Hi. Sorry about the huge delay. I have lots of excuses but none that really acccount for taking several months to post a short chapter. I'm not sure when I'll have the next part up. There's only about 2 chapters left.

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Twenty minutes after Jack was locked in the cell a young sailor arrived and thrust a mug of water and a couple of slices of bread through the bars.

The young captain took them, taking a large swallow of the water. "Why are ye keeping me in here?" he asked after a moment when the sailor had not left.

"Yer a pirate."

Jack smiled. "And how do you be knowing that then?"

He gave an incredulous look, staring at his bandanna and ripped clothes. "Just look a' you."

Jack felt irrationally uncomfortable. He'd always been quite proud of his appearance. "Supposing I am a pirate... since when a' rum runners cared so much about the law?"

"The Cap'n wants the reward."

"Reward?"

"Forty Galleons for a pirate."

A few days passed. Jack was reasonably well fed but growing increasingly restless. He'd taken to pacing his cell and ratteling the bars while plotting increasingly insane escape plans. A few of these he'd actually attempted. None had yet come close to suceeding.

He was trying to lasoe his pistol (hanging on a hook on the far wall) with a rope made from his belt and several strips of fabric when the captain decended from the deck. Following a short distance behind were two officers of the royal navy.

"What's your name Pirate?" demanded the older of the uniformed men.

"Jack."

"Jack?"

"Captain Jack Sparrow o' The Black Pearl," he replied, forcing a casual, confident stance.

"Captain?" He turned to the rum runner. "That will be sixty Galleons then." He nodded, pleased. "Unlock the cell then."

A key turned and the door creaked slowly open. The bars were gone. Jack wanted to run out of the cell, up the stairs, to jump over the side of the ship and never look back. But there were three armed men standing in the way. One of the officers locked shackles on his wrists.

"Is that weapon his?" the other enquired of the rum runner.

After a moment's concideration he nodded.

He lifted it off the hook. "We'll be taking it for evidence then."

One of the officers moved to stand behind Jack, pressing the barrel of his musket into his back. They walked him up to the deck and then across a gangplank to the other ship.