Page 19 - My FlipBook

Chapter Five

“YAARGH!” screamed Captain Snatchit, leaping to his feet. “Parrots!! Get your
guns, men! Get your pistols! We’ll shoot those scabby parrots down!”

And he dived behind the wheel to find his blunderbuss.

“Yaargh!” snarled the pirates, as they all picked up their pistols.
“Now!” screeched Liana. The parrots dropped their net.

It landed on the group of pirates with a WHUMP and wrapped itself around them.
When the pirates tried to fight it off, their hands and feet and pistols all got

tangled in it. The more they struggled, the more tangled they became. They lurched to

and fro across the boat in a huge, staggering, swearing bundle.
But Captain Snatchit was not caught in the net. He was still scrabbling for his

blunderbuss. He found it, stood up – and the parrots dived on him.
They scratched him with their claws and nipped him with their beaks. “Put down

the gun!” they shrieked, pulling his hair and flapping at his nose.
The Captain couldn’t aim his blunderbuss. He hated being nipped and scratched

and flapped. He was desperate to escape.

But there was nowhere for him to hide – except down in the hold.
In an instant the Captain yanked the trapdoor open and dived in.

An instant later, Neptune fluttered out.
And an instant after that, Liana and twenty other parrots flung themselves against

the trapdoor and slammed it shut again.

And two or three instants after that, the lurching, cursing bundle of pirates lurched
a bit too far and tumbled over the ship’s side with an enormous SPLOSH.

And four or five instants after that, a huge and happy flock of parrots was winging
its way back to Parrot Island.

From the sea below them came wails and gurgles from the pirates, who were

trying to swim...
But they weren’t half as loud as the hammerings on the trapdoor, as Captain

Snatchit yowled for help.
He had thought the nips and scratches from the parrots were annoying – but that

was before he fell into the hold, and landed on a heap of several hundred very angry
crabs.