“Look what we brought you,” said Lily, pointing to the tin cans. “Rubidjad sent good food for the three of you.”
“That’s nice of him, but we’re not hungry,” replied Rémi.
“You must eat to keep up your strength,” warned Max. “This is part of the plan. You must eat the food we bring you and refuse the food the pirates give you. That way, they’ll think you’re becoming weak and sick.”
“You must force yourself to eat, Rémi,” said Merielle. “This is what Rubidjad said. He always has good advice, so we must trust him. Okay?”
Max removed the lid from a tin can and smelled the food. “Mmm, it smells delicious, Rémi. Try it!” He held the tin can for him.
Rémi tasted a little, then he finished it all. “That was delicious, as always. Thank Rubidjad for me.”
Merielle held the tin cans for Miréla and Falado, but in spite of her encouragement, they ate very little.
Suddenly, they heard noises coming from the ship. Quickly, they hid under the platform.
Leo shouted to the other pirates: “You all stand at the bow, and we’ll show you that our new dolphin can talk.” He and Feodor climbed down the ladder and walked over to Rémi.
Feodor looked up and said to the rest of the crew: “Pay attention and listen.”
“Hi, Rémi. How are you today?” said Leo. “We brought you some food.”
“I’m not hungry!” replied Rémi.
“Wow! Wow!” shouted all the pirates on the ship. “He can speak!” They looked at him as if they had seen a ghost.
“Be quiet!” Leo ordered. “Our Captain is resting.” He turned back to Rémi. “Come on Rémi, eat!”
“Please let us go,” begged Rémi.
Young Ami leaning on the rail murmured: “I feel sorry for them.”
“Don’t be!” said Pablo, a heavy pirate. “I think the Captain has a good idea. Those three dolphins will help us catch other ships. Our Captain will get rich by taking their treasure, and he promised us part of the loot.”
“Do you believe him?” asked Ami.
“Well, I know he has broken promises before, but he said he’ll keep his promise this time.... I hope he does,” replied Pablo.
“If Rémi does not eat, he won’t have the strength to pull the ship,” said Ami. “The other two dolphins look old and sick. If they can’t pull the ship, the Captain will be mad at us!”
“What are we going to do?” lamented Leo. “They’re not eating!”
“There is nothing we can do,” shouted Pablo from the bow. “Bring me that food; I’m always hungry.” As soon as Leo and Feodor climbed back on deck with the bowls, Pablo gulped down the food as if he had not eaten for days.
“Let’s get back to our job and look for ships,” advised Leo.
After the pirates left, Max, Lily, and Merielle came out of their hiding place. They all laughed. “I think it’s beginning to work,” said Max. “The pirates seem worried about your health.”
“Continue to pretend you’re not hungry,” added Lily. “You’re doing a good job!” She then jumped on Max and did a little dance on his head.
Merielle hugged Rémi. “We’re all proud of you, Rémi!”
###
Chapter 9
The Failed Chase
The sun was shining and the sea was calm. Pirates were searching the horizon. Suddenly, they shouted: “Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy!”
“Where? Where?” asked a pirate.
“There! See? Call the Captain! Ship ahoy!” Everybody was excited.
“Bull’s eye!” shouted the Captain as he ran out of his cabin. Seeing a ship on the horizon brought a big grin to his face. “Can you read the name of the ship?” he asked one of his crew.
“No, I don’t know how to read,” he replied.
“Is there anyone on the ship who knows how to read?” asked the Captain.
They all shook their heads no.
One pirate handed the telescope to the Captain. “Here, Captain, you can read the name of the ship.”
“Cough! Cough! Um!” said the Captain, clearing his throat. “I don’t know how to read either.” He put the telescope in his pocket.
The pirates laughed. This made the Captain furious. “Get the ship ready for battle,” he said in a thundering voice.
The Bookworms were listening to the pirates’ conversation and were getting scared.
“Look lively there! Raise anchor!” yelled the Captain. “Where’s my hat?”
“It’s on your head, Captain!” said Ami timidly.
“Yeessss, of course!”
“Anchor’s stowed, Captain!” yelled Pablo.
“Adjust the sails,” ordered the Captain. He walked briskly to the bow of the ship where he could see the dolphins below. He drew his cutlass and pointed it at the small dot on the horizon. “Come on, dolphins, straight for that ship! Come on! Pull! Pull, I say!”
Ami ran to the Captain: “I think the dolphins are weak.”
“Nonsense!” replied the Captain. “The new one looks real strong to me. Bring me a whip! I’ll get them to move!”
“We don’t have a whip,” replied Ami.
“Well, find something,” grumbled the Captain. Ami left and pretended to look for a rope.
Rémi urged Miréla and Falado to pull the ship or they would all be whipped. They had no choice.
“Come on, dolphins. Pull! Pull!” yelled the Captain. “Ooooh! Here we go, we’re moving! Hey, hey! Good! Faster, faster! Come on, that’s it! Go! Go! Good dolphins!”
The three dolphins pulled the ship with all their might. They were picking up speed. In unison, they were leaping in and out of the water. The wind in the sails and the dolphins’ pulling made the ship move really fast. The Captain was hysterical with joy! The speed made his hat fly off his head and onto the deck. The Malo was gaining on the other ship. Then, it stopped!
The Captain looked down and saw the old dolphins barely moving, and Rémi struggling to pull the ship by himself. “What’s going on down there?”
Ami brought the Captain his hat. “Here is your hat, Captain.” He leaned over the rail, and turned back towards the Captain: “I think the two old dolphins don’t have the strength to pull so much weight. They’re old! Look, Captain, the young dolphin is trying to pull the other two dolphins and the ship. That’s too much.”
The captain grumbled: “I think you’re right. We need young dolphins.”
Leo ran to the Captain: “The wind has died! Why are we stopping?”
“The old ones are no good,” snarled the Captain. He pulled his telescope out of his pocket. Now that they were much closer to their prey, he could see it better. “Holy smoke!” he exclaimed, “that ship is huge! That’s odd, giant cannons are pointing straight up to the sky!”
While looking through his telescope, he imagined the cannons being lowered and pointed directly at him, and then firing huge cannon balls. He shook his head, closed and then opened his eyes really wide to stop the nightmare. He looked again through his telescope and mumbled: “Oh,... this is rather peculiar, those pirates are waving at us. They’re crazy!”
The Captain was completely mistaken, of course. What he saw was not a pirate ship, it was a modern cruise ship! What he thought were pirates were actually passengers waving to them; and, what he thought were cannons were the cruise ship’s smoke stacks! The name of the ship was the Merry Cruise.
He summoned his crew to the bow. “Well boys,... we almost did it.”
“Yeah! Yeah!” they all shouted!
“My idea of using three dolphins was good,” he boasted. “It worked! Did you see how fast we were moving?”
“Yeah! Yeah!” they all responded.
“But,” the Captain continued gravely, “we have a problem! The old ones are no good to us. Release them at once. They’re too old and weak. When we get a good breeze, we’ll look for two young dolphins. This young one,... we need to keep him strong. Double his food ration! I don’
t want to take chances!”
The ship’s speed caused Max and Lily to fall behind, but they arrived in time to hear the Captain’s orders. They joined Merielle under the platform.
Rémi looked very tired, and Miréla and Falado looked exhausted. Rémi translated the Captain’s orders into song for Miréla and Falado. Tears of joy ran down their faces as they heard the good news about their release.
Two pirates climbed down, removed the chains holding the old dolphins and climbed right back up. Miréla and Falado were free! They swam around the ship and came back to Rémi. They talked in song.
“Go away! Go away!” shouted the Captain. But the three dolphins ignored him. They nudged each other’s heads as if to say goodbye. Slowly, Miréla and Falado swam away. They were going home. The Captain and the crew left the bow.
The Bookworms heard a faint symphony of dolphins’ songs. The Captain and the crew were unable to hear anything. Rémi was laughing. His friends couldn’t understand why he was so happy.
“Well, Rémi, tell us what’s going on,” implored Merielle.
Rémi could hardly talk, because he was laughing so hard: “Miréla and Falado are sending,... ha, ha, ha,... a warning,... ha, ha, ha,... to all dolphins to stay away from this ship.” He composed himself. “The warning will be relayed and will reach every dolphin on earth.”
“What a good idea!” exclaimed Max. They all rejoiced. But, the mood turned somber when they realized that Rémi was still being held captive.
“Cheer up, Rémi!” urged his three friends.
###
Chapter 10
The Captain’s Weaknesses
The Bookworms hid under the platform as soon as they heard approaching footsteps. Leo and Pablo brought Rémi a huge bowl of food. Again, Rémi refused to eat. The pirates were worried, but there was nothing they could do. Pablo became impatient and said: “Give it to me. No need to let it go to waste!” He gulped it all down. Then, they went back up on deck.
Max, Lily, and Merielle approached Rémi. “Tomorrow is another day,” said Max. “Maybe things will be better. You know, there is something really strange here. Why would a pirate ship go after a cruise ship? They carry people, not treasure. Oh well, let’s review what we’ve learned today.”
“We know that they won’t be able to catch dolphins again,” Rémi pointed out. They all laughed.
“We learned that Ami has a very good heart, and he likes Rémi,” said Max. “Maybe he’ll be a good ally.”
“What’s an ally?” asked Lily.
“An ally is like a friend,” replied Max. “A friend helps another friend. We also learned that Pablo has doubts about the Captain keeping his promises.”
“That’s right,” said Rémi. “We also learned that the Captain is very impatient. But, so far, he has not beaten me, so he must not be too bad. He has ordered his crew to give me twice as much food - he must be concerned about my health.”
Max reminded them: “The Captain is concerned about one thing, and one thing only - getting rich by stealing treasure. He thinks by giving you twice the food, you’ll pull the ship twice as fast! Tomorrow morning Lily and I will go and see Rubidjad and ask him for advice. Oh, wait, we all forgot a very important clue.”
“What?” asked his friends together.
“Neither the Captain nor his crew knows how to read,” replied Max. “That’s a big weakness, isn’t it?”
They all agreed.
Max turned to Lily. “Why don’t you go on deck and see what the Captain is doing. We must learn as much as possible about him. Just make yourself tiny when you get on deck so nobody sees you, okay?”
“No problem,” answered Lily. She wrapped her tail on a rope hanging from the ship, and in no time she pulled herself up on deck. She immediately made herself the size of a grain of sand. The crew were in their hammocks, except for two men sweeping the deck. One almost swept her away. Oh, dear, she said to herself, that was close!
A full moon illuminated the deck. Lily hopped around trying to find the Captain’s cabin. She stopped in front of a door. Golden letters spelled TAINCAP ALMO. “That’s not it,” she murmured. She searched the whole ship but she couldn’t find any other sign. So, she came back to the first cabin. She looked at the sign carefully. Suddenly, she realized that the letters were not in the right order. She unscrambled ‘TAIN’ and ‘CAP’ to ‘CAPTAIN’, and ‘ALMO’ to ‘MALO’. “Yeah! That’s it!” she said softly. She slipped under the door and saw the Captain sitting at his desk looking at a book with tears in his eyes. She noticed two doves in a small cage.
“It’s no use, I’ll never be able to read,” cried the Captain. He had a big handkerchief in one hand, and from time to time he wiped his tears and blew his nose.
Oh, my goodness, he is trying to teach himself to read, thought Lily. He looks so pitiful!
Lily had seen enough. She hurried out to the deck. She changed herself back to her regular size before gliding down the rope to rejoin her companions.
“You’ll never guess what I saw,” exclaimed Lily. “I saw the Captain crying!”
“Probably because he couldn’t steal treasure today!” replied Rémi scornfully.
“No! That’s not it!” insisted Lily. “He was crying because he doesn’t know how to read. I saw him with my own eyes. He had a book on his desk and he was trying to teach himself to read. I heard him say: ‘It’s no use, I’ll never be able to read.’”
“Did he really say that?” asked Max. “That’s incredible! He looked so tough! That tells you that you can’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Huh, what does that mean?” asked Lily.
“It means that you cannot judge someone just by looking at him or her,” replied Max. “Just like we cannot tell whether a story is good or bad just by looking at the book cover!”
“Guess what else I found?” added Lily. “The sign on his door says ‘TAINCAP ALMO.’”
“You must have had the wrong cabin,” declared Max.
“Not at all,” protested Lily. “What do you get if you reverse ‘TAIN’ and ‘CAP?’”
“CAPTAIN!” exclaimed Max and Merielle.
“That’s right,” said Lily proudly.
“And, if we unscramble ‘ALMO’ we get ‘MALO.’” blurted Max. “Wow! You did an excellent job, Lily.”
“Oh, that was easy,” replied Lily. “But I really feel sorry for him. Do you know what else I saw?”
“What?” they asked in unison.
“Two doves in a cage!”
“Poor things!” exclaimed Merielle. “Prisoners in a cage!”
Max shook his head. “We’ll have a lot to tell Rubidjad tomorrow. We’d better get some sleep. Good night!”
“Good night!” echoed his friends. Shortly after, they were all asleep.
Early next morning, the Bookworms awoke, and the first thing on their minds was Rémi. “How are you doing?” asked Max. “Did you sleep well?
“No. I did not,” replied Rémi. “The chains are too tight; they’re hurting me.”
“Poor Rémi!” said Merielle and Lily.
“We must go and see Rubidjad to tell him all the clues we’ve gathered,” said Max. “We’ll be back soon, okay?”
“Okay. Hurry back!” urged Rémi.
Merielle put her arms around Rémi. “I’ll stay with you, Rémi.”
“That’s nice of you, Merielle. You’re a good friend.”
###
Chapter 11
The Ingenious Plan
Max and Lily swam to the library. No one was on the beach that early, but the library was already open. Rubidjad was at his desk looking through his crystal ball.
“Hello, Rubidjad?” shouted Max.
“I’m in the back. Come on in. I’m glad you’re here. How is Rémi?”
“He’s so-so,” replied Max. “The chains are scraping his neck and body, and he cannot sleep.”
“I’ll give you some of my special ointment,??
? replied Rubidjad. “But, how is his spirit?”
“He’s becoming impatient; he longs to be free,” responded Max.
“Tell me what you’ve learned about our enemy since yesterday,” urged Rubidjad.
“We’ve learned a great deal,” replied Max; then he continued to tell him more about Rémi’s captors.
“It looks like their biggest weakness is that none of them can read,” stated Rubidjad. “The fact that Lily found the Captain lamenting over his inability to read tells me that he is eager to learn. The fact that he was crying means that he really has a soft heart. From what you said, he also suffers from insomnia, does he not?”
“That’s right,” replied Max.
“What’s ‘insomnia?’” whispered Lily.
“It means he can’t sleep at night,” Max answered softly. He turned to Rubidjad. “Now that we know the strengths and weaknesses of our enemy, what can we do?”
“It’s easy my friends,” replied Rubidjad. “Teach him to read!”
“Teach him to read?” asked Max in disbelief.
“But, we don’t know how to teach,” remarked Lily.
“I taught you all to read, now you can teach others,” Rubidjad replied. “But,... you must insist that the Captain free Rémi immediately. That’s the bargain!”
“But, how will that prevent him from pirating other ships and taking their loot?” asked Max.
“Let’s not worry about that for now,” replied Rubidjad. The most important thing is to free Rémi. I do know that reading helps anyone become a better being. I think this Captain will develop other interests rather than thinking about stealing treasure. Learning and discovering things is exciting, and reading is fun.”
“Well, we have nothing to lose and a lot to gain,” stated Max. “Do you think he will accept the deal?”
“It depends entirely on you,” Rubidjad answered. “Moreover, you can offer to read him stories at night. That will relax him and help him fall asleep. You must all persuade him that this is a good plan.”
“How are we going to convince him?” asked Lily.
“I’ve given you some ideas, now you will have to devise a strategy,” he replied.
Lily looked at Rubidjad. “What’s a strategy?”
Rubidjad reminded her: “You are in a place of learning. Look it up in the dictionary.” He turned to Max. “To start, take these two books. I’ll wrap them so that they won’t get wet. I’ll also give you some food and my special healing ointment for Rémi. Just wait a bit.”