“My loved, anyway.”

“Love what matters.” He was wearing vest and short pants with a hole cut in the latter to allow the bushy gray tail egress.

“The fox told us he’d discuss Mudge’s problem in the morning.”

Dark eyes winked at him. “Fox say anything to change the subject.”

“So you do know something about the pirates.”

“Sure we know ’bout ’em. We sell them food and other supplies and sometime two or three of us go help work fix up their boat. Their ship-place not too far south of here.”

“We just didn’t sail far enough,” Jon-Tom muttered half to himself.

“You sell them supplies; wot do they pay you with?”

The raccoon shrugged. “Money, goods, none of it earned honest, you bet. We’re isolated village here. Do pretty good business with them and don’t ask too hard where payment come from.” He spat disgustedly to one side.

“Only you’re different.” Jon-Tom was wide awake now.

“Pretty sick of whole stinkin’ business, but nobody listen to Cautious. Ever’body listen to fox who he say if we doen sell them food then next village inland or one beyond that will get the gold. He say we not cutting anybody’s throat. Me, I think you take the money, you take the blood that come with it, you bet. Once in while you get paid with silk dress or boots that got funny stain on ’em you know don’t come from maker’s mistake, you know what I mean.”

“We know wot you mean, mate.” Mudge put his knife up.

“Now maybe they take your lady someplace and trade her for gold. Not around here. Swamp folk doen traffic in live people. Others do.”

“Why are you telling us all this?” Jon-Tom was slipping into his clothes.

“I ask myself: Cautious, you mean anything of what you say or you just full of swamp gas? So I decide to come help you fellows because what you lost lot more precious than gold. I doen know, maybe we get killed this night, but I can take you to where pirates sleep. Help you much as I can.”

“Damn decent of you. Just show us where they are and Mudge and I will try and do the rest. This isn’t your fight. There’s no reason for you to risk your life.”

“Me, I ain’t got much life.” His face was sad. “Two year ago big storm hit swamp. Big wave come all the way in from sea, right through village. Most of us know it coming so go up in trees until wave go by, then climb down and fix up house.” His voice grew raspy. “My mate and two cubs way out picking oysters. They doen get back in time and I doen get out in time to warn them. Oysters get washed away, wife and babies get washed away.” He swallowed hard, his voice breaking. It was dead silent inside the cabin.

“So that’s why you want to ’elp us?” Mudge finally murmured.

“That why I know what you feeling. Storm take my loved ones from me. Pirates take yours. Can’t do nothin’ about storm, maybe can do something about pirates. So you doen worry about ol’ Cautious, you hear?”

“We hear.” Jon-Tom considered. Could they believe the raccoon, put their trust in him completely? Was the story about losing his family just that, a clever story they were about to buy unknowingly?

The same thought had occurred to Mudge. “No offense, mate, but ’ow do we know you ain’t making this tragedy up as you go along? ’Ow can we be sure you ain’t plannin’ to sell somethin’ besides shellfish and shellac to these pirates?”

“Maybe I leave you find them on your own.” Cautious took a step toward the doorway. Mudge restrained him.

“Easy, guv’nor. Consider our position ’ere.”

The coon hesitated, glanced from otterish visage to human. “Hokay. This time I forget you say something like what you said. You say it again and I disappear into trees.”

He led them out the back of the cabin. The village was silent, sleeping off the previous evening’s binge.

“Come on now, quick. I hear about your boat.”

“What’s the rush? Just because everyone else was intentionally evasive doesn’t mean they’d try and stop us.”

“No telling what they might do. Swamp folk like that. Party with you one night, put you in the gumbo next. Fox and others make good living off pirates. You sneak up on their camp and steal one of their prizes, maybe you jeopardize that living. Better go quiet.”

“Me feelin’ precisely.” Mudge pushed aside a branch. It snapped back to smack Jon-Tom in the gut. Murmured curses rose above the drone of the crickets.

“Funny boat,” Cautious commented when they reached the place where the zodiac was tied. “Sure like to see animal builder took skin from.”

“It’s an artificial fabric, not a skin.” Jon-Tom was looking anxiously in the direction of the village. There was no sign of pursuit. “It came from a polyethelene plant.”

“Must be some damn fine big leaves.” The raccoon gestured downstream. “We go that ways toward ocean some then cut back in through hidden channel. Try to sneak up on them from other direction or they see us for sure.”

Mudge nodded. “You can bet your arse on that. The one runnin’ that crew’s the suspicious type.”

“What you say? You know this bunch of picaroons?”

“We’ve ’ad occasion to chat with ’em before.” Mudge paddled steadily down river. “Their Captain’s got a score to settle with us, so we’d just as soon snatch back me lady quiet-like and slip away same.”

“Oh ho. Gets to be interesting, this business.”

“Take Mudge’s word for it; you don’t want to make this bastard’s acquaintance.”

“Hokay. Had few dealings with them myself. Mostly fox, he go and do business with them. How you come to know them, eh?”

Jon-Tom and Mudge took turns relating to their guide the tale of their earlier encounter with Sasheem and the rest of Corroboc’s crew. By the time they had finished the story the sun had put in an appearance, peeping uncertainly over the tallest trees. Shafts of light sliced down through the vines and moss. They were paddling through a deep water inlet over a sandy bottom.

“Good place for big boat, but we coming up on them from behind. We find a good spot to leave this funny-skinned craft and go through trees, get your lady, then run like crazy back same way. If lucky, I doen think they see us.”

Jon-Tom frowned at the sky. “We’ll have to wait a whole day until it’s dark again.”

“No problem.” He settled down in the bottom of the boat. “This good place for sleeping.”

“So close to their camp?”

“Doen worry. They never come in swamp. Stick to open water and their boat. Why you think they buy food from us instead of looking for it themselves?”

“What if they take Weegee and sail off?”

“You worry too much, man. You say they just got beaten off your big ship. Now they got to rest up and lick their wounds.”

“’Ow about you, mate? Won’t they miss you back ’ome?”

“Nobody is missed until they been gone two weeks maybe. Ever’body go hunting and fishing back in swamp for long time, nobody miss them. Miss you maybe, but not me. I bet they figure you get tired and leave early. Maybe fox and others suspicious, maybe they want to talk more, but I think they all just relieved you gone. Now you not their problem anymore. They know you don’t know where to find pirates, so they forget you real soon.”

To Jon-Tom’s considerable surprise he found he had no trouble sleeping away most of the day. His body was more than willing to make up for all the sleep he hadn’t enjoyed out on the open ocean. When he woke again it was to see the sun setting behind the swamp and the nearby sea. He felt fully rested and ready to begin the tricky business of effecting Weegee’s rescue.

They secured the zodiac to a large hollow fastump and concealed it with palm fronds and moss. Then they started into the woods. Jon-Tom had the usual hard time ducking branches and stepping over protruding roots and was glad it wasn’t far to the pirate encampment. They heard it before they could see it.