Jon-Tom ignored them. The argument wasn’t serious.
Mudge was being his usual obnoxious self, and he thought
Folly realized it. Besides which he was busy enough trying
to sort out his own jumbled feelings.
Folly was gorgeous. There was no other word for it.
Young, but beautiful, standing there on the deck in old
JLevi’s and a worn sweatshirt that had SLOOP JOHN B.
printed across the back. She looked so achingly normal, so
much like any girl he might encounter on the beach back
home, that for a moment he was afraid he would be the
one to cry.
Only the fading but still visible bruises on her face and
the ring the collar had left around her neck reminded him
of where he’d found her. He would have to hunt for the
sloop’s first-aid kit. Or maybe he could think of a good
healing song, something more effective here than bandages
and ointments,
Roseroar gave the new arrival a cursory once-over and
snorted. “Skinny little thing. Yo humans…” She turned
her gaze to the stars mat were coming out. Jalwar was
already asleep somewhere below, the poor old ferret exhausted
by the strenuous events of the past few days. The horizon
astern was clear, the pirate ship having dropped out of
sight long ago. The wind off the waves still blew them
steadily toward Snarken, a goal temporarily lost and now
within reach again.
Snarken itself proved easy to locate. As soon as they
sailed within fifty miles of the city there was a perceptible
increase in the volume of surface traffic around the sloop.
All they had to do was hail a couple of merchant ships