He could too read.

Pintel didn't think so, but Ragetti could. The first time he'd tried to explain the trick to it, Pintel just stared at told him he was a blighter. But then he'd ruffled Ragetti's hair, so he couldn't have been too upset.

All you needed to make words was letters. And Ragetti knew letters. Some of them.

It was like a code. He'd recognize the letters and try to guess the other letters and come up with the word. The more words he guessed, the clearer the phrase got in his head. Probably wasn't perfect, but it was close enough.

He'd heard the Bible was more about guidelines anyway