Chapter Seventeen

I know, this isn't a good chapter. But something had to happen to Tony...

Chapter XVII

Unlike everyone else, Tony was staying out of the hands of his enemies and leading his fleet through a successful campaign against the European allies that made him look as if, once again, he was going to win the war without any outside help
He ran into a new enemy ship nearly every day, but as most of them were just scouts, they weren’t much trouble. One day, (It happened to be the day that Mark led the escape from Cristobol Coinhara), Tony’s flagship, which was far ahead of the main fleet, once again came in contact with one of these apparent scouts. As they were only about one hundred and fifty yards apart, Tony shouted below “Throw one or three across her bows, to open this discussion!” Immediately, three consecutive shots rang out underneath his feet. The French ship answered with one that fell drastically short. “No danger!” Tony yelled out “prepare to board!”
Within half an hour, Tony and his men were on board the Spanish ship carrying supplies to suffering South American colonies, which carried only twenty guns. Through his Spanish interpreter, Tony answered “Your story is full of holes. For one thing, I know for a fact that there are no colonies left in the New World, and for another, it takes more than weak guns like yours to scare off a boatload of pirates. But I’ll check your hold any way.”
So Tony and his men went down the hatch into the hold and found several sacks and barrels which, strangely, did not feel like desperately needed supplies. When his men opened the first sack, Tony announced “Just as I expected. Cannonballs, not grapefruits. Open the barrels!” So they pried open the hogsheads and found- flour. “Flour!” Tony screamed “Come now, men , Anthony Mellino will not be foiled by simple Spaniards!” At that moment, everyone heard the lid slide across the top of the hatch and some thing moved on top of it. “Now you’ve done it, Sir” a crewman’s voice said in the darkness “By revealing who you are, since your name is hated throughout the lands of our enemies, you have successfully dropped yourself and half your crew out of the pot and into the fire.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t speak that way toward your Admiral, lest you want to serve some time in the brig when we escape!” Anthony shot back. His temper had grown short since the discovery that he had been fooled by simple Spaniards. The recollection that it had actually been his decision, prompted by no one, to check the hold, only shortened his temper more. But he managed to restrain himself, saying “Don’t worry, though. Our ship could blow this tub out of the water any day.”
At that same moment the lookout on Anthony’s ship called out “That ship’s leaving, and the Captain hasn’t come back! We’d best go after them!”