Rose never did get a chance to ask Robert when exactly The Black Pearl was setting sail, so she and Haley watched the ship every morning at dawn.
One morning as Rose and Haley walked towards the dock, Rose said, "Hal, this is the day, I can feel it in my bones."
And so it was, they could see men aboard 'The Pearl' making ready to leave, Jack standing at the wheel, shouting orders at the crew.
Rose motioned to Hal to hide in an alley.
Rose crept up next to the ship, and using a rope hanging down, climbed up. She whistled once she was halfway up the side, which was Hal's signal to distract the crew. "Help!!!" Hal screamed, "Help! He's after me! Make him stop!" She sobbed uncontrollably, running out of the alley.
"Wha's wrong missy?" asked a member of Jack's crew.
Hal kept sobbing. "There's a pirate back there, and he won't leave me alone!"
The crew stared down the street, but they saw no one suspicious.
Rose took this opportunity to climb over the rail of the ship, and slip quietly below decks.
Hal kept blubbering about some scoundrel who wasn't there, until the crew finally told her to go tell the man that the pirates would kill him if he bothered her again.
She nodded solemnly and started off down the street, and turned into the alley once again, then screamed as loud and terrified as she could, hoping she sounded like she was being murdered.
The crew of The Black Pearl heard her and barged into the alley, hoping to catch the villain. But there was no one to be seen.
Hal slipped quietly towards 'The Pearl' while the crew was still looking for her, and scaled the side of the ship, using the same rope that Rose had.
Below decks was very dark and Hal had a hard time finding her way around. She groped around in the dark, trying to find a candle or lantern. Instead, she found someone's ankle.
Hal was about to scream, when she heard someone whisper,
"Hal? Is that you?"
She breathed a sigh of relief. "Rose, good."
Rose giggled, "Who'd you think it was? The idiot Robert?"
"Actually, I thought you were something dead."
"Thanks a lot."
Hal could tell that Rose was exhausted.
Then the ship began to move.
Rose started to sing, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me, yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me..."


Standing on deck, Jack looked out into the horizon, and sighed. The freedom and vastness of the Caribbean stretched out before him. He shouted a few orders at the cabin boy and leaned against the ship's wheel. He thought he could hear a far off voice singing a song that he knew from long ago.
"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me..." it sang distantly.
Jack looked around, puzzled, but the voice faded into the noise of the sea and rowdy pirates. The cabin boy, Robert, cocked his head, listening, and then smiled.
Jack approached him. "You, boy."
Robert looked up from the knot he was tying, "Aye sir?"
"What were you listening to?" Jack eyed the pathetic tangle of rope in the boy's hands.
"The waves Cap'n, why?"
"No reason," said Jack, unsure. "Now stop lazing about and get back to your duties." He tried to look stern, but it did not suit his character.
"Aye sir," said Robert, and went to ask someone if the knot he tied was satisfactory.

Down in the bowels of the ship, Rose and Hal had enough food to last at least until they were discovered, but if they ran out too soon that would mean revealing themselves to the crew. If this happened before they were far enough out at sea, the pirates would either kill them or return them to Tortuga. This was something Rose did not want to think about.


About four days later, in the early morning, Rose woke Haley up with a start, "Hal!" she whispered urgently.
"Aw, git off!" Hal groaned and rolled over.
"No, Hal it's important!"
Hal sat up and glared at Rose impatiently, "It better be important, or I'll skin you."
Rose looked around nervously, "There's someone down here!"
Hal snapped to attention. "Who?" she gasped quietly.
"I dunno." Rose listened hard, and she could hear a man's voice cursing at an object he had stumbled on in the dark.
Hal giggled softly.
"Hush! He'll hear you!" Rose covered her friend's mouth quickly.
"Wha? Who's there?" asked the man's voice.
Rose thought he sounded very familiar. Knowing that pirates and sailors are superstitious, Rose whispered in a raspy, wavering voice, "We are the spirits of the 'Black Pearl', ye be warned mortal; we do not take kindly to those who invade our sacred dwellings!"
The man replied, choking with laughter, "You think I believe in ghosts?" He laughed harder still.
"How dare you mock the spirits? You will be punished insolent mortal!" Rose and Haley proceeded to make howling moaning noises to frighten off the intruder, but this only increased his deep booming laugh.
"Girls," he choked, "Give it up, it's only me Robert."
Rose stood up and went toward his voice, "Where are you, lard brain?" she called in an irritated way.
"Over here, pirate brat," he called back to her.
Rose found his arm and twisted it as hard as she could, "If you tell, I'll break your arm, savvy?" she used Jack's unusual vocabulary with pride.
"Yeah," he grunted, trying to free his arm. "I promise I won't tell on you."
"Good." Rose let go of his arm and gave him a punch in the stomach for good measure, then sent him up and out of the hold.