The Adventures of Tintin Page B

out from under his gold-braided cap. He resettled the cap on his head, rubbing the spot where the plank had apparently hit him.
    Then he saw Snowy, sitting on the cabin floor watching him, and the captain rocketed to his feet, punching his head straight through the floor of the birdcage so he was suddenly wearing it like a mask. “Arggghhh!” he cried. “The giant rat of Sumatra!”
    In the next moment he saw Tintin, who was just getting to his feet. “Aha!” the captain said. He snatched up one of the broken chair legs and shifted into a swordsman’s posture, holding the chair leg out at an angle toward Tintin. “Thought you could sneak in here and catch me with me trousers down, eh?”
    Snowy growled and lowered his head, offended by being compared to a rat. Tintin got hold of another chair leg and brought it up just in time to parry a lunge from the captain. They circled each other, the captain hacking wildly at Tintin, who jumped and dodged out of reach. From the top of a sea chest, Tintin said, “I’d rather you kept your trousers on, if it’s all the same to you.”
    “I know your game,” the captain snarled. “You’re one of them!”
    Tintin parried a thrust and hopped back to the floor. “I’m sorry?”
    “They sent you here to kill me, eh?” the captain said. Snowy lunged and caught the captain’s pants leg in his teeth, shaking hard enough to unbalance the captain for a moment.
    “Look, I don’t know who you are,” Tintin began, but the captain’s rant went on.
    “That’s how he planned to bump me off. Murdered in my bed by a baby-faced assassin! And his killer dog!”
    “Assassin?” Tintin said. “Look, you’ve got it all wrong.” He parried yet again. “I was kidnapped by a gang of thugs.”
    The captain stopped and glared at Tintin. “The filthy swine!” he said. “He’s turned the whole crew against me!”
    “Who?”
    “A sour-faced man with a sugary name,” the captain growled, as if pronouncing a curse. “He bought them all off. Every last man!”
    “Sakharine!” said Tintin. Now he understood what was happening aboard the
Karaboudjan
.
    “Nobody takes my ship!” the captain raged.
    “Sshhhh,” Tintin said. He pointed toward the door. The captain appeared to understand.
    He slumped against a case filled with nautical relics, suddenly feeling sorry for himself. “I’ve been locked in this room for days,” he groaned, “with only whiskey to sustain my mortal soul.”
    You’re certainly well sustained, then
, Tintin thought, as it was clear the captain had been drinking. But it would have been rude to say it. On a whim, just to be sure, Tintin tried the door.
    It opened. Tintin looked back at the captain, arching one eyebrow.
    “Oh,” the captain said. “Well, I assumed it was locked.”
    “Well, it’s not,” Tintin said. “Now you must excuse me. If they find me here, they’ll kill me. I have to keep moving and try to find my way off this drunken tub.”
    He slipped out into the corridor with Snowy, shutting the door behind him and walking straight into a sailor he hadn’t seen coming. A guard, or someone just passing by? It didn’t matter. The sailor caught Tintin in a bear hug and they wrestled as, from inside the cabin, Tintin heard, “Tub? Tub!?
Tub!??
”
    The door opened just as Tintin and the sailor spun around in the corridor, banging into the wall next to it. In a rage, the captain knocked the sailor down with a single punch. He fell to his hands and knees, trying to get up. When he lunged for the captain’s legs, the captain slammed the door into him, knocking him out cold. Tintin caught the sailor as he fell over and, with the captain’s help, dragged him into the cabin.
    “Thanks,” Tintin panted when they had laid the sailor out.
    “Pleasure,” the captain said.
    Tintin offered his hand. “I’m Tintin, by the way.”
    The captain shook Tintin’s hand. “Haddock. Archibald Haddock. There’s a longboat up on deck. Follow