Now impressing the man was another story. Smee knew luck had nothing to do with it; that was all James. His knowledge, skill, and unique personality had won Blackbeard over, just as he had won the day in the battle with the Dreaded Queen. None of them would be alive now if it weren’t for James and his quick thinking. Smee had always felt James was an intelligent boy, and now he was a remarkable man, and pirate for that matter. Of course he wasn’t like the other men on the crew, but then again James was never like anyone Smee had ever known. But as far as Smee was concerned, James had done well on Blackbeard’s ship.

Sure, he made the occasional blunder when speaking to the men. James had a tendency to speak to people as if they didn’t know what he was talking about, but there was a reason for that, one, for the most part, people weren’t aware of. Smee never minded James’s long-winded conversations, or that he seemed to know a lot about the subjects that inspired him, and could talk about them for hours. Smee looked at it as the education he missed out on going into service so young. To Smee it felt like he also went to a grand college, and he was happy he had listened to James all those years, especially on the subject of pirates, and as a result Smee now prided himself on his pirating knowledge, and he was even prouder of James.

Smee distracted himself with memories of their encounter with the Dreaded Queen as he swayed in the crow’s nest. The Dreaded Queen was the largest ship Smee had ever seen, and on each side were rows of cannons, not to mention the goliath of a cannon on the starboard end. This was a great beast of a cannon with the mouth of a vicious-looking siren. James made it known he didn’t think attacking the Dreaded Queen was a good idea, but Jukes felt they had the advantage of surprise, coming upon them at night, and the lure of treasure rumored to be hoarded on the Dreaded Queen was too tempting for Blackbeard to resist. To his credit, Rusty Jones had thought of a stealthy plan to anchor the ship some yards away from the Dreaded Queen, and quietly take the buoys over in the cover of night so their attack was a surprise, but James felt they should leave some of the men on the ship, fearing they would be defenseless should the other crew discover them.

“I’m sure this is a trap,” James had said. “I have a theory about the Dreaded Queen. I think they lure other ships with great stories of their treasure hoard only to plunder the ships and the crews that attack them.”