48 Hours a Day

“You?” asked a skeptical Dufresne.

“I’m small enough to squeeze in, which means I can fix the hole without moving the cabinet,” Harry replied.

Dufresne looked at the carpenter, who then turned to Harry for a good look. Then he nodded.

“It’s possible… theoretically.”

“Mr. Dufresne, please let me try. Otherwise, we’re all going to die here!”

“How about the wound on your arm?”

“It’s no big deal. I hurt it earlier while running because I was too afraid. Don’t worry about it,” Harry chucked while swinging his arms to prove that he was fine.

“Quick! Take off your shirt.”

After Harry took off his shirt, Dufresne tore a sleeve off and wrapped it around a cork. He then passed it to Harry.

“Use this to plug the hole. If you think it’s not big enough, wrap some more cloth around the cork.”

“Understood!”

“You want to become a part of the Jackdaw, right? Finish this task, and I will suggest that the captain take you in as an official crew. Now, be careful.”

Harry was elated when he heard that.

“Leave it to me!”

Immediately, he took a deep breath and dived into the water.

……

On another note, Jarvis had invested a lot of time making sure he got as far as he could from the Jackdaw. After a long while, he finally managed to get close to the navy ship. From his little boat, Jarvis could see Worden and Chris on the main deck. This was his first time meeting Worden. All this time, he had been contacting Chris. Throughout the entire operation, Jarvis had been leaking the pirates’ plans to Chris, knowing he was a high-ranking officer of the navy. When Jarvis came under the shadow of the hull, he put down the oars and waved to Chris, who strangely avoided eye contact.

“Are you ashamed?!” Worden harrumphed.

“No, sir.”

Though Chris’s face burned hot, he still managed to hold himself most confidently.

“Remember, they are a herd of primitive beasts. There’s no shame in fooling them. Think about the people they killed. You shouldn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt! I want you to lift your head and look him in the eyes.”

Chris longed to disobey the order, but he did it anyway. Jarvis was still waving his hands at him, glad to have finally caught their attention. It wasn’t too long before Jarvis realized the ice-cold stare coming out of Chris’ eyes. He quickly caught on, sensing that something wasn’t right. Being a legendary pirate of Nassau, of course he could read Chris’s mind. Whether he wanted it or not, he had thrown in everything get to where he was today. There was no turning back now.

The moment he betrayed Black Prince Sam and the rest of the captains, he knew that he could no longer return as a captain. Besides, most of his men were killed in the battle. Now, he was all alone in the vast ocean. Jarvis initially thought that he could get his immunity documents, thereby severing his past for good. But even if he managed to leave his life behind him, the door to the new world seemed to be permanently shut as well. Right now, he had nowhere else to go.

“Great! Now, I want you to kill him. Tell Count Lambert that Captain Jarvis was killed in battle. We shall honor our word and allow him to return to a civilized society. That only applies to his dead body, of course.”

Jarvis then saw the cannons on the main deck aiming at him. If he wanted to, there was still enough time to abandon the boat and swim away. After all, the navy was focusing on the Jackdaw and the beach. If he jumped into the water, he could probably dodge the cannonballs. Despite everything that could be said about him, Jarvis valiantly stayed on little boat. He knew that he would never be able to live in this world anymore, even if he managed to survive.

The cannoneer lit up the fuse once Chris gave the order to fire. The first projectile missed its target. So, the cannoneer readjusted the cannon and retook aim. As luck would have it, the second shot missed as well. The little boat rocked and shuddered violently as the massive cannonballs flew past at supersonic speed! Still, Jarvis sat like a statue, unwilling to yield. The third time around, the cannoneer took half a minute to aim at Jarvis. Finally, he fired!

The flying cannonball landed directly on Jarvis. Seconds after that, his body surfaced, but no one seemed to care about the man. The death of Captain Jarvis was just a tiny interlude in the long symphony of battle.

After that, the navy and pirate-hunters started firing on the pirate ships docked onshore. Black Prince Sam used the swiftest way in dealing with the remaining pirates from the Warrior, gathering whatever of his men were left and rushing back his own ship. Casualties were mounting, and right now, they severely lacked men to fight off the navy and the pirate hunters. The cannoneers they had were enough for only two ships, so after a short discussion, they decided to gather all that could still fight into one vessel.

Just when they alighted a small boat and were about to row to the nearest ship, the navy and pirate hunters launched a massive volley of artillery at them. This time around, they received their reckoning.

They were forced to watch flames engulf their ships. The first one that sank was Brook’s Swordfish. Having been severely damaged by the Spanish treasure ship, the carpenters had only fixed half of the damage. As Jarvis had personally relayed this piece of information to the navy, the Swordfish would naturally become their first target. Brook knew all too well that his ship would be first to go. Still, he could not help but feel upset. After all, they had been through countless battles together, and his heart was like an anchor.

The next to come under siege was the Tigershark. Its strength was only second to the Quidah and was initially one of the ships that Black Prince Sam and the pirates intended to board. Before they could even get there, the enemies had started bombarding it with cannonballs. Luckily, its hull was tougher than the Swordfish. It lasted longer than the former, managing to buy the pirates some valuable time.

In the end, Black Prince Sam decided that he would give up boarding the Quidah because it was simply too far away from them. Immediately, he asked his men to turn around. Now, their new heading was to the Warrior. Previously, their crew were thinkong of leaving the place after their betrayal had been found out. They were parked closest to the beach. Unfortunately, things had gone south, and now, they were unable to board. This gave Black Prince Sam and the rest a fighting chance instead of running away.

Though the outcome of this battle was no rocket science, they insisted on fighting for honor, till life’s very end.