Chapter 5: El Cruce
The bell began to clang loudly, so Eliza dropped her stirring spoon, wiped her hands on her apron, and ran upstairs to the deck.
"Ship, dead ahead!" shouted Bandy Jim from the lookout.
Sparrow walked out from his ready-room and raised a glass to his eye. "El Cruce, it is."
Gibbs bounded up the stairs to meet his captain. "What's the plan, then, Jack?"
Jack frowned as he continued to look through his spyglass. "Fifteen or so cannons, about 50 crewmen. We're outgunned and outmanned." Jack collapsed the spyglass and put it into his right jacket pocket, and gave his pocket a pat. He wheeled around to Gibbs, stretching a hand out and rolling his eyes.
"Aye, Jack, it be dangerous business this time," warned Gibbs.
"But we've got the fastest ship in the world, and a bargaining chip. El Cruce doesn't know he left anyone alive from the Esperanza."
"Ahh," grinned Gibbs. "Give 'em the ole element o' surprise." He raised his eyebrows and took a long drink from the flask hanging around his neck as Jack called out to Eliza, who bounced up the stairs with her black hair flying around her in the wind.
"Captain." She acknowledged Jack, while still staring toward El Cruce's ship. Neither Jack nor Eliza had spoken any more of the other night, and had been careful to avoid each other for the past several days. This was easy to do on a big ship, where everyone had his duties to perform. They had scarce been out of each other's thoughts, though…Eliza not quite convincing herself that she should under no circumstances succumb to Jack Sparrow, and Jack not quite convincing himself that he should under no circumstances pursue Eliza Herrold. The complicated emotions on both sides now caused an embarrassed silence undetected by Gibbs, who was wiping the rum from his lips with his shirt sleeve.
"Eliza," began Jack. He tipped his hat and affected a pointed grin before continuing. "I need to ask you something, and please hear me out, love. We are in an interesting position. El Cruce doesn't realize there's anyone left alive from your ship, and it's something we can use, savvy?" Eliza squinted her eyes, not following what Jack was saying. "That is to say, you are an advantage for us, but using you as said advantage could be dangerous, and fact is darling, I've encountered great trouble before when using people as leverage without their permission."
Her eyes met his, full of fire, and Jack winced and braced himself to be slapped again. When the slap didn't come, he opened his eyes widely, and looked at Eliza again. The girl nodded at Jack, looked at the other pirate ship in the distance, then back at the captain.
"Yes Jack," she answered with spirit, slowly smiling at him. "But we wait for the opportune moment." Captain Jack Sparrow smiled so hard his face hurt.
In the belly of the El Puro, Hector Ruiz played cards with his crewmembers. The towering man was hunched over a bad hand, and was in a foul mood. He stroked a long black beard with his cardless hand, eyebrows narrowed, the left one brushing the top of his eye patch. A skinny, clean shaven man was on the floor nearby, dabbing his bleeding face with the cloth around his neck, after having been soundly punched for dealing his captain such a pitiful group of cards. Suddenly, a portly young man yelled in Spanish down into the hold. The captain sprang to his feet at once and ran up the stairs.
A ship with black sails had passed them, that much was certain, but now that ship appeared to be in trouble, as black smoke was rising from somewhere on the deck. Ruiz had heard of the Black Pearl, but never seen her. Captain Sparrow, wasn't it, he thought to himself. The large man chuckled. He had heard many a story about how well this resourceful Sparrow fellow got himself in and out of trouble. A right respectable pirate, if not rumored to be a bit touched in the head. Right now, though, Sparrow was in trouble. He was definitely in trouble. Why shouldn't El Cruce be the pirate with the black sails and the fastest ship, and a bigger cargo hold. They were both pirates, reasonable men who kept to the code for the most part…Ruiz would simply offer Sparrow a trade, which the other captain wouldn't likely refuse, being in distress. And, if Sparrow refused, thought Ruiz with an insidious grin, he and the rest of his miserable crew would be purified for their past sins.
Ruiz shouted instructions to the crew to assemble two boats and prepare to board the Black Pearl. While the Pearl was a larger vessel, it was obvious to Ruiz that it had fewer cannons and a smaller crew than the El Puro, and any captain worth his salt would surely recognize such and Sparrow would be aware as well. So, he reasoned, Jack Sparrow wouldn't dare make a move against him under threat of certain defeat, and it made sense to board with only half the crew.
"Tha's it," said Gibbs to the four crewmen. "Keep burnin' those there barrels. We need that smoke, ya see. They're sending out boats to investigate. When they get close enough and I gives the order, start makin' all manner of ruckass like the ship has caught fire and you can't put 'er out. We're sposed' ta be in trouble here."
"Come on, Hector," murmured Jack from the poop deck above as he watched the two boats get bigger as they inched toward the Black Pearl. "Come visit Uncle Jack."
Eliza had promised Jack she would hide below in the scullery until he signaled for her, so she crouched in a cabinet nearby. She knew it would nearly kill her to be hidden from the action as it unfolded. She knew Jack was taking a terrible chance, but she also knew the loot aboard the El Puro would sustain him and everyone on the Pearl for a very long time, maybe a couple of years, and Jack was first and foremost a man of fortune. She flashed back to the sinking of the Esperanza and remembered a similar feeling when she had hidden in her stateroom on her father's orders, unaware of what was going on until she woke up floating on a door in a salty smattering of broken wood and men. How many times had she wondered how things might have been different, had she left the stateroom? And would her hiding similarly this time cause the death of Jack Sparrow? She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to bear the thought. She felt some loud thuds against the side of the ship. They were here. The pirates who killed her father were here.
"Captain Sparrow, I presume?" boomed a rich voice with a Spanish accent. "It appears you could use our assistance. May we come aboard?"
"Aye," yelled Jack, above the dramatic screaming of the crew, who were playing their part perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that one of the Black Pearl's sails had accidentally caught fire. Convincing at least, thought Jack, and turned to greet the visitors.
Jack adopted his best pose against the wheel, his eyes widening only slightly when he saw the magnificent size of the one-eyed and bushy captain climbing onto his deck. The two men nodded to each other with as much ceremony as could be expected during a fire on the deck. "Pleasantries later, I'm afraid, Captain…would you kindly help extinguish my ship."
Ruiz grinned broadly and yelled to his crewmembers, who began using buckets and any other tools they could find to get the fire under control. Beneath from her cabinet, Eliza chuckled in spite of herself at the notion that Jack was used to playing with fire, but this time it was a bit too literal. The burning sail had been hauled down and cast into the sea by the joint crew. The fire was out.
Cotton brought in the finest glasses for the captains to drink from, and left the bottle of rum between the men on his way out. Sparrow sat in his high-backed chair, in his ready-room across from the menacing Captain Ruiz, who was clearly half a foot taller. The two men spoke cordially as they sampled Jack's rum.
"I've a proposition for you, Captain Sparrow," began Ruiz, tracing the rim of his glass with a thick index finger.
"All ears, mate," answered Jack. He was curious to hear what type of bargain a barbarian might offer.
"We're both men of the code. Your ship…it is…burned. Damaged. You will need time to recover, and supplies."
Jack nodded. That much was true. The fire had gotten more out of control than it was supposed to, a slight miscalculation, but there was little to be done about it now and at least El Cruce was here on board, acting amicably as planned. Jack reminded himself that risking the things he cared for most had always yielded the best results in the end. And after all, it would take a lot more than a little fire to destroy his precious Black Pearl.
"I have in my cargo hold enough African gemstones to pay you fairly for this ship, four times over. I can replace the burnt sail with Chinese silk, which I also have aboard my ship. What I'm proposing is a trade, sir…I get a faster, larger ship, and you get the El Puro with everything in her hold."
Jack leaned forward, steadying himself. He had expected that Ruiz would want the Black Pearl. He had not expected that Ruiz would offer him a choice. In fact, Jack thought, this wasn't really a choice at all…things would get ugly very quickly unless he pretended to go along, at least until the opportune moment.
"My friend, you are in a fix. You are outgunned, outclassed, outmanned…and I think you understand the seriousness of this predicament, yes?" sniffed Ruiz. "I am offering a fellow pirate a measure of respect not reserved for others. Captain Sparrow, nobody will get hurt if you make this bargain peacefully, and I am guessing I don't have to tell you what happens to people who get on my bad side," he added, now holding up an onyx crucifix around his neck. "You have many sins to atone for, Sparrow, no?"
"As do we all, I imagine," smiled Sparrow thoughtfully, standing up with his glass and strolling over to the window. "A man with many adventures is bound to have many regrets." Jack set his glass down on the window sill, and stretched both arms over his head in a deep yawn. He looked frantically over his deck, and having received no confirmation that his crew caught his signal, stretched and yawned again. "I'm very tired, you know," Jack said sheepishly to Ruiz, who had a quizzical look on his face. Jack yawned once more, waving his arms about more desperately this time. "Exhausted, really," he said with a frantic chuckle to the giant man seated at the table.
From the corner of his eye, Jack saw the glint of Gibbs' flask in the moonlight and knew his signal had been seen. All Jack had to do now was keep Ruiz busy while Gibbs got Eliza in position, and assisted Cotton with the poisoning of El Cruce's crewmen. It wouldn't be long in coming or too difficult for Gibbs, Jack figured, as he could hear the whole lot of the joint crew drunk already, whooping and laughing, singing sea shanties and dancing at the far end of the deck.
When Jack wheeled back around, however, El Cruce had become upset. "You try my patience, Captain Sparrow," he began, starting to reach for his sword.
"Nonsense, mate," answered Jack. "I was waving off Mr. Cotton, so as he'd not disturb us. He was headed up here with a tray of crackers or some other rubbish. Can't have us getting crumbs in our beards, what, in the middle of such an important conversation, now, can we? That would be entirely uncivilized." Jack straightened his head, twisted the ends of his mustache and did a little bow forward.
Ruiz narrowed his eyes for a moment, then burst into a hearty gale of laughter. This Sparrow was as daft as everyone said; he had to believe that now. "Have a cigar, my friend." Ruiz reached into his breast pocket and took out two cigars. One, he tossed onto the table in front of Jack. The other, he drew across his upper lip as he drew in a deep breath. "Let us discuss the terms of your acceptance." Jack looked down at the cigar, carefully pondering his next move, for what seemed an eternity.