Chapter Four

As the messenger prepared to shimmy across the gangplank to deliver Jack's orders he felt a stab of pain as he succumbed to Barboosa's blade. "Now easy boy." He said easing the mate to the deck. "I'll be delivering orders from here on out." And he pulled the man's body to the rail and sent it plunging into the water. "There!" he said cheerfully "I'll just be takin' ye place as messenger that's all."
Bill was guarding the prisoners. He couldn't trust these bloodthirsty pirates. They'd kill them for sport if he'd close his eyes. But what of the morning? Would they swing from a mizzenmast? It was the way of the code. "Leave no signs or traces, lest the company be detected. Any man caught doing this shall be whipped with a cat o' nine tails." It read. Bill knew the Holy Thirteen or the Pirate's Code better than any man. He also knew how to get around them. He learned from the best, Jack Sparrow. Jack was better than anyone at getting out of tight spots with the code. But of late, Bill's best example had been of dark dreams.
Barboosa boarded the ship and went straight to the brig. "Mr. Bootstrap, I come with orders from Captain Sparrow." He said bowing with a false respect that Bill picked up on immediately.
"What is it...er.your name, mate?" Bill asked
"Barboosa, sir, Francisco Barboosa." He forced a smile to expose yellow and rotting teeth.
"Continue, man." Snapped Bill
"The captain says that you are to hang the prisoners on the mizzenmast at sunrise and blow this ship to Davie Jones Locker." He snarled and looked at the men, who all gasped in unison.
Bill hid his disgust. "All right I have his orders." Said Bill turning away.
"And what will be ye answer, sir?" Bill heard Barboosa ask from behind him.
"What did you say Baboosa?" and Bill turned around slowly
"What.... will be...ye answer?" Barboosa said slowly and deliberately.
"Ye know Barboosa, I sense that you have something on to say...so say it." Snapped Bill.
"Well, all need be is that there be no chance of detection. Why spill blood?" asked Barboosa
This man was making sense. He was right. There had to be another way. Bill felt so strongly about not killing the captives until he made a mistake. He trusted Barboosa. Pausing he sent Jack a message one that would delay and probably thwart this needless murdering.
"Parlay?" asked Jack "And whose idea, I wonder, was it to use that word?"
Barboosa stood perfectly still on the Deck. It was sunrise and there were no sailors swinging or a ship sinking. "Well, Captain if ye don't mind me speaking frankly, sir." Barboosa began.
"Go on Barboosa!" snapped Jack. He was wanting to hear this although he knew no man other than a pirate would ask for a Parlay.
"Those words be given to them by our first mate, sir. He swore me not to tell you but I just couldn't break the code."Barboosa said. Indeed he was following the code in a strange sort of way. "Every man in command will maintain informants in the rank and file as to keep up his information." it read. Problem with that was just whose side the informant was on was...well up to the informant.
Jack acted as though it didn't faze him. "Take word that the men are to be brought on board the Pearl. Not a hand to be laid on any as they are under the protection of Parlay." He said and then added. " Once all have returned prepare to sink that ship. I want no chance of detection. Get us underway right after that. We've lost too much time already." He snapped.
"Aye, sir." Said Barboosa and he slithered away and thought, "The first nail in the coffin of this thing they call friendship. It is a thing made of trust and if Jack and Bootstrap don't have that...what will they have?" Then Jack called out to him: "Barboosa, how is it that you are the messenger? What of my man?"
Barboosa turned and answered: "Why, the dog got into an argument with another sailor, lost his life sir. They were fighting over a bottle of rum."
"I see." And Jack studied him from a distance. "Go on Barboosa, you are my man now, savvy?"
"Aye, captain, aye." The trap was baited.
Once all were on board the Pearl, the last of the sailors spilled a long line of gunpowder along the ship to her armory. There enough had been left to blow her up. The dead were left there too. A fire lit the beginning and the last of the men loaded into a boat and rowed away at all speed.
A great explosion followed. Jack removed his hat and bowed slightly. These men were dead as a casualty of his command. Now what would he do with this bunch that were left? He turned around and looked them over. Bill, an honest man. You never knew what an honest man would do.
Bill hoped that since he'd gotten them on board maybe Jack would find a way to let them stay. There were about twenty left. Ten of them were wounded but not badly enough to write them off. Jack began:
"So what is the proposal under this parlay?" asked Jack
"We want to live!" screamed out one
"Yes, I guessed that." Said Jack wryly
"Set us free!" screamed out another
"And how would I be doing that, Gents? You'll surely run into His Majesty's Navy and tell them where you last saw the Pearl. We can't be having that now, can we?" asked Jack
"But if you let them stay they'll know where the treasure is!" that from the crew
"Surely, ye be right about that! We are at a stalemate, then!" said Jack
The sailor who'd killed the captain of the captured ship pulled his gun and loaded it with powder and a ball:
"Then we'll be killing them anyways, eeeh?" he said
"Oh, no!" Bill was thinking, "I 've gotten them this far only to watch them be shot on deck?"
"Hold there, Mate." Said Jack pulling his own gun and aiming for the sailor. "How 'bout we make this a sporting proposition, eeh? Get ye the boats and set 'em adrift. Chances are good that they'll die and become shark food." This brought a laugh from the crew.
"But we asked you to let us live!" said one of the men.
"Indeed you did." Answered Jack "You asked me to let you live and set you free. I'm doing both. It's just a question as to how long you'll live and how free you'll be."
Jack knew these waters he knew if he could get these men into boats quickly they could drift from here and straight into a small settlement a day away. It would still give them plenty of time to make it away before detection.
As the men were set in the small boat with three days food and water. The sailor who'd pulled the gun said: "I still think that we should have killed them all."
"Agreed, this ain't with the code. I suspect that this captain don't honor it. Whose to say he'll honor it when its time to divide the treasure?" It was Barboosa
"Ay, ye be right." Said the man
"Tell the others they should think about it." Said Barboosa and he walked away.
"Bill ye out maneuvered me!" shouted Jack
"I saved those men's lives until ye could come to ye senses!" Bill shouted back
"I am at my senses!" said Jack
"Not when ye want to spill blood just to control a ship!" said Bill
"I looked at every possible way to spare those men pain!" and Jack leaned forward on the table.
"Ye didn't look hard enough! Ye wanted me to hang those men, hang them for a couple of goats and a few bottles of rum! If anyone needed a Parlay they did!" Bill was almost nose-to-nose with Jack now.
Jack pulled his knife, "Damn it, Bill, I'll have no man undermine me not even you!" and he pointed the knife at Bill's neck.
"Then kill me, Jack." Bill pulled the knife to his own throat "I won't be part of your needless butchery!"
Jack withdrew; he knew he couldn't kill Bootstrap Bill. Jack just didn't have it in him.
"Bill, what will I do with you, mate?" and Jack sank into his chair.
Bill sank into his chair and sat back. "Bust me down, Jack. I am no first mate. Get someone else to do the job."
Jack's eyes softened "Bill."
"No, Jack, I'm your friend. And as you said ' you never know what an honest man will do'. As long as I live I'll be an honest man." Said Bill
Jack nodded. He knew that Bill was right. He needed a man who could do the nasty jobs that had to be done. Bill would still be there and he could still make sure that he got his share of the treasure. He'd still be able to keep his promise to Bill.
Back when he saved him from certain death in that attack he'd told him that one day he'd help him get back home to his wife and boy. And he'd told Bill that if he didn't survive he'd always look out for his son Will.
Bill walked out of the Captain's cabin.
Barboosa, who always seemed to be lurking in just the right places and always taking advantage of the opportune moment, knocked on Jack's door.
"Who?" Jack asked
"Barboosa." He answered
"Come." Commanded Jack
"What is it Barboosa?" asked Jack thinking he had further news.
"Well, sir, the men." Began Barboosa
"What about the men?" asked Jack
"They're restless and frankly sir they have no confidence that the code is being honored what with those sailors being set free and all." Said Barboosa.
Jack spoke with strength: "I make the decisions here!"
"Do you sir or does Bootstrap Bill?" Barboosa closed his eyes in preparation for one of Jack's known backhands, but it didn't come. Barboosa opened one eye; perhaps Jack would just shoot him. Instead what he saw was Jack with two glasses and a bottle.
"Sit down, Barboosa." He said "I'll be replacing Bootstrap with a man I think can better do the job. You."
Barboosa sat unmoved and reached for his glass of rum. Jack continued.
"From here on out, we'll be running this boat completely by the code, savvy?" asked Jack
"Savvy. And when does this take effect, Jack?" he was suddenly familiar, but Jack didn't seem to mind.
"Right now!" and he raised his glass "Take all you can...."
Barboosa finished "....and give nothing back."

Barboosa's plan was going just fine he was now in a position to be close to Jack. He didn't like him. Jack's reputation was that of a braggart and a womanizer who slipped hangman's nooses and dodged shots from angry husbands and fathers. But as to real pirating? No. Jack was always just outside the code. He often did things that smacked of fairness and humanity. Not the traits of a killer or commander. No these were the traits that Barboosa admired in himself. Barboosa would have to part him from the bearings to this treasure. How he would do it was still not clear. Jack wouldn't be sharing that with a man who he knew hated him. So Barboosa would have to impress Jack. That would be easy.
On deck Jack called together the crew:
"Bootstrap Bill is no longer first mate. When ye talking to Bill ye talking to Bill. It is Barboosa who is first mate. When ye talking to him, ye talking to me, savvy?" said Jack
"Aye, Captain!" said the crew all at once. Barboosa stepped forward. He towered over Jack slightly. He had a red beard and sickly yellow in his dark eyes. Too much rum and too much living made him a wicked but not handsome sight of a man.
"Captain Sparrow here doesn't know what I know. He don't know what pigs and liars are on this ship. But I do." Barboosa pulled out his gun and shot the sailor to his left. He continued. "Captain Sparrow doesn't know which ones of you are talking against him," and he took out his knife and threw it into the heart of the sailor to his right. "But I know. If ye didn't die just now, consider this your chance to repent!"
Jack's eyes stretched wide. What was this? He wanted a man who wasn't afraid of killing not one that preferred it. Bill, meantime, was in the back of the crowd not quite believing what had just happened. Barboosa had been a voice of reason to him. Yet he freely spilled blood now. Bill felt sick. What was the meaning of this?
The meaning was clear. Barboosa not only meant to impress Jack but to intimidate him. Jack was getting over his shock somewhat. He wondered if the crew could see it.
"Good thing this mate's on my side." Thought Jack