Read Online The Secret Invasion of Port Isabel by Mark Douglas Stafford - Free Book Online Page B

the
pirates would come this way but it seemed possible that he might
succeed.
    He heard a
noise behind him that made him jump, heart pounding. He spun about,
eyes wide, but it was only a boat bumping against the jetty. Larry
felt pressure building in his head. He relaxed and let the
unfamiliar memories and flood in.
    Lever: a machine
consisting of a beam pivoted at a fulcrum. It amplifies an input
force to provide a greater output force. The ratio of the output
force to the input force is the ideal mechanical advantage of the
lever. Mathematically, this is expressed by…
    He ignored the
words and visualised the neat diagrams, then he turned and looked
up at the finishing boat’s boom. Glowing numbers and gridlines
seemed to transpose themselves on his vision. They hovered in the
air showing the calculated forces and tensions required to swing
the boom and to drop and raise the net. They were so vivid it
seemed he might be able to pluck them from the air.
    He could see
that his idea would work, provided the pirates came this way.
    Larry was
about the climb onto the fishing boat to make preparations for his
trap when he heard the clatter of trotters behind him.
    He spun
about.
    Staring at him
with fierce little black eyes wasn’t a pirate, but a boar. It was
black as night, hairy and had a disfiguring scar on its snout. It
forelegs were bundles of muscle and it had no neck. Its short ivory
tusks lifted up sagging gums like curtains. The tusks looked every
bit as menacing as a pirate’s cutlass.
    Larry raised
his arms above his head as the black boar marched purposefully
towards him. He would somehow have to convince him to help as there
was little time to affect his plan. He would have to explain that
there were pirates in Port Isabel and he meant to capture them in a
fishing net.
    ‘There you
are!’ said the boar with a snarl. ‘Trying to escape on one of the
ships, are you? Or trying to hide? You’ve led me a right royal
excursion, young monkey. You won’t invade me this time.’
    The icy rain
grew heavy and splashed on the boards like tear drops. The wind
gusted.
    ‘You must come
with me at the behest of His Lionship, Mayor Lion himself, at his
orders and instructions. You come with me, forthwith and now, or
else!’
    The boar
charged at Larry without waiting for an answer.
     
    CHAPTER 9

    DROPPING IN ON PIRATES
     
    After an hour of
fruitlessly searching the wet streets of Port Isabel for pirates
disguised as sheep, Flossy and Reginald made their way back to the
Stinging Nettle. The enormous animal was full of curiosity about
his little human cousin and the society from which she had
come.
    ‘So, you’re
saying you have no talking animals in Australia?’ said
Reginald.
    ‘Yes, that’s
right,’ said Flossy.
    ‘Fascinating!
Then it must have been quite a shock finding yourself aboard the Interloper. ’
    ‘It was.
Pirate Pratt’s flea-bitten mutts were actually talking to one
another. At first I thought they were just the barks and growls of
dumb animals. No offence intended.’
    ‘Oh, none
taken.’ Reginald stepped hard in a deep puddle, requiring Flossy to
leap aside to avoid being drenched by the tidal wave. ‘Sorry. No
offence intended,’ he said.
    ‘Very funny,
Reginald! If you didn’t like getting wet, I’d splash you back.’
Flossy allowed a wide margin as she skirted the next puddle. It
wasn’t that she was worried about getting any wetter. She just
didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
    ‘Besides, I
didn’t mean you were a dumb animal. You are the smartest…
person I’ve ever met. I was thinking about the animals back home.
They can’t talk. They just have instincts, no thoughts and
feelings…’
    ‘Are you so
sure?’ Reginald asked.
    They had
searched most of the long hill sweeping up from Town Square.
Reginald was too large for the labyrinthine laneways, so while he
searched the main thoroughfares, parks and squares, she searched
the adjoining laneways and alleys. Neither