Chapter the 29th
“It’s the Phoenix!” cried a boy with a shrill voice.
“Yes! It’s the phoenix!” cried another boy with a deeper voice.
Big deal, the phoenix thought to himself as he landed on a pile of rocks. Numerous purplish threads and the fire in the phoenix’s own feathers cast just enough light for the phoenix to see that the rocks were laced with the smashed-up front of a train engine. Two boys and a man wearing royal robes and a bright gold crown were climbing over the rubble. A spark darted around the wrecked engine like a furious insect, momentarily exploded into the shape of a boy the phoenix recognized, and then imploded back into a small spark. The phoenix felt like making a sarcastic bow to his new admirers, but something about the awe in which they held him caused him to hold his head high and suffer the adulations they were giving him.
“I can hardly wait to tell Mr. Schnitzelbergen that I saw you,” said the younger boy as he petted the phoenix gently on the head, touching off sparks as he did so. “Gosh! You’re nice and warm!”
“We’ll have to tell Captain Dennis’ Great Aunt about this, too,” cooed the older boy.
“Poor Captain Dennis will be so jealous when he finds out,” said the younger boy.
“Is it true that you haven’t flown in a thousand years?” the older boy asked the phoenix.
“I see that my lost sailors and royal choristers, Nigel and Edmund of the Royal Carelin Boys Choir have been found,” said a peevish Princess Mona from on top of the phoenix. “Now, it seems to me that it might be worth your while to acknowledge the Princess of Carelin rather than devote all your attention to the phoenix. After all, I’m the one who found him and brought him here.”
“Princess Mona! I’m so sorry!” Edmund exclaimed boy without sounding very sorry. “I should have known that the phoenix was not as important as you.”
“Let me help you off your personal royal phoenix,” Nigel offered.
“Thank you very much,” said Mona as the phoenix felt his load lighten further, making it easier for him to breathe.
“And you, young lady,” said a man with a deep voice, “might try your luck at recognizing your own sovereign and father.”
“Oh! Daddy! I’m so sorry!” cried Mona, who sounded no more sorry than Edmund. “It’s hard to see with just the light of Melanie’s web and the phoenix’s flames.”
“I will forgive you this one time,” said the king, “provided you use your royal intellect to think of a way to get this train up and running so that we can ride it into the Lost City and retrieve the light before all that is left of it is irretrievably lost.”
The phoenix felt his other passenger quietly slip off his back, much to his relief. The little spark circled the phoenix’s head with such sharp turns that it made the bird think that it was glaring at him. The phoenix glared back.
“I think I know who can take care of that for us,” said Princess Mona.
“And who might that be?” asked King Perezvon XXVI.
“Cornelius the Beetle at your service!” announced the tiny insect before
“Cornelius the Beetle?” cried Edmund as the beetle landed on the highest rock of the wreckage, “I’ll bet it’s been even more than a thousand years since anybody’s seen you.”
“It’s Four thousand and five hundred and six years and five days and four hours and thirty-two minutes and twenty-one seconds to be exact,” Cornelius replied.
“It’s a great honor to see you, Cornelius the Beetle” said the king, stretching out his hand until he realized that a beetle can’t shake hands very well. “I am most gratified that I should be the monarch of Carelin who should be graced with your presence after so many forebears of mine have been passed over. There is just one little consideration, however. Can I really expect a little insect like you to fix a wrecked train and pull it out of the rubble and take it into the Lost City?”
The princess and the choirboys looked at each other uneasily as Cornelius the Beetle took a few hops away from the train to indicate that he was about to leave the assorted group of people to their own devices.
“Father,” said Princess Mona. “I don’t think that was the best way to ask that question.”
“It seems to me,” said Nigel quickly, “that if Cornelius the Beetle can hold up Bertha the Elephant, who holds up Sylvester the Turtle, who holds up the world, then I’m sure he can fix this train, pull it out of the rubble, and bring it into the Lost City.”
The beetle hopped back towards Nigel and looked up at him. The spark flew at Nigel’s face as if it were trying to get his attention, but the head chorister ignored it and kept his attention focused on the beetle.
“Much obliged to you for your faith in me, Nigel, Head Chorister,” said Cornelius the Beetle. “I was afraid that nobody would even remember me or remember what I can do if I apply a front leg or a hind leg just a little.”
“Mr. Schnitzelbergen tells us stories about you during choir rehearsal every time we get tired of singing Palestrina,” said Edmund. “And then Dennis tells us more stories that his Great Aunt has told him about you.”
“I’m much obliged to Mr. Schnitzelbergen and to the Great Aunt of your chorister, Dennis,” said Cornelius the Beetle. “It’s most kind of them to tell you stories about me and, it’s most kind of you to listen to them. It’s telling your stories about me and listening to them that keep me going. No doubt about it. Couldn’t live without them.”
“Cornelius the Beetle,” said King Perezvon, “if you are the one who holds up Bertha the Elephant, who in turn holds up Sylvester the Turtle, who in turn holds up the world then I, as the sovereign ruler of Carelin who must assume responsibility for the security of the universe, feel morally obligated to ask you: Who is holding up Bertha the Elephant while you gallivant around train wrecks?”
“I can’t tell you that, your serene and august majesty,” the beetle replied. “Bertha the Elephant has just gone off on a quest of her own and Humphrey the Bullfrog has gone somewhere on an errand and, to top it off, Gertrude the Walrus has just been called to do an urgent sewing job for the first time in many thousands of years and that leaves William the Hummingbird to hold everything up all by his little lonesome. So, I say it’s a good thing the phoenix came along or we’d be a lot more lost in this greater darkness than we are.”
“How do you expect me to hold my kingdom together when you won’t do your part to hold up the world?” the king thundered.
Nigel and Edmund looked at each other and shook their heads.
“I’ll bet that William the Hummingbird will hold everybody up just fine until Cornelius the Beetle and the others can get back to their places,” said Edmund.
“Thank you Edmund,” chirped Cornelius the Beetle. “A little affirmation from such a fine chorister like you goes a long way in encouraging me to do my part to save the universe.”
“It seems to me,” said Nigel,” “that first we should allow Cornelius the Beetle to fix this train, pull it out of this rubble, and bring it into the Lost City. Then we can worry about how Cornelius the Beetle is going to hold up the rest of the universe.”
“Good thinking, my dear head chorister of my royal boys’ choir,” said the king. “Cornelius the Beetle, I order you to fix this train.”
Cornelius did not move or respond in any way.
“Father,” said Princess Mona. “I don’t think that was a very good way to ask him to do it.”
“Uh—Cornelius the Beetle,” said Nigel, “will you please fix this train?”
“I’ll tell Mr. Schnitzelbergen all about it if you do,” added Edmund, “and then he’ll have another story to tell all the choirboys, and then Nigel will tell the story when he’s the choirmaster, and then every choirmaster after him will tell the story to all the choirboys after us.”
“Well!” chirped Cornelius the Beetle. “That is a request I can hardly refuse if I want stories to be told about me in the centuries to come, and I most certainly want that.”
With those words, the beetle burrowed himself into the pile of rubble and disappeared. The spark darted about that spot and seemed to be trying to get at the beetle, but it couldn’t.
“Might the royal choristers sing to us while we wait for Cornelius to finish his work?” suggested Mona.
“That isn’t necessary, my dear,” said the king.
“It is necessary,” said Cornelius the Beetle from under the rocks.
“Uh—can you give me the note, Edmund?” Nigel asked.
“What note do you want?” asked Scott.
“Scott!” cried Edmund. “We never saw you here! Did you ride the phoenix with Princess Mona?”
“Of course he did,” Mona answered for Scott. “He was under the strictest of royal orders to do so.”
“And you have your harmonica?” asked Nigel.
“Of course.”
“Then please give me an E-flat,” Nigel asked.
Scott blew the note on his harmonica. Then the two boys began to sing a duet. Mona sat by the train with rapt attention while the king paced about restlessly and the spark made zig-zags around everybody. Suddenly, the singing stopped when the pile of rubble collapsed.
“Cornelius!” cried Edmund.
Everybody waited anxiously until Cornelius the Beetle emerged from the rocks.
“You don’t seem to have fixed the train very well,” said the king.
“The train is too stuck in what’s left of this city wall for me to pull it through,” said Cornelius the Beetle. “I’ll have to pull it out from the other end. Since the Lost City is more lost than ever by the looks of things, we’ll have just as good a chance of getting there by going in the other direction anyway. I suggest you board the train now so that we can just keep going once I get the train going.”
“That luxury car is up this way,” said Edmund, pointing in that direction, “even if it is damaged.”
“A luxury car will do just fine,” said Mona.
“Wait a minute!” yelled the spark as it exploded into the form of the boy the phoenix recognized and wished he hadn’t. “I, King Shawn the First, refuse, by royal decree, to allow you to board my train without buying tickets from me!”
The violence of the Shawn’s reaction caused everybody to back away from him. A flame of anger began to kindle inside the Phoenix. He knew that something important was at stake and there was no room for such behavior.
“King Shawn the First,” said Nigel, “we have to take this train, because we’ve got to find the light that has been taken away.”
“Mr. Schnitzelbergen says sharing never hurt anyone,” said Edmund.
“Sharing has hurt me every time I’ve tried it,” said Shawn. “If you guys want this light you keep talking about, then you can go steal somebody else’s train.”
As soon as those words were out of the boy’s mouth, he collapsed back into a small spark. The Phoenix, consumed by the fire and anger blazing within him, pounced on the spark and caught it in his mouth. The phoenix felt a sharp stab of pain of fire as he closed his beak on it and held it tight inside, for all the struggling that it did. Then he flew to the caboose and lodged himself there, knowing that the train needed a light, and the flames in his feathers would do that. The phoenix also knew that the spark was needed for something important, something important enough to be worth the pain that felt as if he were carrying a forest fire in his mouth. A second later, the phoenix felt something light land on his head.
“You’re the best phoenix we’ve ever had!” Cornelius the Beetle enthused. “It never occurred to me to have you lead this train! Now we’ll get this train pulled out of those rocks and on the way to where Melanie the Web Spinner is going to lead us to the Lost City.”
The spark struggled more than ever, but the phoenix knew that for once in his life he had done the right thing.
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“Do you think we’ll ever get somewhere?” asked a weary Karen Rosskill.
“Yes, Dear,” Bertha the Elephant replied. “There is that chance.”
“Does going on like this make you tired?”
“Yes, dear, going on like this makes me far wearier than you can possibly imagine.”
Karen wished there was something she could say to help Bertha the Elephant feel better, but she was at a loss for words. After a while, she gave up trying to talk to the elephant and thought about herself. She fell into dreaming about medical school, her first internship, followed by her first operation as head of a surgical team. She imagined the profuse thanks she would receive from a woman after saving her husband’s life, but then that scene dissolved into another scene where she was telling a couple that there was no way she could restore the mental functioning of their injured child.
“You won’t be able to stand the heartache the job will cost you,” said a woman.
“Your mother is discouraged beyond words with the way her patients treat her on account of their suffering,” said a man.
Karen could not see the speakers, but she felt their presence as strongly as if they were seated on the elephant with her.
“You should know that helping others only makes them hate you,” said another man. “Just look at the way Kevin and Shawn treated you when you tried to be nice to them.”
Karen felt a scratch on her left arm and then another scratch on her right shoulder.
“I suggest that you keep your hands over your face, dear,” said Bertha the Elephant.
Karen hastened to follow Bertha’s advice and covered her face just in time as the backs of her hands were scratched almost instantly where her cheeks and eyes would have been. Karen heard a crackling sound and Bertha the Elephant’s pace slowed considerably, but she continued to plow through whatever was obstructing her.
“Where are we?” Karen asked. “Are we someplace in particular now?”
“I am sorry to say that this thicket of thorns that I am walking through could be anywhere,” Bertha the Elephant replied.
But as Bertha the Elephant spoke, Karen thought she saw a bright light off in the distance.
“Bertha!” said Karen, “do you see that bright thing over there?”
“Yes, dear, I’m heading straight towards it. I thought I’d find it here. Isn’t that your brother’s work?”
Karen’s reply stuck in her throat when she recognized the Golden Boar that Kevin had drawn and somehow brought to life in the realm of Carelin. Its gold fur lit up a thicket of thorns and its red eyes blazed with anger. The boar held in its mouth a long white candle and both it and the animal seemed to be caught in the surrounding thicket.
“The boar is made up of your brother’s anger,” said the man who spoke to her before.
“The anger is directed at you,” said a woman.
“Your Grandmother doted on your brother,” said another man. “She didn’t care about your accomplishments.”
“Your mother leaves you alone with your brother all the time.”
“She knows how hard it is to cope with him.”
“That is why she lets you do all the coping.”
“Your brother is a troubled boy because your mother dropped out of his life just as your father did,” said the first man.
“Your mother makes you take the brunt of your brother’s problems,” said the woman.
Close up, the boar’s blazing eyes were frightening and when the boar growled, Karen wished there was somewhere to run to, but she was trapped on Bertha’s back by the thicket.
“Will you please pull the boar and the candle free of the thorns, my dear?” Bertha asked.
“But that thing knocked me out of Melanie’s web.” protested a frightened Karen.” He’ll knock me off your back if he gets the chance.”
“I suppose he could, my dear,” Bertha the Elephant replied, “but the Golden Boar made a special journey just to retrieve the candle when it fell. Now he is caught in the tangled hearts of humanity, my dear. Speaking gently to it, as you will later speak to a frightened patient, might help.”
When Bertha moved in closer to the Golden Boar, it growled again and seemed poised to use the candle it as a weapon.
“Are you sure this will work?” asked Karen.
“No, my dear, I am not at all sure this will work. But I am afraid that there is no other way to bring Kevin’s Golden Boar back to its rightful place. The candle, bought at Taverner & Tye’s Shop, is needed to bring back the light. You are on a quest to bring back the light, are you not, my dear?”
“Yes,” said Karen.
“And you went on a quest earlier on behalf of Kevin, did you not?”
“Yes.”
“All right, Dear.”
Karen braced herself for the next onslaught from the three people who had been harassing her, but she no longer felt their presence. Feeling a little more free to think for herself, it surprised her that she felt as angry with her mother as they suggested she did. Karen decided that if she could be so unaware of her own feelings, it was no wonder that the tangled hearts of humanity created such a thicket. She looked at the golden boar, but its fiery eyes were so intimidating, that she could hardly stand to look at it, but she forced herself to anyway.
“You are a friend of my brother, Kevin, aren’t you?” said Karen to the boar, her voice shaking.
The boar grunted something that sounded like it could have been an assent. Unless it was just her imagination, the angry fire in the boar’s eyes died down just a little.
“I want to help you so that you can help Kevin,” said Karen. “If I am going to help you, I will have to do a little operation. I am afraid it will hurt, but it will make you better in the end.”
With trembling hands, Karen put her hands around the boar’s trunk, just behind its forelegs. The twigs from the thicket scratched her with every move but Karen did not let that stop her. The boar was surprisingly docile as Karen pulled the thorns away from it. As she pulled, a reproachful look of Shawn Harrison flooded her mind.
“You deserted me,” Shawn accused her, his voice as clear as if he were sitting across the table from her at the Byrd & Tallis.
“I did not,” Karen retorted. “You have only yourself to blame for the way everybody hates you.”
“I wouldn’t be so awful if people didn’t reject me,” said the image of Shawn.
“You would, too, you selfish brat.”
A loud growl from the Golden Boar and a slap from an invisible branch knocked Karen away from the animal and the candle.
“You have to work with the obstacles, my dear,” said Bertha the Elephant. “It is like removing a foreign object from a patient’s body. You can’t pull it straight out.”
“I haven’t been to med. school yet,” said Karen, on the verge of tears. “How do you expect me to know how to do surgery?”
“You can use your instinct, my dear,” Bertha the Elephant replied. “Use your instinct and everything you have learned in the future will come back to you.”
Karen opened her mouth to protest the idea that she was supposed to remember things she hadn’t learned yet, but she thought better of it. Reasoning with an elephant who supports a turtle who carries the world seemed futile. Again, Karen guided her hands around the boar’s trunk and carefully kneaded the fur out from the thorns.
“You deserted me,” Shawn repeated.
“You have a problem with relationships,” Karen said in return, trying to be patient.
“That’s a trite phrase.”
“I know. Maybe that’s because most of us have trouble with relationships. I don’t have an easy time with relationships, either.”
There was no answer from Shawn. Meanwhile, to Karen’s surprise, the Golden Boar suddenly planted itself firmly on Bertha the Elephant’s back, free of the thorns. The boar dropped the candle from its teeth into Karen’s lap and rubbed itself against her affectionately.
“Thank you, my dear,” said Bertha the Elephant. “You have done well. I am sure Kevin is also doing well. Now let us go to another place.”
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“That sure is purty,” said Captain Eagle admiringly.
“She looks like a ship made out of flaming diamonds,” said Captain Polly.
“Flaming diamonds,” echoed the parrot.
The glittering pirate ship stood proudly off the treasure island with threads from Melanie’s Web woven throughout the ship’s sides to hold it together.
“Captain Dennis,” said Captain Hilary, “I’m not going to make fun of you or your great aunt ever again.”
“Promise?” asked a gratified Captain Dennis.
“Promise,” Captain Hilary affirmed.
“I bet you’ll keep that promise for about twelve minutes,” said Captain Geoffrey.
“Just because I make a promise doesn’t mean I won’t break it,” said Captain Hilary.
“You promised!” Captain Dennis insisted.
“I know,” said Captain Hilary, “and I will try to keep it. I don’t know what we would have done if your Great Aunt hadn’t told you the story about Gertrude the Walrus, and if you hadn’t listened to her when she told it.”
“Not even Mr. Schnitzelbergen knows that story,” said Captain Martin.
“Or if he does,” said Captain Michael, “he hasn’t gotten around to telling it to us.”
“I think we should give Gertrude the Walrus three cheers for the great work she has done,” Captain Polly called out.
“Is that all?” asked Captain Hilary. “I think we should give Gertrude the Walrus twenty-seven cheers for the great work she has done.”
“Hear! Hear!” cried Captain Peg.
“I will receive these cheers most gratefully,” said the walrus.
Captain Polly started off the cheers and all twenty-seven cheers for Gertrude the Walrus rang out in the night, after which there was an uncertain silence.
“I guess the thing to do is load the treasure chest on to the ship and set sail for Carelin,” said Captain Polly in a quiet voice.
“Set sail for Carelin,” echoed Polydorus.
The pirates broke into a pirate song and the boys started in behind them so that they were singing a round as they all stumbled up and down the little hills the latest earthquake had formed until they reached the treasure chest resting in the middle of the unstable island. Everybody pushed and pulled and shoved to move the treasure chest towards the ship, but no amount of gusto in their singing was enough to budge the treasure chest from its place. When the song ended, the pirates and choristers gave up and stood about the chest, scratching their heads.
“Think we should try Christopher Tye’s Lost Mass again?” suggested Captain Martin.
“No!” No!” “No!” the boys responded in a ragged chorus.
“May I make a suggestion, now that you have lost some valuable time by not asking me for a suggestion beforehand?” asked Gertrude the Walrus.
“Please make your suggestion,” said Captain Hilary, “and we will listen.”
“Thank you, brave chorister,” said Gertrude the Walrus. “If you pull out the loose thread from the treasure chest and allow me to connect it with the ship, I think you will find that even Captain Dennis can carry the treasure chest on board single-handedly.”
Captain Hilary started another pirate song and the boys sang that as he pulled out the dangling thread from the treasure chest and passed it on to Captain Geoffrey. In turn, each boy pulled the thread further out and passed it on to the next boy until the thread reached Gertrude the Walrus, who was waiting for it in the water by the plank. She took the thread from the last boy and carried it up the plank where she tied it to the mast of the ship.
“Let’s see if Captain Dennis really can carry the treasure chest aboard ship single-handedly,” Captain Geoffrey suggested.
“How come he gets all the privileges?” asked Captain Michael.
“I ain’t seen Captain Dennis get no privileges except the privilege of being teased and tormented by choirboys and pirates!” thundered Captain Polly. “Let him carry the treasure chest, and then we’ll see if Gertrude the Walrus is right!”
“Thank you,” said Dennis as he struggled to keep from losing his composure. “I’m sure Gertrude the Walrus is right, but I will prove it anyway.”
“Thank you, my fine chorister with a memory for stories,” said Gertrude the Walrus.
Captain Dennis took a deep breath, wrapped his arms around the treasure chest, picked it up as if it were a small toy, and carried it up and down the little hills of the island and up the plank to the ship. There, he set it down on the deck.
“Now we’re ready to sail for Carelin!” roared Captain Polly.
“Sail for Carelin!” echoed the parrot.
“Before you sail,” said Gertrude the Walrus, “I must inform you of a small problem that might affect the course you set for the ship.”
“What?” “What’s the matter?” “What’s wrong now?” asked the boys and the pirates.
“The trouble is that I don’t know where Carelin is anymore.”
“You don’t?” several pirates and boys cried out.
“I guess that goes to show how out of touch you’ve been for the last few thousand years,” said Captain Flintlock. “We know where Carelin is and we know how to set our course right in the direction we came from.”
There were several grunts of agreement from most of the pirates, but large teardrops dropped out of the eyes of Gertrude the Walrus.
“You hurt Gertrude the Walrus’ feelings!” Captain Dennis charged.
“Who care how she feels?” Captain Eagle snapped. “If she doesn’t know where Carelin, we don’t need no navigation from her and I don’t how she feels about that!”
“It seems to me that we should ask Gertrude the Walrus why she no longer knows where Carelin is,” said Captain Hilary.
“The truth of the matter is,” said Gertrude the Walrus, “that I simply don’t know where Carelin is because I no longer know where anything is.”
“Why not?” asked Captain Geoffrey.
“What’s the matter?” asked Captain Hilary.
“Don’t tell me we’re stranded after all!” cried Captain Flintlock.
“As to what the matter is,” Gertrude the Walrus replied, “the matter is that the world got rather mixed up when Sylvester the Turtle, Bertha the Elephant, Cornelius the Beetle and Humphrey the Bullfrog all left their positions because of the dire need that has afflicted other people who are out on quests, and the world got mixed up all the more as your dire need required that I come and sew your pirate ship back together. All of this has resulted in further displacements of many places in the universe. If William the Hummingbird were not at his post, everything would be every which way. As it is, the Dark Lake has broken through many openings, and that makes all travel most perilous. Melanie the Web Spinner has had to work overtime to keep the universe from falling apart altogether and to keep the Dark Lake at bay. This overwork on her part has not given her the leisure to put anything back in its original place. It will not even be possible to sail this ship over the sea, because most of the sea is displaced as well and you would surely sail off the edge of the sea into the Dark Lake.”
“I don’t mean to be disrespectful to a walrus,” said Captain Peg, “But what I wants to know is how we are going to sail this here ship back to Carelin if we can’t sail this here ship.”
“And what I wants to know,” said Captain Eagle, “Is how you’re going to get anywhere at all if you don’t know where anything is?”
“My respectful answer to your respectful questions,” said Gertrude the Walrus, “is that I can fly the ship through the air, well above any places where the Dark Lake has risen so far, and if I pull the ship with the thread from Melanie’s Web, I will arrive at the place where the treasure chest needs to be taken at this time. As to whether or not we are stranded, the answer is that I do not intend to stay on this island a minute more than I have already. Now that I have sewn the last stitch into your boat I am about to fly the ship with every passenger who wants to come on this most important journey.”
“Are you sure you can make this ship fly?” asked Captain Michael.
Another huge teardrop fell from Gertrude the walrus’ eye.
“My Great Aunt told me that Gertrude the Walrus was the greatest flying walrus in the world until she gave up flying to hold up Humphrey the Bullfrog.”
“I’m sick of this Great Aunt you’re always talking about!” cried Captain Eagle.
Captain Dennis burst into tears and threw his arms around the tearful walrus.
“I’d rather be sick of Captain Dennis’ Great Aunt then stay stranded on this island,” said Captain Martin.
“It seems to me,” said Captain Hilary, “that if ever there was a walrus who could fly our ship to where it needs to go, it’s Gertrude the Walrus! Everybody aboard!”
“Everybody aboard!” chirped Polydorus.
“I’m coming!” Captain Dennis exclaimed.
Captain Dennis and Captain Hilary walked up the plank hand in hand. Several boys and a few pirates ran up the plank right behind them, but Captain Eagle stood up and brandished his wooden hand in the light of Captain Patch’s eye.
“Just a minute, Captain Hilary!” growled the pirate. “Since when are you the one who takes charge here and tells us what to do. Nobody appointed you Chief Captain!”
“Yea,” said Captain Michael, “Who appointed you Chief Captain?”
Captain Geoffrey sprang up and stood by Captain Hilary.
“Captain Hilary is the deputy head chorister,” Captain Geoffrey insisted. “That means that until we find Captain Nigel, Captain Hilary is the acting head chorister.”
“I say that if Captain Hilary is good enough to be deputy head chorister,” roared Captain Polly, “then he’s good enough to be deputy Chief Captain!”
“Yea! Yea!” cried out all the pirates with Captain Eagle cheering the loudest.