The Captain turned pale. The blood ran from his face. Then it hurried down his back, scurried down his legs and hid in his boots. He staggered slightly and grabbed hold of the mast for support.

“This is terrible,” he said. “Of all the ships in all the world, we have to run into The Scavenger.”

“Why is that so bad?” asked Eddy. The expression on the Captain’s face made him wonder if he really wanted to hear the answer.

“It belongs to Barracuda Bill.”

“I’ve seen a picture of a barracuda in a book about fish,” said Eddy. “It’s big and very fierce, with a really ugly pointy head and lots of long, sharp teeth. So do they call him Barracuda Bill because he’s big and very fierce, too?”

“No, they call him Barracuda Bill because he’s got a really ugly pointy head and lots of long, sharp teeth. But he is big and really fierce, as well. And he’s feared the length and breadth of the ocean. He’ll stop at nothing and nothing will stop him. And he’s heading straight for us.”

“Can we get away?” said Eddy. “Can we outrun him?”

“To go faster than him,” said the Captain, “we’d need to hoist more sails than him. To hoist more sails than him, we’d need more crew than him. He’s got a hundred hardened pirates, and we’ve got a boy, a lady who runs a shop and a pinwing. Can you see where this is going?”

There was no doubt that The Scavenger was closing in on them. And the closer it got, the larger it looked. And the larger it looked, the scarier it became.

Eddy could just hear the voices of The Scavenger’s crew, chanting in rhythm. Between each line they stamped twice on the deck with their boots –BOOM BOOM BOOM – and the sound carried across the waves like an enormous drum.

“The most terrifying sound in all the ocean,” said the Captain. “That song means only one thing – fighting and stealing and burning and yelling and hitting and hurting and bashing and robbing and smashing and looting and sheer misery.”

The Scavenger was soon close enough for Eddy to be able to see the owners of the voices – and what a wild and beardy and brutal bunch they looked. The wildest and beardiest and most brutal-looking one of all let out a snarl, revealing a mouthful of long, sharp teeth.

“That’s him,” whispered the Captain. “That’s Barracuda Bill.”

Barracuda Bill waved his cutlass in the air.

“Take aim!” he shouted – and took two steps to his left.

Eddy realized with horror that Barracuda Bill had been standing right in front of a cannon. The Codcakers were now staring straight down its barrel.

“Fire!” Barracuda Bill’s cutlass slashed the air. One of the pirates put a glowing taper to the fuse on the cannon. With a fizz of flame, a deafening BANG, and a cloud of smoke, a cannonball whistled towards The Codcake.

Oh, no! thought Eddy. At least, that’s what he started to think, but the cannonball came so fast that he had only just got as far as “oh” and was nowhere near “no” when there was another BANG. The cannonball blew apart and a shower of something white fluttered over the deck.

Still dizzy with shock, Eddy picked one of the white things up. It was a leaflet, with a message printed in elegant lettering:

“Well,” said the Crew, “he knows how to write a very polite note, and nobody with manners like that can be all… Oh really, that is too much!”

Eddy looked up. On the deck of The Scavenger, a hundred pirates had turned their backs on The Codcake. A hundred pirates had dropped their trousers. A hundred pirates had bent over and waggled their hairy bottoms in the direction of the Codcakers.

A hundred and ninety-nine bare cheeks now shone palely in the bright sunshine. (The odd one belonged to a pirate called Frankie Halftrousers, who had lost one of his buttocks in a swordfight years before. The ship’s carpenter had made him a false one out of a block of seasoned oak, but it was too heavy for everyday wear so he kept it back for formal occasions.)

The Codcakers watched as The Scavenger pulled away into the distance, and listened as its terrible chant grew fainter…

…until it was too quiet to hear.

Calm returned to The Codcake. A few leaflets swirled across her deck in the sea breeze.

“Right,” said the Captain. “Now, where were we?”

“We were looking at this,” Eddy answered, leaning over the map again. As he watched, letters started to appear, writing themselves across its surface.

“Captain,” he said. “You’ve got to see this! It’s amazing!”

“Shiver my socks!” said the Captain. “I’ve never known a map like this before.”

“Well,” said the Crew, “I may run a junk shop, but I don’t just sell any old rubbish, you know.”

Eddy read out the message that had appeared:

“Grungeybeard’s treasure, here we come,” said the Captain.

“A flower?” said Eddy. “Why on earth would Grungeybeard want us to find a flower?”

“I reckon that’s Grungeybeard’s sense of humour through and through,” said the Captain. “He’d have a right laugh thinking of us climbing a huge cliff just to pick a plant. We’ve got to meet the challenge and show we’re worthy of the reward.”

He drew his sword and waved it enthusiastically in the air.

“Set sail for the Deserted Island of Blossom!” shouted the Captain. “For we have strength and courage aplenty! But let’s wait a few minutes, just to be sure The Scavenger is safely out of the way.”