the light and wasn't aware that more than one person kept him company as he held his position facing the wall. When he heard Ruthie speak, he jumped up to a sitting position.

  "Sorry," whispered Ruthie timid but excited, "I just wanted to see what a real pirate looks like and smells like," Amy and Ruthie took a sniff of the air near the pirate and looked at each other in a moment of confusion as the pirate looked past the lamp Amy held and saw he had not one but two visitors.

  Ruthie and Amy looked at the pirate in amazement and Amy exclaimed in a whisper, "You're a woman!"

  "You led us to the wrong cell," Ruthie accused Amy "now what will we do?"

  "How did you two get in here? Did the jailer let you in?" the woman asked still wondering who her visitors were and how and why they were in her cell.

  "Why are you imprisoned?" Amy ignored Ruthie's question in order to clear up her confusion.

  "Why should I tell you anything?" the woman was defensive, "you answer my questions then maybe I'll answer yours."

  "We were looking for the pirate brought in last night," Amy explained, "we wanted to meet him before he was hung. Actually, Ruthie-this is Ruthie," Amy held the lamp toward Ruthie's face which betrayed a panicked expression, "wanted to see a real pirate."

  "Is that so?" the inmate smirked, "and where have you been all day after I admitted to the court that I'm a female buccaneer? Do you two parlor dolls sleep all day?"

  "So you are the pirate!" Amy was delighted at the surprising news, "what did the judge tell you after you admitted being a female?"

  "He told me I will be hanged tomorrow."

  "Tomorrow!" Ruthie exclaimed, "why so soon?"

  "I need to be put to death immediately as an example to the fragile God fearing ladies of the town. He said it is bad enough when a man is found to be an evil pirate, but to find a woman as a pirate is beyond criminal. It's a sin. Damned Puritan."

  "How horrible," Amy set the lamp on the floor where she found it made everyone's shadow appear long on the opposite wall. She paced around the cell with her finger stroking her chin. Both girls had thrown back their hoods as soon as they had entered the building. Ruthie looked at Amy and became nervous as she watched her pace and knew she was thinking of one of her plans that Ruthie would be reluctant to put into action.

  "You ladies still haven't told me who you are and more important, when are you leaving?" the prisoner stretched out on her mat not intimidated by the strangers. She had accepted her fate and in her line of work knew she risked meeting this type of end.

  "My name is Ruthie, like she said," Ruthie gestured toward the silently pacing Amy, "that's my sister, Amy."

  "You're sister, is it?" the pirate remained prone but turned her face toward Ruthie, "I've never seen sisters where one was black and the other white, none who would admit it anyway."

  "Well, we're not ashamed of it," Ruthie held her chin up, in fact we're proud of it. We're also best friends."

  "Of course you are," the pirate turned her gaze upward again, "until your 'sister' gets engaged and forgets all about you."

  "I don't think I like your attitude," Ruthie replied.

  "Why do you think my parents raised me as a boy?" the pirate said, "All girls are good for is marrying away. A girl is a burden to her parents, but they don't act that way. They tell their daughters that the most wonderful thing that can happen to them is to get married and have a family of their own. What they're really doing is transferring the huge cost and responsibility of maintaining a useless daughter to their son-in-law who only wants her for breeding."

  "That's a terrible way to think about love and marriage," Ruthie said, "why are you so evil? Marriage is an institution created by God."

  The pirate laughed, "It was an institution created by man to keep girls at home in their husbands' parlor and the nursery. Love and God have nothing to do with it."

  "So your parents raised you as a boy so you could earn a living by thieving and killing?" Ruthie was becoming angry over the pirate's unfeeling and negative attitude.

  "No," she answered, "I chose to be a buccaneer on my own, but I wouldn't have been allowed any choice at all if I were a so-called proper girl. My parents were poor a
nd my being able to work like a man helped keep us all from starving."

  "Ruthie," Amy called from the far corner of the cell, "may I speak to you privately please."

  With more than a little apprehension over what Amy could be planning, Ruthie moved into the far corner, which was only a few feet from the reclining pirate, to join Amy.

  "Ruthie," Amy asked, "what do you think we should do to the pirate?"

  "Remember," Ruthie reminded Amy, "you promised not to feed on the pirate."

  "I remember my promise, only I don't see why we shouldn't feed on her since she'll be hung in no more than a few hours. I don't see what harm it could cause."

  "Everyone in town would want to know how she died," Ruthie sternly replied, "the town is expecting to see a hanging tomorrow. They'll be very disappointed if there isn't one."

  "Yes, of course," Amy looked thoughtful again, "so what would you like to do?"

  "What can we do?" Ruthie asked, "Why should we do anything?"

  "We can't just allow a woman to be hung," Amy whispered, "that's a very degrading way for a woman to die, even if she is a thieving pirate."

  "She doesn't have a very nice personality either," Ruthie added, "but you know I never like to see anybody die. Maybe saving her would make some amends for all the killing we've done."

  "I don't need to make amends for keeping myself alive, but maybe it will make you feel repentant to save a life instead of taking one. We have to decide soon because I have a strong need to find prey to feed upon."

  "How will we rescue her without letting her know what we are?" Ruthie asked.

  Amy glanced past Ruthie's shoulder at the pirate and said, "It looks as though she's sleeping, although I don't know how she is able to sleep on the eve of her execution. I'll slip down to the jailer's quarters and find the keys to the cells. Maybe we can let her out the way she came in."

  "Oh," said Ruthie nervously, "I don't know about that plan. If the jailer finds you, you'll have to kill him and the town will be angry and demand that his death be investigated. They'll definitely blame the pirate for killing him."

  "Yes," Amy considered Ruthie's words. "They are sure to blame the pirate for his death. If she is recaptured she'll have another crime attributed to her, but she is already sentenced to death. They certainly couldn't punish her any more than that."

  "I just don't feel good about your plan, Amy," Ruthie looked at Amy waiting for her to speak.

  After a moment of looking at the floor and passing her slippered toe along the sand and sawdust there, Amy spoke, "The only other alternative is to take her out the same way we came in."

  "I hate to admit it," Ruthie replied, "but that's exactly what I was thinking too. How will we do it? We'll have to tell her about what we are."

  "You're going to have to feed off her in order to turn her to mist and pass her with us through the high window."

  "Why must I be the one to attack her?" Ruthie demanded, "Why would I hold you to your promise only to commit the crime myself?"

  "You have more control than I do, Ruthie," Amy admitted, "I may not be able to stop feeding and kill her."

  Ruthie still looked reluctant. "Are you sure this will work? If I feed on her blood I'll be able to turn her to mist and take her out the window with me?"

  "Yes, just the same as we turn inanimate objects to mist in order to carry them with us."

  "But she'll remember being bitten." Ruthie worried," She saw our faces. She knows who we are."

  "Look at it this way," Amy explained," we'll rescue her for now. At least she won't hang in the morning. If she retains any memory of how she was rescued, we must kill her ourselves. If she can't recall any part of her rescue, we'll let her go."

  Ruthie wasn't convinced that Amy's plan was a good one. "We will be risking our own lives. Do you want to take the chance that she will know that vampires exist?"

  "You don't want her to hang do you?" Amy said, "I know I don't."

  "All right," Ruthie relented, "only so she won't hang. At least she'll have a chance that she might stay alive with your plan."

  Ruthie turned back to the resting pirate on the mat and slowly went to her and knelt at her side. Amy stood at Ruthie's side livid with hunger, then raised her hood to protect her hair from the weather, turned to mist and retreated into the storm to wait for her companions.

  Baring her teeth, Ruthie leaned toward the pirate and was about to bite into her neck just as she opened her eyes and looked in horror at the sight of Ruthie's teeth and attempted to push Ruthie away. The pirate's strength couldn't compare to Ruthie's as she held the pirate down on the mat and began to feed. When the pirate finally fell unconscious from blood loss, Ruthie pulled away and raising her hood turned to mist and enveloping herself around the pirate, turned her to mist as well and passed between the bars of the window making the escape plan a success.

  Standing just below the window on the rain soaked ground, Amy waited for Ruthie and the pirate to descend and she and Ruthie sheltered the pirate with their cloaks as best as they could as they speedily moved away from the courthouse and back toward the waterfront. The thunder and lightening had moved eastward and could still be heard in the distance but the rain still drove down in armies of loud relentless drops. Visibility was at a minimum, which worked in the girls' favor as they carried the pirate toward the business district where they could find shelter in one of the many shops that were darkened and secured for the night. Amy led them to a clothing store where they could find the pirate some clean dry clothing as a disguise. Judging by what little they knew about the pirate, they assumed she would wish to continue her masquerade as a man and appreciate some masculine attire. Amy gained entrance to the warm dry shop and quickly opened the door for Ruthie who was in the doorway holding up the pirate.

  Water dripped from their clothing forming small puddles on the wide wooden floorboards of the store. They removed their cloaks and draped them over the counter so as not to trail water throughout the store as they searched for new clothing.

  "I would appreciate some dry clothes myself," Amy admitted as she returned from the storeroom with a wooden chair to prop the still unconscious pirate into.

  "Are you thinking of dressing like a man too?" Ruthie asked facetiously knowing Amy's response would be one of sincere denial.

  "Certainly not," Amy's response was what Ruthie predicted making Ruthie smile as she looked through a stack of white shirts for one that might fit the pirate.

  "We don't even know her name, Ruthie," Amy declared, "Did she tell you her name?"

  "No," Ruthie answered as she selected a shirt, "Now we need some trousers for her."

  "I'll look for stockings and boots while you find the trousers," Amy headed toward the far side of the store where rows of shoes were set up for display.

  Soon the girls had accumulated an entire ensemble for the mysterious pirate as she remained unconscious but not still in the chair. She had begun to make weak hand and arm movements as she softly muttered incoherently.

  "She even speaks in a man's voice in her sleep," Amy observed as they pulled the wet, filthy clothes off of her.

  "It must be true that pirates are dirty because she smells really strong and has eruptions in places on her back and breast," Ruthie noticed as she helped Amy dress the pirate.

  "I told you pirates are filthy," Amy remarked, "I suppose female pirates are just as filthy as male pirates. If she were desperate to be accepted as another man, she would have to be as dirty as a man. "I imagine bugs live in her hair and on her body as well," Amy added, "Fortunately, for us it's too dark to see them for sure."

  "I suppose so," Ruthie agreed as she sank to her knees to slip the shoes onto the dangling feet, relieved that the parasites had no interest in the cold skin of a vampire.

  "My father would be absolutely appalled if he saw me aiding a pirate," Amy mused, "pirates are a seaman's worst enemy after disease. At least there aren't nearly as many today as there were fifty years ago. He would have hat
ed them even more in those times."

  They stood in front of the pirate surveying their work as best as they could in the darkness of the shop as the rain continued to come down against the plate glass windows.

  "What should we do with her now? Ruthie asked, "We shouldn't stay here much longer. We might get caught."

  "I haven't fed yet," Amy crankily reminded Ruthie, "an intruder would be welcome at this point in time."

  "Good Lord," Ruthie exclaimed, "we were so busy I forgot about your hunger. I have to admit you've been well behaved for being so hungry."

  "We can't drag our sleeping pirate with us," Amy said, "where can we leave her while I find myself a victim?"

  "Where will we put her until tomorrow night?" Ruthie asked, "She's too weak for her escape now and won't have her strength back for a day or so."

  "I really can't make any plans or decisions until I feed," Amy declared, "You'll have to stay with her while I go alone."

  "Then you should feed quick so we can get back to dealing with the pirate," Ruthie said, "we only have a few more hours."

  "What are you suggesting, Ruthie, as if I don't already know," Amy was cranky with hunger and knew Ruthie was going to suggest that she feed on some sort of animal.

  "You know as well as I that the quickest feed for you tonight would be at the stable," Ruthie had her hands on her hips, having little patience for Amy's ornery attitude, "it's only a block from here."

  "All right, Ruthie," Amy sulkily donned her rain-soaked cloak and stalked toward the door, "I'll be back soon. Try to think of a plan while I'm gone."

  "Yes," Ruthie answered, "I sure will."

  As soon as Amy left, Ruthie began to pace silently in front of the pirate who still mumbled and stirred in her chair. This was the first time she had actually carried a victim away with her but she knew from her own experience that she wouldn't awaken before the following evening unless that sleep period only pertained to those victims who were to be transformed into vampires themselves. Ruthie shuddered to think of the damage a vampire pirate could do. Someone who was already a killer being transformed into a vampire would probably be a ruthless and proliferate killer, not a careful and discrete killer like she and Amy. What could they do with her while they retreated into their coffins before sunrise and didn't emerge again until dark?

  The rain began to subside until it slowed to a faint drizzle. Water ran down the front of the building dripping off the window frame onto the sidewalk below like the ticking of a clock reminding Ruthie that they needed a quick solution. Soon the jailer would notice the empty jail cell and the city would be scoured for the fugitive.

  "Good Lord!" Ruthie exclaimed as she realized the intensive search that would soon ensue while the fugitive remained unconscious and helpless to save herself. Ruthie raced toward the window eagerly waiting for Amy's return. Only a few minutes more passed before Ruthie greeted Amy as she sullenly re-entered the shop.

  "Did you think of anything because I've been very busy picking horsehair from between my teeth and from my tongue," Amy sulked.

  "Amy!" Ruthie was stern and urgent, "we have a much bigger problem than the condition of your mouth. We dressed this girl all wrong! We need to disguise her from the authorities. We gotta dress her like a lady! Like the lady she isn't!"

  "Ruthie," Amy's eyes grew wide with understanding, "you're absolutely right. Put on your cloak. We need to take her to the dress shop."

  Ruthie quickly flung her cloak around her shoulders and supported the pirate while Amy returned the chair to the back room. Except for the water on the floor, the shop appeared as it had before they entered. Carefully making sure not to be seen, they quickly exited the shop and entered the dress shop they had frequented for their own wardrobes.

  "At last the rain has stopped," Ruthie remarked as they sprawled the pirate on a display table covered with bolts of fabric while she found a chair to set her in as they did in the men's shop. Amy had already hurried to a rack of dresses and was quickly choosing one that looked likely to fit the pirate.

  Ruthie had their subject propped on a chair and was busy undressing her while Amy approached with a dress, "Her own mother won't recognize her when she's wearing this dress. It's the most feminine dress on the rack."

  "Good work," Ruthie said without looking up from her work, "she'll need undergarments as well."

  "Oh yes," Amy lay the dress across the fabric table and went in search for proper undergarments, "she will no doubt be angry when she awakens to being a girl again."

  "No doubt," Ruthie agreed as she finished stripping her down to nothing and rolling up the men's clothes to take along with them.

  Amy found the undergarments, a corset, underskirts, garters and silk stockings and helped Ruthie work the pirate into them. Forcing the limp pirate into these undergarments was a difficult and time consuming project and the two vampires were relieved when they were finally left with only the dress and slippers to adorn her with.

  "She may be angry to awaken in a dress," Amy said, "but I hope she appreciates all the hard work we're doing to save her neck. I'm beginning to wonder if all this work will be worth it.

  "It's no fair that they are planning to execute her immediately because she's a woman. Everyone should have to pay for their crimes, but payment should be equal for men and women alike, and blacks and whites alike," Ruthie spoke as she worked the pirate's muscular arms into the sleeves of the dress.

  "Women shouldn't be hung at all," Amy worked the pirate's other arm into a sleeve, "it's a very unladylike way to die. Women should only die in childbirth or of fever as nature intended. Being publicly hung by the neck while the entire population of the city watches is wrong."

  "But she committed heinous crimes," Ruthie argued, "she committed the crimes of a man, making it only fair that she be punished like a man."

  "She only committed the crimes of a man to keep her family and herself from starving," Amy held up the pirate in order for Ruthie to straighten out her skirts and pull the blouse down over the skirt top. When that was accomplished she was dropped back into the chair to have her slippers slid onto her feet, "Would you return her to the jailer at the end of a week when she would be hung if she were a man?"

  "Of course not," Ruthie lifted the pirate while Amy returned the chair to where they found it, "I'm not doing all this work just to put her back in the hands of the law."

  "Well, the question still remains," Amy returned to Ruthie and the pirate, "what do we do with her now?"

  "We need to leave her in a place where she won't be found by the search parties that will be looking for her," Ruthie said, "but a place where she won't be heard if she calls out for help when she wakes up."

  "Yes," Amy replied, "I don't dare hide her at my father's house. If she were found there, my father would be ruined."

  "And if they find her there," Ruthie added, "they would also find us."

  "We need to hide her somewhere that is far far away from our lair," Amy agreed, "we can't risk our discovery in an attempt to save her. We will all be lost."

  "And dead," Ruthie stated.

  Amy's eyes grew wide with realization, "I know the perfect place where she'll be safe and no where near our lair-in the new cemetery," Amy explained, "it's at least a mile from here and very secluded. We'll hide her in a mausoleum if we can."

  Amy lifted the pirate onto her back, "Drape my cloak over her so she won't be recognized in the event that we happen upon a midnight stroller."

  Ruthie did as Amy asked and opened the door of the shop for Amy to exit, then closed and locked it before exiting the shop as she did the first day she visited the store several months earlier. The violent storm had rid the air of the oppressive humidity that had overtaken the city making the previously thick and steamy air seem liberated and clean. However, the cleanliness of the atmosphere would only last until morning when the cotton mills and other factories would begin pouring clouds of waste and exhaust into the air to mingle with the exhaust from the trains a
nd ferries on the river.

  Clouds still lingered, covering the moon leaving the city dark as well as wet. Water still dripped from rooftops and tree branches, splattering into puddles and onto sidewalks in the wake of the storm. Ruthie and Amy were as wet as the leaves of the trees they passed under as they made their way west toward the remote cemetery along the road that led to Hartford. Fear of disease led the city officials to designate the distant graveyard as the replacement for the overcrowded cemetery cleared to make way for construction of a new school. The town was spreading further from the river as the population grew. Not only was the city the second largest whaling center in the country, but it boasted several factories as well. Working class people were immigrating to town in search of factory jobs that paid more than farming. Women could earn higher wages in the textile mills than they could at domestic work and the mills also provided the opportunity to meet more unmarried men than they would have as domestic servants.

  The girls relaxed and slackened their pace as they left the confines of the city and walked alone and unobserved along the muddy Hartford Road toward the woods, "Do you think your daddy built your family a big fancy mausoleum in the new graveyard, Amy?" Ruthie inquired as she took the pirate from Amy's shoulders for a while. They had been passing the burden of the pirate back and forth as they walked.

  "Maybe so, but without any moonlight, we won't be able to read any of the inscriptions to be able to tell," Amy held Ruthie's cloak along with her own as they walked.

  "Good Lord," Ruthie exclaimed.

  "You've been saying that a lot tonight, haven't you?" Amy observed, "why do you say it now?"

  "When she wakes up in that black tomb, she won't be able to see a thing," Ruthie realized, "She won't know where she is and won't be able to see her hand in front of her face. We should have brought her some candles or a lamp. She's gonna think she went blind!"

  Amy digested Ruthie's words for a moment before she answered, "We've come too far to go back now. I'm sure, as a pirate, she's been in worse situations than this. Being captive in a darkened tomb for a few hours is far better than being hung by the neck until dead, isn't it? I'm sorry we have to leave her helpless in the dark, but it's all we can do."

  "I know, I know," Ruthie agreed resignedly, "it is better than letting her die and we've got no choice now."

  Soon they arrived at the cemetery where two stone columns at either side of a trail through the woods were all that provided visitors with the information that a cemetery lay within. Large old cedar trees stood within the borders of the columns hiding the new cemetery beyond. Amy and Ruthie followed the muddy trail until arriving at a grassy clearing where the dead were moved from the old cemetery and new plots were prepared for the recently deceased. Beyond these graves were two majestic mausoleums erected by two of the wealthier families in town.

  Setting the glamorously clad pirate against the wall of the first mausoleum, Amy and Ruthie felt along the granite face until they found the entrance and slowly pushed the heavy upright slab inward to gain entrance. The air inside was hot from the recent heat wave and smelled musty and stale from lack of ventilation. Since the only senses that could detect anything within the tomb were their ability to touch and feel the interior due to of lack moonlight, candle or lamp, the mausoleum proved to be an excellent hiding place.

  "Do you think she'll be able to breathe in there?" Ruthie asked as she stepped inside and turned back to face Amy.

  "I hope so," Amy answered as she bent down to drag the pirate inside by the underarms.

  "You're gonna ruin her new dress," Ruthie warned jokingly, "She'll be mad enough not only waking up in a dress, but in a ruined dress at that."

  "Very funny, Ruthie," Amy now had the pirate propped up against an inside wall and stood looking down on her, "I'm going to arrange my cloak for a pillow so her head won't rest on the stone floor."

  "That's a good idea," Ruthie was pleased with Amy's newfound ability to consider someone else's feelings besides her own, "I'll spread my cloak for her to lie on too. Mine will be her bed while yours will be her pillow."

  "Yes," Amy helped Ruthie arrange the cloaks into a makeshift bed for the pirate, "that's the best we can do for her at the present time. We'll bring her food and drink when we return after dark. It's getting late."

  "We better get back to town," Ruthie helped Amy lay the pirate on the cloaks and they left the mausoleum closing the granite door behind them.

  The two girls hastily returned to town shortly after the pirate was reported missing from her cell. By the time they reached the vicinity of their lair a crowd had gathered in front of the courthouse making the area dangerous for Amy and Ruthie. As no women were amongst the crowd, the girls would be suspicious if seen. Amy, of course, couldn't risk being seen by her father or any of the many townsmen who might recognize her as her father's long lost daughter. Therefore, they abruptly changed their route to avoid the growing crowd across the street from their lair and entered the property from behind the house, hidden from the crowd of angry fugitive hunters.

  "We arrived home just in time," Amy said with great relief as they entered their dark musty room. Any later and those men would be found in every corner of the neighborhood in search of the pirate."

  "We would have been seen for sure," Ruthie added as she began to remove her wet clothing.

  "I'm undressing and retreating to my coffin in the hope that the coming evening will be calm and peaceful."

  "Do you think they'll be tired of looking for her by then?" Ruthie asked.

  "They'll at least have finished searching the immediate area by then, don't you agree?"

  "I hope so," Ruthie was stepping out of her wet skirt and about to slip on her night dress that she always kept folded in her coffin at night, "what I hope for even more is that they don't find us instead."