Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius (23 page)

Breathing hard, Nemo worked his way up the rugged hillside toward the heights of the crater, careful to stay hidden among the boulders.
 
From time to time he looked down at the
Coralie
still anchored in the lagoon.
 
More longboats came ashore.
 
When he saw smoke curling into the sky from the vicinity of his home, he realized they had set fire to his corral and his storage sheds.
 
By now the pirates would have lowered themselves with ropes into Granite House.
 
They would smash his hand-made furniture and destroy his belongings.
 
More destruction, more loss.

Yes, they all deserved to die.
 
Rage simmered within him.
 
He had hidden some supplies, and he could always rebuild . . . but he hadn’t anticipated the extent of damage Captain Noseless and his men would inflict.
 
Nemo vowed to stop them, to strike back in every way he could.

When he saw seven men climbing up from the plateau, Nemo moved behind tall rocks, where he could observe the invaders and yet be out of their line of sight.
 
The pirates wove back and forth, searching for his trail.
 
He raised his head to get a better view, secure in the shelter the rocks afforded him --

He heard the crack of a flintlock pistol, and a ball shattered with a white starburst against the stone a yard to his left.
 
Four more pirates charging toward him from the opposite side of the slope.
 
He hadn’t even noticed them coming.
 

Nemo ducked as one of the men jerked a pistol from his belt and fired a wild shot, which drew the attention of the first party of seven.
 
He ran as both groups charged toward him from opposite directions.
 
He could never fight them all.

Three more pistol shots rang out, though the balls each missed him by an arm’s-length.
 
Nemo took heart from the wasted shots, since the pursuing pirates would have no time for the tedious muzzle-reloading process.
 
And Nemo didn’t intend to let them get close enough to use cutlasses.
 
The pirates might have been murderous, but they were not smart.

Unfortunately, the gunfire might rally the other brigands on the island, and Nemo could find himself trapped before long.
 
But he knew exactly where to run.
 
It wasn’t far.

Nemo had survived by his wits for years, and he wouldn’t give up now.
 
He scrambled down a slope, threading his way through a labyrinth of rocks.
 
As he neared the thermal areas, the ground felt hot through the soles of his seal-hide moccasins.

Soon he reached the most perilous part of his flight: a stony clearing where sulfurous steam hissed from fumaroles in the ground.
 
He had very little cover, and if the pirates had kept any of their pistols loaded, a lead ball could catch him in the back.

Hearing the pursuers behind him, he put on a burst of speed, wishing he could fight them face to face, one at a time.
 
But before he could go far, the ground bucked and shook with a heavy tremor that jarred the mountainside in the most powerful earthquake Nemo had yet experienced.
 
He stumbled and sprawled on his face, cutting palms, arms, and chin on the sharp lava rock.
 
The raiders shouted, terrified by what was happening.
 

Then with a tearing sound and a rumble from deep beneath the surface, part of the steep hillside caved in.
 
The crust of the mountain dropped away and rocks sloughed aside, leaving a yawning black door -- the entrance to a cave that had been sealed until the quake shattered it open.
 
Humid, swampy smells came from the new cave, as if an entire subterranean world were hidden within the mountain.
 
A pallid glow of eerie phosphorescence leaked out of the dark hole.
 

Nemo scrambled backward as he heard something deep in the cavern: footsteps like mallets pounding against rock, an explosive exhalation of breath, a loud and hungry snort.

The pirates, however, had no interest in the phenomenon.
 
Their only concern was killing him.
 
Intent on their victim, the men passed the broad cave mouth.
 
Their shadows fell across the sunlit opening.
 

The noises from within grew louder . . . hungrier.

Nemo staggered to a halt as he saw a reptilian shape emerge from the cave.
 
The pirates backed up and shrieked as the enormous beast lumbered out.
 
Its hide was covered with scales, and it had huge, muscular back legs, a lashing tail, and a head barely large enough to contain its yawning rack of jaws.
 
Scarlet, glittering eyes fastened on its prey.

When reading the science magazines Verne had shared in Nantes, Nemo had become familiar with paleontology debates, the remarkable discoveries of the French naturalist Baron Cuvier Georges and the meticulous restorations of the American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh.
 
He had seen sketches of enormous skeletons on display in museums, as well as artists’ renderings of how the beasts might have looked before some catastrophe had made them extinct.
 

Dinosaurs
, they had been called.

“It’s a dragon!” one of the pirates screamed.

Nemo sprinted across the sulfurous clearing toward the distant rocks.
 
As the marauding party scrambled for cover, the predatory dinosaur moved clumsily after them, sniffing and squinting in the bright island sunshine.
 
The creature’s nostrils flared as it scented fresh meat.
 
It opened its mouth and emitted a honking roar -- then set out after the prey.

Though its front claws looked small and delicate, the monster snagged the red-and-white striped shirt of the closest pirate.
 
Before the man could even scream, the beast tucked him inside its gigantic shovel-shaped maw, bit down with a crunch of bone, and swallowed the morsel in a spray of blood.

Nemo disregarded the pirates, hoping they would all be slain.
 
He had to get down off this rugged slope to the grassy plateau above the lagoon.
 
The screaming men fled after him, as if hoping Nemo might lead them to safety.

Two scrawny, blue-shirted men ran pell-mell next to each other; with a wild look, the man on the right reached over and shoved his companion, who stumbled and sprawled on his face.
 
When the dinosaur paused to gobble up the unfortunate man, the first raced ahead -- but the monster caught up with him in a moment, and soon two torn and bloodied blue shirts dangled in shreds from its long fangs.

One bearded pirate turned, braced his legs, and pointed his flintlock pistol.
 
He pulled the trigger, a spark flared the powder, and the ball flew -- but the bullet made only a red mark on the dinosaur’s hide.
 
The beast noticed the shot no more than a buzzing gnat.
 
The bearded pirate fired a second pistol shot, but the dinosaur responded by devouring him with two swift crunches.

A one-eyed brute stopped running and turned about, drawing a curved cutlass in each hand.
 
With greasy sweat glistening on his bald pate, he turned to face the dinosaur.
 
His scarlet silk pantaloons rippled in the breeze.
 

As the monster advanced, he screamed a counterpoint yell to the dinosaur’s roar and slashed with both blades, nicking the armored hide.
 
The gigantic reptile bent forward to grab him.
 
The bald pirate continued to stab and slash the tender meat inside the monster’s mouth even as the jaws crushed him.
 
Two bloody swords clattered to the rocky ground.

Roaring so that the sky trembled and Nemo’s ears ached, the dinosaur threw the mangled swordsman down without even eating him.
 
It stomped the corpse of the bald man into a mess with one huge hind foot, then charged forward on a more furious rampage.

Nemo dropped down the steep hill until he reached the grassy plateau.
 
Without pausing, he made for the rocks at the edge of the cliff.
 
Foolishly, the pirates followed, seeing hope light up Nemo’s face.
 

The dinosaur sprang forward with its muscular back legs, using its tail as a counterweight so that it landed, completely balanced, on the meadow below.
 
The pirates threw knives, stones, and empty pistols at it, but nothing slowed down the monster.

Nemo rushed to the sheer dropoff where he had weighted down his glider the day before.
 
He uprooted the ropes, grabbed the kite-wing handholds, and took a running start.
 
He didn’t have time to tie himself in.
 
He leaped out into open space, clinging to his glider supports as the winds pulled him up and away from the mountainside.

The doomed pirates staggered to a halt, howling with surprise as he left them behind.
 
Now they were trapped, with no hope of escape.
 
The cliff dropped to foam-battered rocks far below.
 
Nemo soared away, feeling no pity for these vicious men.
 
If only Captain Noseless could have been among them. . .

The dinosaur stomped toward its cornered prey.
 
Some of the pirates drew their swords, making a stand, while others hurled themselves off the cliff rather than be devoured by the dinosaur.
 
When the last victims could not make up their minds, the beast chose for them.

Flying on the winds, Nemo watched the hapless victims, remembering how they themselves had slaughtered the good men aboard the
Coralie
.

Nemo banked and drifted over the thick jungles, eluding pursuit.
 
He landed out in the inaccessible wilderness, where he intended to hide until he could hurt the pirates again.
 
These vile men would no longer take him lightly.

x

For the next day, taking advantage of whatever cover he could find, Nemo crept through the jungles to the shoreline.
 
He knew this island well enough to take back paths to the sheltered lagoon where the
Coralie
had anchored.

Nemo didn’t know how many men Captain Noseless had kept on board while raiding parties scoured the island.
 
Fewer and fewer of the roaming brigands survived, though, as the dinosaur continued to hunt through the night.
 
And Nemo hunted too, looking for means to harm the pirates.

He stood shin-deep in a mangrove swamp, watching for snakes, but more interested in keeping himself hidden from view as he spied on the three-masted brig.
 
The pirate ship was just across the dark waters of the lagoon.
 
Anger and hatred simmered within his heart.

The scarred captain paced the quarterdeck.
 
His remaining men talked amongst themselves, subdued with fear.
 
Nemo fixed his gaze on Noseless, despising the pirate.
 
As the sun sank into the west, painting the sky tangerine and scarlet, Noseless glanced toward the swamps, as if he could sense the young man glaring at him from the deepening shadows.
 

Nemo wracked his brain for a way to strike at the pirates who had twice destroyed his life.
 
How he hated them!
 
As dusk settled in, accompanied by the night songs of insects, the stillness began to lull Nemo into complacency.

All at once the island grew ominously silent.

The dinosaur’s roar split the gloom.
 
The beast crashed through trees, just behind the closer yells of men.
 
Two of the surviving brigands howled in panic as they broke out of the jungle cover by the lagoon.
 
“Help, help!”

On board the
Coralie
, pirates began to mill about.
 
The men on shore shouted toward the anchored ship, but Noseless just stood on the quarterdeck, hands on hips.
 
His face looked more cadaverous than ever, cold and calculating.