Pirate Pug

  For the Cary Gang

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  Chapter 1

  It was no ordinary morning for Pug and his freckled companion, Lady Miranda. They weren’t at home at No. 10, The Crescent. They were on holiday, staying in the best suite of the Smuggler’s Rest Hotel, in the small town of Pebbly Bay.

  Pug woke up feeling hungry, so he padded over to where Lady Miranda was sleeping and gave her a nudge, certain she’d want to know it was breakfast time.

  Lady Miranda snorted and lifted her eye mask. She smiled at Pug, who wagged his tail.

  There was a familiar knock on the bedroom door. Wendy, Lady Miranda’s housekeeper, entered with the breakfast tray.

  ‘Good morning, m’lady,’ she said, placing the tray on Lady Miranda’s lap. ‘I persuaded chef to make you some jam tarts.’

  As Pug sniffed the tarts with delight, there was an unexpected SQUAWK! and a parrot flew into the room.

  ‘Heavens!’ exclaimed Wendy, flapping her arms above her head and running after it. ‘How did that get in here?’

  Lady Miranda fell about laughing as the parrot dodged Wendy and landed safely on the breakfast tray.

  Pug guarded the jam tarts, but the parrot didn’t seem interested.

  ‘Who’s a pretty boy, then?’ she asked.

  ‘Pug is!’ cheered Lady Miranda, patting Pug on the head.

  How nice, thought Pug.

  Wendy was ready to pounce, but the parrot was too quick and, with a wink, it pinched a teaspoon and flew out of the window.

  ‘Rio!’ came a shout from outside. ‘Riiioooooo! Bad bird!’

  ‘Who’s that?’ asked Lady Miranda.

  ‘The hotel owner, Mr Gregory,’ replied Wendy. ‘Rio must be the parrot’s name.’

  She shut the window.

  ‘Will that be all, m’lady?’

  ‘Yes, thank you, Wendy,’ said Lady Miranda, feeding Pug a piece of jam tart.

  Pug had never had such an exciting breakfast.

  Half an hour later, Pug and Lady Miranda climbed into the sedan chair. At the ready were Running Footman Will and Running Footman Liam.

  ‘To the seaside!’ ordered Lady Miranda.

  The seaside?! Pug hadn’t realised they were so close the sea. This was terrible news, because Pug was afraid of water!

  Pug worried as the Footmen made their way through the cobbled streets of Pebbly Bay and finally arrived at the beach. There they dropped the sedan chair and Lady Miranda scrambled out with Pug under her arm.

  ‘This is going to be exciting!’ she said happily to Pug, but all he could think about was the water. It looked very rough.

  Lady Miranda was keen to show Pug all the things that made being at the beach so much fun.

  They started with a donkey ride, where Pug tried his best to steer away from the shoreline.

  Then they built a sandcastle, until Pug had to be rescued as the water rose alarmingly in the moat.

  Finally, Lady Miranda decided to bury Pug in the sand. She chose a quiet spot, close to Wendy. At first the sand tickled, but Pug soon became snug. Lady Miranda found him a sunshade and he settled down for a nap. Being on holiday was very tiring.

  Nearby, a group of children was playing with a beach ball. They waved at Pug and Lady Miranda to join in their game. Lady Miranda began to dig Pug out, but Wendy suggested she leave him.

  ‘He looks contented,’ she said.

  ‘Woof!’ confirmed Pug.

  ‘I won’t be long,’ Lady Miranda whispered in his ear. And off she went to introduce herself to the three children. The oldest boy was called Daniel, and the two girls were twins called Mimi and Hannah.

  Unfortunately, as Pug couldn’t catch, Lady Miranda hadn’t had much practice. Daniel, Mimi and Hannah didn’t seem to mind – they cheered whenever she did catch the ball, and chased after it whenever she accidentally threw it in the sea.

  Pug’s eyes grew heavy and he was about to doze off when a plane flew low over the beach. Behind it trailed a banner that read:

  PEBBLY BAY PARADE TOMORROW

  Distracted by the plane, Lady Miranda threw the beach ball wildly off course.

  She realised the danger almost immediately.

  ‘Puuuuuuug!’ she shouted in warning as it hurtled towards him.

  But it was too late.

  THUMP!

  Lady Miranda was there in a second.

  ‘Oh, Pug,’ she wailed. ‘Are you all right?’

  Pug wasn’t sure. Everything had gone blurry and he could see two Lady Mirandas!

  ‘How many fingers am I holding up?’ asked the two Lady Mirandas.

  Pug, who was not very good at numbers, barked, ‘Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof?!’

  Lady Miranda declared an emergency and sprang into action. She ordered Running Footman Will to make the sedan chair into a stretcher. Then she carefully laid Pug on it. Wendy packed up the picnic and parasol whilst Running Footman Liam emptied his shoes of sand in preparation for the run of his life.

  The donkey lady handed them a helpful tourist map, which clearly marked the vet’s. Lady Miranda squeezed Pug’s paw and gave the order: ‘Run!’

  ‘Nee-naw! Nee-naw!’ shouted Lady Miranda to make everybody get out of their way. And without too many wrong turns they soon found the vet’s.

  ‘He got a beach ball in his eye!’ cried Lady Miranda as they rushed in with Pug.

  Pug was whisked into the operating theatre. ‘We’ll take it from here,’ said the vet.

  Lady Miranda! thought Pug as his paw slipped from her hand.

  Chapter 2

  Lady Miranda, Running Footman Will, Running Footman Liam and Wendy looked at the patient.

  Nobody knew what to say.

  ‘He looks like …’ began Wendy.

  Pug hung his head. He felt silly wearing an eyepatch.

  ‘Like a pirate!’ said Lady Miranda.

  ‘I was going to say panda,’ said Wendy. ‘A one-eyed panda.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Lady Miranda said, having one of her good ideas. She handed Pug to Running Footman Liam and popped into the Pebbly Bay gift shop.

  Pug hoped they sold jam tarts, but Lady Miranda returned not with jam tarts but a pirate’s hat.

  ‘There!’ she said triumphantly, placing it on Pug’s head. ‘Now he’s a proper pirate.’

  ‘Say, “aaaaaarh”,’ said Running Footman Liam.

  ‘Grrrrrr.’ Pug tried his best.

  ‘You’ll get there,’ said Lady Miranda encouragingly.

  Waiting for them outside the Smuggler’s Rest were Daniel, Mimi and Hannah. Rio was perched next to them on the wall.

  Running Footman Will and Running Footman Liam went off to turn the stretcher back into a sedan chair, and Wendy went to speak to the chef about the next day’s menu.

  ‘How’s Pug?’ asked Daniel when they’d gone.

  ‘The vet said to give him some eye drops and to keep the patch on for a few days,’ Lady Miranda replied. ‘I’ve made him a pirate, so he doesn’t feel silly,’ she added.

  Pug felt very silly indeed.

  Just then three boys from the town walked by.

  Daniel took a step back.

  Mimi and Hannah pretended to look in the other direction.

  Lady Miranda on the other hand smiled. ‘Hello,’ she said cheerily.

  The boys sneered back. Then they saw Pug.

  ‘Look at that stupid dog!’ one snorted. ‘He’s dressed up like a pirate!’

  The boys laughed so hard they bent double.

  Lady Miranda held Pug closer and was about to say some
thing very rude when Hannah stopped her.

  ‘They’re not worth it,’ she whispered.

  ‘Come on,’ said Daniel. ‘We have to meet our mum in the town square. Do you want to come?’

  Pug, Lady Miranda, Daniel, Mimi and Hannah headed off together, pleased to get away from the boys.

  ‘Who are they?’ asked Lady Miranda.

  ‘Finnian, Caspar and Morgan,’ replied Hannah. ‘They’re the meanest boys in town.’

  Back outside the Smuggler’s Rest, one of the mean boys had spotted Rio.

  ‘There’s that stupid bird!’ said Finnian, picking up a nearby pebble. He thought everything was stupid.

  ‘Get her!’ cheered Morgan.

  The three boys took aim at poor Rio, but, even before the first pebble was thrown, the parrot squawked in outrage and flew high in the air, out of reach.

  Seeing her friends heading for the town square, Rio followed them.

  The square was filled with banners and there were lots of dressed-up people milling about. They were getting ready for the parade rehearsal.

  ‘Mum, this is Lady Miranda and Pirate Pug,’ said Mimi.

  ‘Hello,’ said her mum.

  Pug was surprised to meet someone else wearing a silly hat.

  ‘I don’t know if they’ve told you, but I’m the mayor of Pebbly Bay,’ she explained.

  ‘Pleased to meet you.’ Lady Miranda did a little curtsy, and Pug barked.

  ‘Every year the town celebrates the day it was freed from pirate rule,’ said Daniel.

  Pug felt embarrassed, seeing as he was now a pirate himself.

  ‘Not pirates like Pirate Pug, here,’ said the mayor. ‘He’s clearly a good pirate.’

  Pug was relieved to hear it.

  ‘About four hundred years ago, there was a really nasty pirate known as Finders Keepers,’ Hannah informed them. ‘He lived on the island in the middle of the bay and made every ship that passed by give him a share of its treasure.’

  ‘He was very scary,’ said Mimi.

  ‘Then one day, Henry Hake, a local fisherman, gathered the people of Pebbly Bay, and together they drove Finders Keepers off his island. He was never seen or heard of again. Henry Hake became the town’s first mayor.’ Hannah pointed to his statue in the centre of the square.

  Pug admired how smart the mayor looked.

  ‘Show them your gold chain, Mum,’ said Daniel.

  ‘The people of Pebbly Bay paid for this to be made after they defeated Finders Keepers,’ said the mayor, removing the chain from around her neck. ‘It’s a very important symbol for us.’

  At that moment Rio flew down and landed on Lady Miranda’s shoulder.

  ‘She likes shiny things,’ laughed Lady Miranda as Rio inspected the mayor’s chain.

  Just then, Finnian, Caspar and Morgan arrived in the square, armed with pebbles.

  ‘There she is!’ shouted Caspar, taking aim.

  Spying them, Rio took flight, but she scooped up the mayor’s gold chain as she took off.

  ‘My chain!’ shouted the mayor.

  Rio rested for a moment on top of the statue of Henry Hake, struggling with the weight of the chain. But then she took off once more.

  ‘Anyone who catches that bird and brings me back my chain can be mayor for a day!’ the mayor proclaimed.

  ‘After that bird!’ shouted Finnian.

  ‘The last thing we need is for Finnian to be mayor for a day!’ said Daniel.

  ‘Run!’ shouted Lady Miranda as she gathered Pug in her arms and raced through the cobbled streets, following Rio back to the Smuggler’s Rest.

  As she sprinted through the doors of the hotel and out into the garden behind, she shouted, ‘Mr Gregory, Rio has the mayor’s chain!’

  ‘Bad bird,’ said Mr Gregory as they both caught sight of her flying overhead. But instead of landing at the hotel, Rio carried on, over the sea, towards Finders Keepers’ Island.

  ‘You’d better get that chain,’ said Mr Gregory grimly. ‘Legend has it that if that chain is not worn by the mayor on parade day Finders Keepers will return to haunt the town.’

  That didn’t sound good to Pug, but then neither did the watery journey to Finders Keepers’ Island.

  Chapter 3

  It seemed Pug wasn’t going to be allowed to be one of those rare land-based pirates.

  ‘Every pirate needs a ship, Pug,’ Lady Miranda told him.

  So Running Footman Will and Running Footman Liam carried Pug and Lady Miranda down to the harbour in the sedan chair. There they met Daniel, Mimi and Hannah.

  ‘We need to build a ship so we can get to Finders Keepers’ Island,’ Lady Miranda informed them. ‘Mr Gregory has said we can use some old wood from the hotel.’

  Lady Miranda negotiated with the donkey lady and borrowed two of her finest donkeys, Ella and Strawberry.

  The new friends worked together to move the wood from the Smuggler’s Rest down to the harbour. Once they’d assembled everything they set to work making a magnificent galleon.

  Finnian, Caspar and Morgan kept a watchful eye on them.

  ‘Why aren’t they building a ship?’ asked Lady Miranda, hammer in hand.

  ‘They’re waiting for their dad to come back to harbour,’ said Mimi. ‘He has a really fast boat called the Black Octopus.’

  Pug didn’t like the sound of that one bit.

  ‘We’ll have to hurry,’ said Lady Miranda.

  Shipbuilding was hard work, but Pug did his best to help where he could.

  Once they’d finished they had a small naming ceremony.

  ‘I hereby name this ship The Fearless,’ Lady Miranda proclaimed importantly.

  The crew of The Fearless, including a very anxious Pug, climbed on board, unfurled the sails (which were some of Wendy’s old aprons sewn together) and headed out to sea.

  ‘To Finders Keepers’ Island,’ shouted Lady Miranda.

  Daniel, being the eldest and the most experienced sailor, took the helm. Lady Miranda was on lookout.

  ‘We can navigate by the stars,’ she suggested, looking up at the clear blue sky through her telescope.

  ‘It’s daylight!’ said Hannah.

  ‘And the island’s just there!’ added Mimi.

  The Fearless made surprisingly good progress out of the harbour.

  Lady Miranda sat down next to Pug, who was in charge of the ship’s rations. Wendy had packed jam tarts for them all, to stave off scurvy. But in his nervous state Pug had already eaten half of them.

  Lady Miranda patted him on the head and then handed round the remaining jam tarts. ‘Wendy’s finest,’ she told the others.

  ‘Woof!’

  ‘You’ve had your share, Pug,’ Lady Miranda admonished him.

  ‘I think he was referring to that!’ said Daniel.

  A boat with a black sail was approaching on their port side.

  ‘The Black Octopus,’ said Lady Miranda in horror.

  Chapter 4

  Lady Miranda grabbed the telescope. Finnian, Caspar and Morgan were working hard. ‘They’re gaining on us!’ she shouted miserably.

  The crew of The Fearless started to panic.

  ‘All hands on deck!’ ordered Lady Miranda, rushing from starboard to port. (Or was it port to starboard?) All hands – and paws – were in fact already on deck, as there was nowhere else to go on The Fearless.

  ‘Can’t we go any faster?’ shouted Lady Miranda.

  In the confusion, Pug somehow ended up in charge of steering.

  The Black Octopus was within shouting distance of The Fearless.

  ‘Can I interest you in a jam tart?’ Lady Miranda called out, trying to appease them.

  ‘We want your boat!’ Finnian yelled back.

  ‘And a jam tart,’ shouted Caspar.

  Finnian hissed at him to ‘shut it’.

  Pug was trying his best to steer away from them, but he had got his left and right muddled up, which after numbers was his least favourite thing to learn. While he was considering t
he options, The Fearless was on a collision course with the Black Octopus.

  ‘Not that way, Pug!’ shouted Lady Miranda too late. The Fearless smashed into the side of the Black Octopus, sending both crews toppling.

  Finnian regained his balance first.

  ‘This means war!’ he declared, boarding The Fearless and taking Pug prisoner.

  Pug gave a nervous wag of his tail. He was very sorry about their boat. He hadn’t meant to do it. It was an accident.

  That meant nothing to Finnian who, now back on board the Black Octopus, held Pug aloft for them all to see.

  ‘Everyone knows what happens to pirates who break the code,’ he said.

  Pug didn’t even know there was a code. He thought Finnian was making it up.

  ‘Poor little pirate dog is going for a walk,’ laughed Morgan.

  ‘Oh no!’ said Hannah.

  ‘Oh no, what?!’ asked Lady Miranda.

  ‘It’s time to walk the plank,’ Caspar informed them.

  The crew of the Black Octopus strapped a plank to the side of their boat. It hung dangerously over the water.

  Pug looked at the dark waves below. He hoped there weren’t any sharks.

  ‘Please don’t make him walk the plank,’ pleaded Lady Miranda. ‘He’s just a pug.’

  ‘I thought he was a pirate,’ said Finnian.

  ‘Yeah,’ agreed Caspar. ‘And as a pirate he has to accept a pirate’s fate.’

  Was it Pug’s imagination or was the water getting closer?