48 Hours a Day

Panda Novel

Zhang Heng and Anne led the group, searching almost half the island. Still, they couldn’t locate Harry.

“How could I not know how good Harry was at running?!”

Anne was surprised by the search result. It left her perplexed, knowing that it would only be logical for someone lost to stay as close as possible to the beach. The further away they were, the smaller the chance they’d be rescued.

“It seems he’s lost his way.”

After hearing what happened to Harry, Dufresne joined the search party as well. Staying at least two meters apart from each other, the search party called out for Harry as they scouted around the island. However, it yielded no result.

Suddenly, Zhang Heng’s team on the left found something. It was a barrel and two liquor bottles on the ground.

“Did the watchers leave all these stuff behind?” Zhang Heng asked as he lifted the barrel’s lid with his saber.

“When we asked our men to observe the Spanish treasure ship, we set up three observation posts on this island. From what I remember, I don’t think this area is one of it.”

“Maybe Ball’s men left these during their hunting trip,” said Dufresne.

“Ball and his men hunted at the west side of this island. That’s where the wild goats are. Besides, they wouldn’t have carried a barrel with them,” replied Zhang Heng.

Immediately, everyone looked at Dufresne, who simply shrugged.

“I asked them about it earlier because I want to bring back a few roasted goats to the ship.”

“Maybe it was left by whoever that was here previously,” Said Anne.

Though Parrot Island wasn’t known to have been occupied before, it was still on the nautical chart. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that people did live here.

Zhang Heng agreed as well, as he squatted down, tipped the water with his thumb, and tasted it.

“The water inside the barrel is clean and safe to drink. It doesn’t seem like it’s been here long.”

Next, he went on to check the two liquor bottles.

“Are you trying to say that there are others on this island? That’s not possible. We combed the island thoroughly the moment we set foot on its sands! There is no one here except for us.”

“How would you explain this barrel of drinking water then?”

“Maybe they left right before we got on this island…”

Dufresne paused before he could finish. If that were the case, they would have found the barrel of water when they were searching the entire island.

“It’s our people,” Zhang Heng replied while passing one of the liquor bottles to Anne.

“The rum that we drank came from a brewery in North Carolina. Their bottle’s design is unique. Usually, they would send a shipment to Nassau. Even though their rum is sold in other colonies as well, the probability of us finding it here on this island is extremely small.”

“Hold on, why would our people come here? Captain Sam’s orders?” asked Anne.

“Highly unlikely. This is a bad location. The Spanish treasure ship didn’t even pass this area. Setting up an observation point here would be a waste of time. He would have also informed others if he did something like that. I want everyone to be extra careful. Something doesn’t smell right.”

The moment Zhang Heng was done talking, the sound of footsteps came from in the dark woods. Immediately, he drew his gun, and Anne charged to the source of the sound. Just as she was about to land a slash, she paused midair!

“Harry?”

“Boss Anne!”

She saw Harry in an awful state. His whole body was soaking wet, looking as if he’d just been fished from the sea. Anne also noticed that Harry was limping, and had a hand of his covering a wound on his arm. Evidently, Harry was extremely relieved to meet Zhang Heng and the rest of them.

“I have something important to tell all of you!!!”

“Something important? Maybe you can start by telling us what the blazes happened to you?”

“What I’m about to tell you is extremely urgent! Someone betrayed us. Jarvis and his men have been pardoned, and they’d stopped being pirates for months! He’s only still in Nassau because of an agreement he made with the new governor-general from Charleston. He promised the govener that he’d help capture all the famous pirates of Nassau!”

“Jarvis, the Dynamite Jarvis? Are you sure you want to accuse him of such a grave crime? He is one of the oldest pirates in Nassau. He even arrived in Nassau before Blackbeard Teach did!” said Dufresne.

“I heard them talking about it earlier when I was lazing away. Oh no… I mean, I came here when I had my stomachache. Not too far from the cliff, Jarvis and his men hid a small boat over there. I saw it with my own eyes! When I tried to take a closer look at them, someone pushed me from the back, and I fell down the cliff!”

It was visible that Harry was still in shock as he described what happened to him.

“There were sharp rocks everywhere. I was lucky enough to fall between two of them. Thanks to that, I wasn’t hurt much. After that, I didn’t dare to swim back to the shore, so I swam to a giant rock and hid behind it. After a while, the one who pushed me down came to see if I was alive. After searching the entire place, they found no one. Perhaps they thought that the fall had killed me. That was when they let their guard down. They were close to where I hid, and I managed to hear what they said.

“One said that they were supposed to be in Nassau for a little longer. Right now, it would save them a ton of trouble since all the famous pirates are here, all at once, on Parrot Island. They said that their job would be done once they captured all of us. By doing that, the governor-general will pardon all their previous crimes, and he would add an additional 20 pounds to each of them. I’m afraid they’ve been planning this for a very long time. Before we left Nassau, they leaked our plan to the authorities!”

Harry was getting very nervous and started talking faster and faster.

“A fleet made up of the navy and pirate hunters have been secretly following us from the very start. They used the small boat I saw to make contact with them. Tonight’s grand party is Jarvis’ idea! He was hoping to create a perfect window to attack all of you!”

Suddenly, Zhang Heng remembered the incident that Brook told him. A group of mysterious people had ambushed Brook and he was sure that they were unfamiliar pirates. The question was now answered. They were pirate-hunters working with Jarvis.