Chapter 2: The Trap Closes
Heavy boots clattered behind him. Jack pounded up the wide staircase that reached a spacious landing and then switchbacked back to the left to ascend up to the mezzanine level. El León's bully boys were cascading down from there, so Jack turned right, not left, and leapt. He grabbed the bottom of the crystal chandelier and swung towards the ballroom's high-paned windows. But he didn't have enough momentum.
Jack slowed to a halt then swung back towards the grasping hands of El León's men. One of the men from up on the mezzanine dove over the railing and, as he hurtled passed, grabbed onto Jack's legs. This jerked Jack's swing back towards the windows. The man lost his grip and was thrown through the glass, but Jack could see there still was not enough momentum to carry him along as well. So back again he went towards the landing.
Desperate, Jack began to climb. A moment later, he was perched atop the chandelier, holding onto its central chain with one hand and waving his cutlass with the other. Below him, the governor's guards had gathered with their ceremonial halberds (which from here, looked very sharp indeed.) On the landing and on the mezzanine, El León's bully boys brandished their cutlasses and jeered. But praise be to all the gods in all the pantheons in all the heavens in all the universe, there was not a single pistol or musket to be seen.
"Sorry, mates," he told them. "It takes more than just enthusiasm and sheer weight of numbers to capture Captain Jack Sparrow!"
El León strode majestically across the floor. "Give up, Captain Sparrow. You have nowhere to go."
"If I gave up mate, I wouldn't be Captain Jack Sparrow, now, would I?" He looked around desperately for Will and Elizabeth, but they were nowhere to be seen.
The chandelier ripped out of the ceiling and sent him and it crashing into the guardsmen below. Some men were flattened, and the rest were flung away like nine pins. Jack came hopping out of the wreckage and picked up his fallen cutlass and plumed hat. He turned to face El León's men, who were hurdling down the staircase.
He was outnumbered, say, about twenty-to-one. This was good because no matter which way he swung, he hit an enemy. With his blade flashing, he fought a retreat back to the door underneath the stairs and from there into the kitchen.
The passageway between the cupboards, stoves and chopping tables was narrow, and so El León's men were forced into a narrow column. Jack slowly gave ground before them, his right hands slashing with his cutlass, his left hand hurling pots, kettles, a frying pan, a soup tureen, knives, a live chicken, a coconut, a serving tray, some corn on the cob, another live chicken, a chef's assistant, some towels, and a roast piglet.
Then Jack turned and ran through the door behind him.