Red Fever by Caroline Clough

and louder. The pirates were coming into the smaller harbour at speed. He could make out the same deep male voices shouting out. They sounded in a good mood. There were screams and shrieks of laughter as the engine noise got nearer. It sounded to Toby like they were racing the boat towards something solid and then swerving around in a handbrake turn at the last second. As the boat swerved, great howls of laughter and whooping rent the air.
    They’re playing chicken! How long are they going to keep this up? wondered Toby. The heat under the tarpaulin was beginning to build up, stifling him. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck and into the hollow at the base of his throat. His mouth felt dry and cracked.
    As the pirates continued with their game, the wash from their boat got bigger and bigger. The waves spread across the harbour, rocking the jumble of boats tangled there. Toby could feel the swell going up and down, up and down underneath him. The ups got higher and the downs got deeper, as the water slapped up the walls ofthe quay and bounced back against the boats. The pirates loved it. They were having a ball.
    Toby lay listening to them having fun but then he heard something else — the heavy groaning and creaking of the rusty boats on either side of him. As the waves increased, the bigger boats started to move with them. He could now feel the boat on the right of him butting up against the Lucky Lady , nudging her over to the left where she scraped against the other fishing boat, which had also begun to roll and pitch, bouncing to the right and glancing into Lady . Toby felt a grinding bump as Lady lurched back to the right, thudding up against the first boat.
    Poor Lady! She won’t be able to withstand much of this , he thought desperately.
    Toby wondered if he should get her out now while he could. He would have to back Lady out of the gap between the two boats. But the chances of not being seen seemed slim, as the pirates zoomed around the harbour. His cover would be blown. He tried to think what his dad would do.
    He would stay put, and wait it out. “When in doubt do nothing,” was what he said once before. Maybe that applies to this situation. I must keep my nerve. Stay here and hope they go away soon. With any luck they might have that attention deficit disorder thing that Robbie Gant at school had. He couldn’t stay interested in anything for very long.
    But just then Toby heard the engine noise slowing but getting louder: the pirates were coming nearer. Could they have seen the Lucky Lady?
    “Oi, Jim! That boat tucked in there — look familiar to you? It’s the same make and model as the boat from yesterday.”
    Toby struggled to keep the panic from rising in his throat.
    “Nah, can’t be. We’d have passed them if they’d come this way. Looks clean compared with most of these rusty heaps though. See if there’s anything worth having on board then we’ll scarper …”
    Toby froze. Stay calm, stay calm . He crept as far into the shadows as he could and curled into a tight ball. He couldn’t bear to think what the pirates would do to him if they caught him.
    He soon heard someone scrabbling aboard the Lucky Lady , then he felt the thud of heavy footsteps on the deck.
    “Hurry up, Jim — the Captain’s going to flail us alive if we don’t get back soon!” Toby heard the rest of the crew guffaw loudly.
    “Yeah! Come on, Jim!” someone shouted. “Get moving! Don’t want the Captian to get mad now, do we?”
    Toby sensed the man hesitate as he approached the tarpaulin. Suddenly the tarpaulin was lifted and Toby was blinking into bright sunlight. As his eyes adjustedhe realised that he was looking straight into the eyes of a pirate.
    “Please don’t tell them I’m here,” whispered Toby frantically. “Please …”
    He stared, terrified, into the dark face of a man whose wild hair lay matted around his shoulders, and his thick black beard hung heavy with grease. The man’s piercing