CH 34 Going for the Gold

"Gibbs, how long were we down this time?"

"Miss Eliz was down just shy of two minutes, Cap'n. You were a little over two, I think."

Jack raised an eyebrow at Elizabeth, who was still enjoying the post-dive euphoria. "Let's go again!" she said and headed to the ladder. Jack caught her arm.

"We need to rest before this next dive. We'll both need to go inside the ship. Some of the things in there won't fit through a gun port. It'll take both of us to move them. Just be ready for anything."

He turned to Mister Gibbs. "Gibbs, fetch some crates and locks, and lock up those bags!"

Jack pulled Elizabeth out of the way, and they sat down on the deck, not talking. Elizabeth noticed that Jack kept putting his fingers to his wrist or his throat, but he did not explain his actions. Finally he said, "Ready?" She nodded, and they prepared for the fourth dive.

Once again Elizabeth was a little surprised to find herself on the way down to the galleon. The net was on the lake bottom again, and she spread it open before turning to Jack. He beckoned for her to follow him as he swam up to the deck and down through a hatch to the hold.

It was much darker in the hold of the ship. Faint rays of greenish light swirled in through the gun ports and holes where deck boards had rotted away, but most of the hold was in shadows. As she swam away from the hatch she saw something light colored. She turned to get a closer look. It was a pile of skeletons, all lying in a pile where the tilted deck and the starboard hull met. She jerked back reflexively. In her mind she heard Jack speak the word 'anchor', and the image of the angel standing defensively behind her obscured the skeletons before her. She instantly calmed and looked around for Jack.

He was on the other side of the hatch ladder, hovering over a small chest. He motioned for her to take one handle. When she tried to lift, it was extremely heavy. Jack took the other handle, and they slowly maneuvered the chest up the ladder, out of the hold and onto the net. By the time it was in position, Elizabeth was desperate for air. She pushed off from the muddy bottom and kicked to the surface as fast as she could. She began coughing and gasping as soon as her head emerged from the water.

Jack surfaced behind her, and helped her grab the rope ladder. "You stayed down too long!" he whispered. "Not good!"

It took much longer for Elizabeth to climb the ladder to the deck, and there was no euphoria after this dive. Jack followed behind her to make sure she did not fall off the ladder. By the time they reached the deck, the piranhas were already greedily shredding their deceased fellows at the far edges of the circle caused by the grenade's explosion.

Jack sat Elizabeth down on the deck a little way from the crew. He spoke to her quietly. "Have you got one more dive in you? I saw another chest down there. If it's holding what I expect, that'll put us in a very pretty position. There's more but the rest can wait until later."

Elizabeth stared at him incredulously. "You mean we're staying in this lake until we get it all?"

Jack laughed. "No, love! Nobody else knows this is here. I doubt most of this lot of misfits could even find their way back to South America, never mind them finding the right spot in an inland lake. It's safe right where it is. I can come back to Panama and get it whenever I want to!"

Elizabeth felt her heart sink at his use of the word 'I'. She chewed on her lower lip to distract herself.

"But how will you find it again?"

Jack tapped his head. "Once I've been somewhere I can always find it again!"

Elizabeth agreed to one more dive. They rested until Jack was certain that her breathing was even and normal again. He prepared her for the fifth dive, and soon they were in the hold of the galleon once more. They had to go farther into the ship to get to their prize. It was nearly pitch black inside. The tilt of the decks was disorienting. Elizabeth wondered how Jack had found anything in the darkness. Jack took her hand and led her to the chest he had seen earlier. Together, they slowly moved it out to join its mate in the net. Elizabeth's lungs felt like they were on fire. She needed to surface immediately.

As they placed the chest in the net, Elizabeth saw movement in the water. She turned and saw a large shape swim behind the bow of the galleon. She tugged on Jack's arm and pointed. The shape came back into view. It was a huge crocodile and it was headed straight toward them.

Jack pulled Elizabeth into the center of the net with him, and grabbed for the bell rope. He yanked it wildly.

Up on the Pearl, the watch bell began pealing. Gibbs shouted "They're in trouble! Heave to, men! Pull like yer pullin' up a net full of gold! Oh, right… Just pull!!"

The men put their backs into turning the capstan as fast as it could rotate.

The crocodile undulated rapidly toward the divers. Jack put himself between Elizabeth and the beast, and pulled out his knife. The croc grabbed for him. Jack twisted out of its reach. He made one desperate stab as the crocodile passed by him. Blood spread through the green water. Jack lunged back into the net as it began to close.

As the rising net quickly constricted around them, it propelled Jack roughly into Elizabeth. His knee drove sharply into her stomach. The impact forced the last remaining air out of her lungs in a rush of bubbles.

Elizabeth panicked. She forgot all about staying calm. Base instinct drove her body to seek air. Hands closed around her face, clamping her nose and mouth shut before she could inhale water. She fought to free herself. Jack held her head still and forced her to look at him. He shook his head and mouthed the words 'trust me'. He moved his hands so his thumbs pinched her nostrils, and put his mouth over hers. His tongue parted her lips and he exhaled into her mouth.

Elizabeth felt the air and sucked it greedily into her burning lungs. Jack stopped her from taking all he had, but he held his mouth over hers. They inhaled and exhaled gently into each other's mouths, sharing Jack's breath.

The net seemed to take an eternity to reach the surface, but mere seconds to clear the water and swing over the deck. Jack barely had time to release Elizabeth's face and pull away before the net was dropped roughly onto the deck.

Elizabeth still couldn't breathe. She opened her eyes to find Jack lying on top of her, with her legs in an undignified position around his waist. "Get off!" she gasped.

Jack rasped, "I'd love nothing more, but the whole crew is watching!" He looked exhausted, but there was a twinkle in his eyes.

Elizabeth pushed against his chest with both hands and wheezed "…crushing me! … can't breathe!"

"Oh! Not good!" He rolled over, and lay on his back on the deck, eyes closed. Elizabeth sat up, coughing and gagging. It took her several minutes to breathe normally again. She was surprised to be alive. Turning to Jack, she opened her mouth to thank him, but the words didn't come. He didn't have to save me. He could have taken his revenge for…what I did…But instead… She was too confused to even follow her own thoughts. She looked away for a moment, then back at Jack. Something about him looked wrong.

"Jack, you've got algae in your beard. " She reached out to remove it. Jack shouted and sat up, pulling away from her hand.

"Ouch! Bugger, what did you do?"

"I just tried to wipe some slime off your face."

Jack felt his chin. "That's not slime, Lizzie, that's a leech. And you've got one too, right on your neck."

He looked closer. "No, you've got two on your neck. And one on your cheek. Oh, there's another one…. Lizzie, stand up."

Elizabeth got unsteadily to her feet, and looked down at herself. She was nearly covered with dark green, slimy leeches. There were leeches of every size on every visible area of her skin. There were so many attached to her that in some places she appeared to have wet, green scales. A large number of leeches had crawled through her threadbare clothing and attached to her flesh underneath. Those were apparent as many small lumps where her wet clothes clung to her limbs. Still more had simply bitten her right through the clothing and hung on the outside of it. Her face was nearly clear, but the rest of her was covered in them.

Jack stood up. He had at least as many leeches stuck to him as she did. He looked at himself and then at Elizabeth. "We look like refugees from the Dutchman!"

Elizabeth shuddered in disgust. She gingerly touched a lump on her forearm. "It's inside my shirt! Where did we get these? How did they get into my clothes? Why can't I feel them biting me?"

"They must've been in the darkest part of the hold. Sneaky little buggers numb where they bite," Jack replied. "It doesn't hurt unless you rub them or tug on them. And they can stretch themselves so thin they can crawl between threads."

"How can we get them off?" Elizabeth inquired.

"Burn'em off. Touch'em with the slow match and they let go. Then it's just a matter of stopping off the bleeding from the bite." Jack turned to Gibbs.

"Mister Gibbs, see to it that all of this—", he waved a leech-coated hand toward the chests and bags on the deck, "—is placed in the crates and put those under lock and key until such time as WE can inventory it together.

The rest of you watch for that bloody crocodile to come up. If you see it, shoot it and bring it aboard. They're excellent roasted. That one certainly deserves it."

Many of the pirates crowded happily toward the rail, pulling out their pistols. Finally, something they could shoot!

"You," Jack turned back to Elizabeth, "come with me. Those have to come off before you lose too much blood." He picked up the linstock and unscrewed the long handle so he held just the curved metal portion that contained the smoldering, sparking hemp.

"Where are we going?"

"To my cabin."

Elizabeth froze. "But…I can't…,"she said quietly.

:"Why not?"

She motioned for him to follow her across the deck away from the men. She could feel her face burning hot and knew she was blushing furiously. She stared at her feet as she spoke. "Jack, it would compromise my honor to go into your cabin alone with you."

Jack snorted impatiently. "Lizzie, not to put too fine a point on it, but you haven't got too many choices. You can't keep those bloodsuckers on you until we can get back on land and find a woman to remove them. There's too many on you right now. They'll let go sooner or later, but you'd lose a lot of blood before then, maybe too much."

He looked over his shoulder at the pirates gleefully shooting into the lake.

"Cotton and Gibbs take turns acting as ships' doctor. The galley doubles as a hospital. Would you rather have one of them remove a hundred leeches from you in the galley with all the rest of that lot lookin' on?" He jerked his thumb in the direction of the pirates.

"Or would you prefer to have me remove them in more private surroundings?" He reached for her chin and tipped her face up with a finger so she had to look at him. He was smiling.

"Or you can opt to preserve your honor, keep your lovely leeches and risk your life. You choose, but do it soon."

Elizabeth had not actually cried since the day Will had left her on the dock in Singapore. But she nearly broke down in front of Jack. She knew which uncomfortable and improper choice she had to make. She slowly followed him to his cabin, shuffling as if she was being led to the gallows.

She tried to visualize the painting-like image of the angel standing behind her, hoping for some sense of safety to reassure her. Her sense of impending doom lifted only the tiniest bit when the image came to her. The angel was still there, poised for battle just as he had been before. But this time he was laughing from behind her shoulder.