AN: Thanks everyone for your patience, and here's chapter 10! Microsoft Word's back to normal! Wish me luck for my literature exam tomorrow...I procrastinated by finishing off this chapter instead. If you want to reread the code, it's in chapter 6, but I don't know how necessary it is. It was pretty vague.
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Jack had walked out of the cabin with no clear idea in his mind of where he was going. He knew, however, that before he heard more from Daniel he would like to have a little information up his sleeve, and for that reason he was determined to break the mysterious code of the leather book before luncheon was served. It gave him about half an hour to puzzle it out. Wandering in search of a likely spot, he was unable to find anywhere that wasn't crawling with sailors. Why weren't they below, drinking the rum he couldn't have, he thought irritably, ignoring the rational voice in the back of his head telling him that they had as much right to be there as the impostor in the borrowed cassock on their own ship. On their own ship...Jack felt at home on the 'Adversary'. It was good to feel wooden deck beneath his feet and to know that skimming along on the wide, endless ocean he was about as close as he could be to flying. Yet at the same time he felt displaced, rootless without his 'Pearl', and he was damned if he was going to give up seeking revenge against the man who had cut him loose.
Finally, as he was about to give up the fruitless search for his own space - it was somewhat easier, he reflected, when you had your own captain's cabin and a lock on the door - he noticed the uncanny fair hair of his 'manservant' 'Matthews' further along the deck, talking to some of the crew. Jack realised that if Daniel was out here, he certainly wasn't in the cabin, and bent his steps quickly back.
Opening the door, he was surprised to see Annamaria asleep on the bed. Jack's lips curved in an amused smile and he tiptoed over to the trunk, pulling out a sheet of paper and quill and ink, should they be required. He put them on the table and then gently pushed the trunk so that anyone opening the door would get stuck and make a racket. Jack was used to creating early warning systems; no pirate captain would be caught dead with an unlockable door at their back. It was a pity that these devices did not guard against other, more insidious forms of stabbing one's mate in the back. He pulled out the Bible and parchment.
"I sang a hundred and four Psalms for twenty-five days," Jack muttered. He licked his finger and flicked through the pages of the Bible. Good! There was a book of Psalms. He looked up the twenty-fifth psalm, but nothing seemed unusual. He counted a hundred and four words in laboriously, but no word leapt out as being significant. He sighed a long sigh, and then started as Annamaria yelped in her sleep. He looked at her in surprise - she was a very light sleeper if that disturbed her. Exhaling again, but a little quieter, Jack picked up the Bible again, and this time prepared to look up Psalm 104. Then he had a brainwave. Perhaps the 25 referred to chapters?
Jack scratched the twelve words he had found with small, barely noticeable dots beneath them onto the paper in front of him. This seemed promising.
"Yonder is the sea, great and wide," Jack began to read aloud. He was interrupted. Annamaria raised herself up on her good arm and blinked across the room at him.
"What are you babbling about, Jack Sparrow?" she said crossly. "You woke me up."
"Sorry about that luv," Jack replied. "I think I've got the hang of this thing, though."
He shook the paper at her. Annamaria, intrigued, got up and looked over his shoulder.
"Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable," she read slowly. "Are you sure that's all it says?"
"What? No, that's only the first part. Look," Jack showed her the parchment. "That sentence about the Psalms," he stabbed a forefinger, "worked out to be Psalm 104, chapter 25. I still have to find all the other verses though, savvy?"
"Well," Annamaria said, "the next sentence has to be Revelation."
Jack read the next part of the clue aloud. "And a revelation struck me that 1812 souls would be lost in the wreck."
He paused, as if lost for thought for a moment. Annamaria looked enquiringly at him.
"Penny for my thoughts, luv? I was thinking how strange it was that I impersonate a clergyman and find a cipher from the Bible on the same day." Jack shrugged. "Funny how things work out."
"Jack, you can sit there pondering as long as you want, but pass me the Bible."
Obligingly, Jack tossed the Bible to her. "Look for the words with dots under them, in chapter eighteen, verse twelve."
Slowly Annamaria scanned the chapter. "I've got it! Write this down, Jack: 'cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls'."
"Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable - cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls." Jack laughed. "Sounds promising, doesn't it luv? All right, next clue...Matthew watched me -"
"That would be the Book of Matthew - "
"For the twenty five days voyage but joined me but 18 times. Matthew, chap 25, verse 18." He leaned over and grabbed the book out of Annamaria's hands. "My turn."
Annamaria protested as Jack flipped through the pages. She leant over the table to pull on Jack's arm but after a quick tussle and a victorious arm wrestle, Jack went on calmly perusing the Bible.
"That wasn't my good arm," Annamaria pouted. "I still can't really feel my right arm, but when it gets back to normal, you're going down, Jack Sparrow."
"Turn and turn about, luv," Jack replied. "Don't blame your bruises for not wanting to share." He winked at her and continued in a haughty voice. "Matthew 25:18 gives us this: 'but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money'."
"So the treasure, gold and jewels and so on, is buried somewhere. Or under the sea."
"Very perceptive, luv. Here, have a go at the next one."
Annamaria looked at the parchment, and then at Jack. " His epiphany came after six hours and fifteen minutes, but he was told the wreck would founder in seven times seventeen minutes...there is no book of Epiphany, Jack. You gave me the one you couldn't do!"
Jack swung back in his chair and propped his legs on the corner of the table, winking at Annamaria as he did so. "I may have done, yes. I can't be expected to do all the thinkin' round here, can I?"
"You're lazy, mate," Annamaria countered, "and if you'd taxed your brain a little further out of its coma you would have realised that epiphany means something quite similar to revelation. Sort of like when a pirate realises he must become a priest to escape a prison."
"A rare moment of inspiration -" Jack began loftily.
"Shhh. I'm looking up Revelation 6:15...the words with dots under them...'hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains'." She lowered the book and stared at Jack. "A treasure cave...these are the directions to a treasure cave!"
"I was wondering how long it would take you to jump to that conclusion. The next bit seems to follow on from the last, so go on to 7:17." Jack was busy copying the words onto his fresh piece of paper.
"For the Lamb in the midst of their throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water," Annamaria read haltingly. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
"That's a little more abstract. And so's the last clue, because unschooled though I may be, I have already looked up the Book of Peter and found no chapter eighteen. So I admit it: Captain Jack Sparrow is stumped."
"Well, obviously there's three islands -" Annamaria began.
"Obviously, builded on I Peter 18." Jack said with a grin.
"And Peter is the rock, so they're rocky islands," she finished. "I don't know about the eighteen."
"Why is Peter a rock?" Jack asked. "I feel as if this is something the Reverend Walters should be aware of."
"I..." Annamaria wasn't really sure if she knew exactly why Peter was a rock, but it was highly unlikely she would let this on to Jack. "I think it's because he built a house out of stone and rock for Jesus, and that's where the term bedrock comes from too. Because he had a bed made out of rock."
"Sounds uncomfortable," Jack replied, seeming to accept her explanation. "Do you want me to read this back? What we've got?"
As Annamaria nodded her head Jack started to read back what he had written.
"Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable, cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. For the Lamb in the midst of their throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." He paused. "And we think this is in a group of three rocky islands which have something to do with the number 18."
"We've barely scratched the surface," Annamaria said ruefully.
"We've done more than that," Jack said as he tucked the fresh paper away with the book and the old parchment. "We also know that Daniel knows a lot more about this than he has let on - what was all that mumbo about a curse? Men will invite death but death will not come...I think there's a lot more to be found out from our new friend Daniel."
"Are we going to look for the treasure then?"
"Annamaria, it's what you already do - thieving - but on a larger scale," Jack said brightly, then softer: "We'll make a pirate out of you yet."
Just then a scraping came from the door as an obviously surprised crewman tried to open the door but found it blocked. Not wishing the trunk to be any more of an impediment, Jack got up and whipped it out of the path of the door at the exact time that the sailor decided to fling his entire weight against the supposedly sticking door. The unfortunate man sprawled on the floor as Jack magnanimously extended a hand to lift him up.
"I was just sent," the crewman said with a flustered manner, "to call you to lunch."
Annamaria and Jack looked at each other, and then at the crewman. They had ignored the protestations of their hungry bellies in the excitement of the code breaking, and at this moment had each suddenly realised just how hungry they were.
"Lead us to it!"
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Jack had walked out of the cabin with no clear idea in his mind of where he was going. He knew, however, that before he heard more from Daniel he would like to have a little information up his sleeve, and for that reason he was determined to break the mysterious code of the leather book before luncheon was served. It gave him about half an hour to puzzle it out. Wandering in search of a likely spot, he was unable to find anywhere that wasn't crawling with sailors. Why weren't they below, drinking the rum he couldn't have, he thought irritably, ignoring the rational voice in the back of his head telling him that they had as much right to be there as the impostor in the borrowed cassock on their own ship. On their own ship...Jack felt at home on the 'Adversary'. It was good to feel wooden deck beneath his feet and to know that skimming along on the wide, endless ocean he was about as close as he could be to flying. Yet at the same time he felt displaced, rootless without his 'Pearl', and he was damned if he was going to give up seeking revenge against the man who had cut him loose.
Finally, as he was about to give up the fruitless search for his own space - it was somewhat easier, he reflected, when you had your own captain's cabin and a lock on the door - he noticed the uncanny fair hair of his 'manservant' 'Matthews' further along the deck, talking to some of the crew. Jack realised that if Daniel was out here, he certainly wasn't in the cabin, and bent his steps quickly back.
Opening the door, he was surprised to see Annamaria asleep on the bed. Jack's lips curved in an amused smile and he tiptoed over to the trunk, pulling out a sheet of paper and quill and ink, should they be required. He put them on the table and then gently pushed the trunk so that anyone opening the door would get stuck and make a racket. Jack was used to creating early warning systems; no pirate captain would be caught dead with an unlockable door at their back. It was a pity that these devices did not guard against other, more insidious forms of stabbing one's mate in the back. He pulled out the Bible and parchment.
"I sang a hundred and four Psalms for twenty-five days," Jack muttered. He licked his finger and flicked through the pages of the Bible. Good! There was a book of Psalms. He looked up the twenty-fifth psalm, but nothing seemed unusual. He counted a hundred and four words in laboriously, but no word leapt out as being significant. He sighed a long sigh, and then started as Annamaria yelped in her sleep. He looked at her in surprise - she was a very light sleeper if that disturbed her. Exhaling again, but a little quieter, Jack picked up the Bible again, and this time prepared to look up Psalm 104. Then he had a brainwave. Perhaps the 25 referred to chapters?
Jack scratched the twelve words he had found with small, barely noticeable dots beneath them onto the paper in front of him. This seemed promising.
"Yonder is the sea, great and wide," Jack began to read aloud. He was interrupted. Annamaria raised herself up on her good arm and blinked across the room at him.
"What are you babbling about, Jack Sparrow?" she said crossly. "You woke me up."
"Sorry about that luv," Jack replied. "I think I've got the hang of this thing, though."
He shook the paper at her. Annamaria, intrigued, got up and looked over his shoulder.
"Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable," she read slowly. "Are you sure that's all it says?"
"What? No, that's only the first part. Look," Jack showed her the parchment. "That sentence about the Psalms," he stabbed a forefinger, "worked out to be Psalm 104, chapter 25. I still have to find all the other verses though, savvy?"
"Well," Annamaria said, "the next sentence has to be Revelation."
Jack read the next part of the clue aloud. "And a revelation struck me that 1812 souls would be lost in the wreck."
He paused, as if lost for thought for a moment. Annamaria looked enquiringly at him.
"Penny for my thoughts, luv? I was thinking how strange it was that I impersonate a clergyman and find a cipher from the Bible on the same day." Jack shrugged. "Funny how things work out."
"Jack, you can sit there pondering as long as you want, but pass me the Bible."
Obligingly, Jack tossed the Bible to her. "Look for the words with dots under them, in chapter eighteen, verse twelve."
Slowly Annamaria scanned the chapter. "I've got it! Write this down, Jack: 'cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls'."
"Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable - cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls." Jack laughed. "Sounds promising, doesn't it luv? All right, next clue...Matthew watched me -"
"That would be the Book of Matthew - "
"For the twenty five days voyage but joined me but 18 times. Matthew, chap 25, verse 18." He leaned over and grabbed the book out of Annamaria's hands. "My turn."
Annamaria protested as Jack flipped through the pages. She leant over the table to pull on Jack's arm but after a quick tussle and a victorious arm wrestle, Jack went on calmly perusing the Bible.
"That wasn't my good arm," Annamaria pouted. "I still can't really feel my right arm, but when it gets back to normal, you're going down, Jack Sparrow."
"Turn and turn about, luv," Jack replied. "Don't blame your bruises for not wanting to share." He winked at her and continued in a haughty voice. "Matthew 25:18 gives us this: 'but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money'."
"So the treasure, gold and jewels and so on, is buried somewhere. Or under the sea."
"Very perceptive, luv. Here, have a go at the next one."
Annamaria looked at the parchment, and then at Jack. " His epiphany came after six hours and fifteen minutes, but he was told the wreck would founder in seven times seventeen minutes...there is no book of Epiphany, Jack. You gave me the one you couldn't do!"
Jack swung back in his chair and propped his legs on the corner of the table, winking at Annamaria as he did so. "I may have done, yes. I can't be expected to do all the thinkin' round here, can I?"
"You're lazy, mate," Annamaria countered, "and if you'd taxed your brain a little further out of its coma you would have realised that epiphany means something quite similar to revelation. Sort of like when a pirate realises he must become a priest to escape a prison."
"A rare moment of inspiration -" Jack began loftily.
"Shhh. I'm looking up Revelation 6:15...the words with dots under them...'hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains'." She lowered the book and stared at Jack. "A treasure cave...these are the directions to a treasure cave!"
"I was wondering how long it would take you to jump to that conclusion. The next bit seems to follow on from the last, so go on to 7:17." Jack was busy copying the words onto his fresh piece of paper.
"For the Lamb in the midst of their throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water," Annamaria read haltingly. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
"That's a little more abstract. And so's the last clue, because unschooled though I may be, I have already looked up the Book of Peter and found no chapter eighteen. So I admit it: Captain Jack Sparrow is stumped."
"Well, obviously there's three islands -" Annamaria began.
"Obviously, builded on I Peter 18." Jack said with a grin.
"And Peter is the rock, so they're rocky islands," she finished. "I don't know about the eighteen."
"Why is Peter a rock?" Jack asked. "I feel as if this is something the Reverend Walters should be aware of."
"I..." Annamaria wasn't really sure if she knew exactly why Peter was a rock, but it was highly unlikely she would let this on to Jack. "I think it's because he built a house out of stone and rock for Jesus, and that's where the term bedrock comes from too. Because he had a bed made out of rock."
"Sounds uncomfortable," Jack replied, seeming to accept her explanation. "Do you want me to read this back? What we've got?"
As Annamaria nodded her head Jack started to read back what he had written.
"Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable, cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. For the Lamb in the midst of their throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." He paused. "And we think this is in a group of three rocky islands which have something to do with the number 18."
"We've barely scratched the surface," Annamaria said ruefully.
"We've done more than that," Jack said as he tucked the fresh paper away with the book and the old parchment. "We also know that Daniel knows a lot more about this than he has let on - what was all that mumbo about a curse? Men will invite death but death will not come...I think there's a lot more to be found out from our new friend Daniel."
"Are we going to look for the treasure then?"
"Annamaria, it's what you already do - thieving - but on a larger scale," Jack said brightly, then softer: "We'll make a pirate out of you yet."
Just then a scraping came from the door as an obviously surprised crewman tried to open the door but found it blocked. Not wishing the trunk to be any more of an impediment, Jack got up and whipped it out of the path of the door at the exact time that the sailor decided to fling his entire weight against the supposedly sticking door. The unfortunate man sprawled on the floor as Jack magnanimously extended a hand to lift him up.
"I was just sent," the crewman said with a flustered manner, "to call you to lunch."
Annamaria and Jack looked at each other, and then at the crewman. They had ignored the protestations of their hungry bellies in the excitement of the code breaking, and at this moment had each suddenly realised just how hungry they were.
"Lead us to it!"