Chapter 4

Bargaining with a Constable

            Will sighed in exasperation. Nobody on this island could seem to give him a straight answer on the whereabouts of Jack. This was largely due to the fact that a high proportion of them were very drunk. He spotted a pompous- looking gentleman strolling down the street and approached him.

            "Excuse me," Will began, and the man turned around. "I wonder if you could help me. I'm looking for a p- a man, named Jack Sparrow. Do you know him?"

            "Never heard of him. But tell me, who is he? Maybe I could help you." The constable was delighted to be in the company of such a sober looking man!

            "He would be a regular in most of the pubs and inns around here, I think. He has long, dark hair with beads and a bandana and… well, he has a strange manner. He sways a lot. He's often drunk but… well, that seems normal for a place like this. Sorry to have bothered you." Will turned to go, but the man stopped him.

            "Now wait a second. Moustache, braided beard? Wears a lot of rings?"

            "Yes, that's him!"

            "Well, that's wonderful! I locked him in the cells not half an hour ago!"

            "Ah." Why am I not surprised? Will thought to himself. "Could you tell me where they are?"

            "Certainly, young man. Follow me, please." The constable was happy for a break in his very long night of trying in vain to keep order in the town.

            Will followed the man a short distance, past a man in a well, down a flight of stone steps into the dungeon. It was a small and dingy underground room, with five consecutive metal cages along one wall, and two on the adjacent. Six of the seven cells were filled, one man to a cell, with five men in various states of comatose and one wild haired, staggering drunk yelling words in a language Will didn't recognize. If he listened carefully, they sounded a bit like Spanish and French combined, but he suspected that this was a language of the man's own invention.

            The constable led him to the last of the five cells along his left hand side. There, sure enough, was Jack, fast asleep and muttering something about a monkey in a hammock. Jack was slumped against the wall at the back of the cell, his hat pushed down so it was covering the top half of his face. One of his legs was stretched out in front of him, and the other was at an angle, and his arm was resting on his knee. 

            "Jack!" called Will softly. "Wake up!"

            "Snooflay… mmbutterin… GET OUT OF THAT HAMMOCK! Cliaaarrgh…" came the reply from the fast asleep pirate.

            "Might be best to wait for him to sober up before you try to get any sense out of him, sir," advised the constable.

            "No," Will insisted, "I must leave tonight, and I'm taking him with me."

            "Oh. Well, if you're proposing to free him, then I'm afraid you will have to bail him out. This man has broken the law."

            Will took his coin purse off his belt and counted his money. "I can only spare three shillings."

            The constable shook his head. "I can't accept less than four shillings sixpence for this man. He's caused a lot of inconvenience, you know!"

            "Well, if I know Jack, then I don't doubt it. Give me ten minutes. I'll find the other one and a half shillings from my crew and I'll be back."

            "The price just went up to five shillings."

            "What?"

            "I got a wife and kids to feed! It'll be five shillings or this man stays right here."

            Will shook his head. "Fine."

            Ten minutes later, he was back with the extra money, and handed it to the constable, who had been waiting in the dungeons for his return. The constable pocketed the money and took a bunch of keys from the thick belt on his waist. He selected one and unlocked Jack's cell. He and Will both went inside, and lifted up and carried out the sleeping pirate. Jack was woken up, and able to stand and walk with help. Will supported him as they walked to the docks. Jack was still mumbling quietly, but as soon as they were out of the main town, Will heard the first articulate words from him.

            "Shouldn't've done that."

            "What?" Will's head snapped sideways to look at Jack.

            "What I mean is that you should've bargained with 'im!" Jack shrugged Will's arm off him and stood still, albeit unsteadily, swaying in the moonlight that would once have made him look skeletal. Waving his arms for illustration, he continued. "Should've brought him down from four and a half shillings, not up! Something your father would've known. Got a lot to learn, lad. You'll never make a good pirate if y'let people get away wiv- wiv making you pay!"

            "Jack, I don't want to be a pirate, and this is beside the point. Come on, I'm taking you back to Port Royal."

            "On the Interc- the Intercerr..?" Jack's speech was not completely comprehensible yet.

            "No, Jack, this is a different ship. It's called the "Our Lady" and it's very nice. You'll like it."

            "No."

            "What?"

            "I'm not leavin' my ship here, alone, wivva crew who's too drunk to notice whevver it's there or not!"

            Will walked the couple of steps back to where Jack stood and tried to move him, but Jack stood his ground.

Think I'll leave it there! Reviews please!