"Mr Cotton! You missed a spot there. Clean it up!"

Jack stood at the wheel and shouted orders to his crew. He had everyone come on deck to have the ship polished to a high sheen.

Everyone knew that there were only two reasons for this cleaning operation ordered by the captain. Either extreme boredom or anxiety led Jack to take such an unnecessary action.

And as he now pranced frantically around the deck, checking everything with eyes that missed nothing – but nothing at all – everyone guessed at the last-mentioned reason.

"Gibbs? Can you explain this to me?" he asked shrilly, pointing to an empty rum bottle.

"But Captain, that's just a …"

"Shh! Clear it away. But a little sudden!", Jack interrupted him briskly.

"You know I don't like to be shh'ed at," Gibbs rumbled quietly.

"Go, off, away!" his captain returned, making a shooing gesture with his hand.

Sighing, Gibbs took the bottle and put it away, shaking his head. Sometimes Jack worried him.

"Captain! There's a ship back there." Ragetti came storming towards Jack, waving his arm around in an uncoordinated way.

"Yeah, I know. It's been following us since yesterday. It would be unfair of me to expect you to notice this sooner when you are only playing and drinking. Do you know that ship?" he then turned to Gibbs, who had just come back.

The latter narrowed his eyes and peered in the direction Jack had indicated.

"No, sir. But it's not particularly fast. We can sail away from it without any trouble. Shall we pick up speed?"

Jack considered it for a moment.

"No. We'll wait," he then said firmly.

"But Captain …", Gibbs wanted to object.

"Don't argue! I want to know who that is."

At that moment, Rachel walked slowly onto the deck. She looked quite pale, and her hair had developed an unruly life of its own. For a noblewoman, this seemed to matter alarmingly little to her. Jack grinned.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Pintel Rachel.

Grinning maliciously, the pirate ran off, saying in a singsong voice, "Yehes, the good old friend, the rum."

Rachel looked after him in astonishment and, at the same time, crossly. What could this indecent guy think of? Then she turned to Jack.

"I am sorry. I don't know how I fell asleep in your cabin. Actually, I generally don't remember that much from yesterday … but there was rum and … never mind. What I meant to say, excuse me."

Briefly, Jack just had to grin, but then he looked at her reproachfully.

"Because of you, I couldn't sleep last night. Thank you so much, dear," he threw at her in an exaggeratedly accusatory manner.

Rachel looked down at the floor, concerned.

"I'll get you some water. Maybe when you've had something to drink, you'll feel better," Gibbs suggested.

She nodded her thanks.

"Why aren't we moving any more?", Rachel inquired of Jack.

"We're going to have visitors," he explained, pointing to the ship, which was now not far from the Pearl.

"But that looks like pirates!", Rachel groaned, and then didn't remember to close her mouth.

"You are also among pirates. What's the difference?" said Jack with a smile.

She could do nothing to argue this. When Gibbs came back and announced that the drinking water had run out, she was completely discouraged.

"Change of plan. That little island there … I seem to remember it has a spring. We'll go to it and fill up our water supply," Jack announced.

"And what about the unknown ship?", Gibbs wanted to know.

"Certainly coming after."

"And what makes you so sure?" the captain's first mate inquired.

"Very simple. The fact that they seem to be following us."

Gibbs gave the order to the crew, and now the Pearl was heading for the island. In a short time, they had approached it enough to put a dinghy in the water and paddle towards it.

Gibbs, Marty and Ragetti stayed on the Black Pearl. As Rachel walked on land for the first time in a long time, she swayed a little for a moment.

"Here we are. Mr. Cotton, take our Miss and look for water. Then fill the buckets and come back immediately. We two wait so long for the arrival of these … others just," Jack decided and unceremoniously settled down on the sand.

Cotton and Rachel set off and searched the – fortunately – manageable island. Soon they came upon a cave. From it, they could feel a pleasant coolness.

Cotton made Rachel understand with hand signals that he suspected a source in there. Rachel felt the deepest pity for the old, mute man.

Hesitantly, she followed him. It was quite dark in the cave, and yet after a short time, they found what they had been looking for. An itty-bitty lake, if one was so daring as to call it such, was located about in the middle of the cave. Cotton and Rachel proceeded to fill the four buckets with the cool water.

Rachel slowly understood why the pirates collectively drank so much rum …

Meanwhile, Pintel and Jack watched as dinghies were also lowered into the water by the foreign ship. Jack noted uneasily that there were three boats.

"Let's hope they come with good intentions," he said, trying to mask his tension.

Now Jack unpacked his telescope and looked with it in the direction of the approaching boats.

"Could be interesting," was all he was able to say when he realised who it was.