Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson

Devil.
    Black Stache is having it both ways, Aster thought, with grudging admiration. He’s going after the trunk AND the Wasp.
    He lunged to the stern and tried to work the harpoons loose, but they were lodged too firmly in the transom. Desperately, he turned back and shouted to the sailor.
    “Help me untie the trunk!”
    “What’s that?” The man was stil groggy from near-drowning.
    “Untie the trunk!” Leonard repeated, struggling with a thick knot. “And hurry!”
    The sailor managed to sit up and reach for a knot on the other side of the trunk. After a moment he shook his head. “Wet line,” he coughed. “This knot’s not coming out until the line dries.”
    Aster yanked desperately at the rope. He looked back; the dory was almost to the Sea Devil now, the pirate ship’s stern looming overhead. At last he managed to loosen the knot. He got his hands under the trunk and tried to lift it, hoping to work it free from the rope on the other side. He could barely budge it.
    Why is it so heavy? He tried to move it again, but could not. He looked back again and saw that he could touch the stem of the Sea Devil; pirates were clambering down rope ladders to grab the dory. He gave one last desperate heave on the trunk, but it barely moved.
    It’s no use.

    Captain Scott held off as long as he dared, waiting for the Wasp to level its cannons at the onrushing Sea Devil. When he could wait no longer, he gave the order.
    “FIRE!”
    The cannons boomed. One bal struck the pirate ship’s prow, beheading the wooden mermaid. The rest flew wide. The Sea Devil came on.
    We’re going to be boarded, he thought. At least Aster may escape.
    But that hope was dashed almost immediately.
    “Captain Scott,” the first mate said. “Lookout reports that the pirates have the dory.”
    “What!” said Scott. “How?”
    “Harpoons, sir. They got it when Mr. Aster turned back to rescue a sailor from the sea, sir.”
    “One of ours? I did not hear of a man gone overboard.”
    “No, sir. It’s Bingham, sir.”
    “Bingham? ” Scott could not believe what he was hearing.
    “Yes, sir. Lookout says the pirates threw him overboard, sir.”
    “Bingham,” Scott muttered. The sailor had gone missing at the last port. Scott now understood why Black Stache had fol owed the Wasp.
    He knew about the trunk. And now he has it.
    He saw that the Sea Devil was stil coming hard, pirates on the foredeck howling for blood.
    He wants the Wasp, too.
    “Archer!” Scott shouted.
    “Sir?”
    “Can you cut their halyards at this range?”
    “A little closer, Cap’n, and I think I can.”
    “Then do it. Bring down as many of their sails as you can.”
    “Aye, sir.”
    Scott turned back to his first mate.
    “He means to board us,” he said, “but I mean to board him first. Tel the men to get swords and sabers and move to the stern. At my command, luff the sails. He’l catch us more quickly than he suspects. And when he does, we board him.”
    Scott knew he was taking another gamble.
    I hope this one turns out better than the last.

    Black Stache could not believe how wel things were working out. He had the treasure, and he was about to take the Wasp, which might have outrun him had Captain Scott not chosen to turn and fight.
    Idjit Englishmen, always doing what was right. “Dory’s aboard, Cap’n,” Smee informed him.
    “Excel ent,” said Stache, glancing back. He saw the retaken prisoner and the idjit Englishman who’d rescued him. The trunk had been hoisted onto the deck.
    “TWENTY LENGTHS AND CLOSING FAST!” came the shout from the crow’s nest.
    “Prepare to board!” Stache shouted, his excitement building. This was the moment a pirate lived for.
    His men readied their swords, knives, and guns. Stache estimated that the two ships would come together in about five minutes. Glancing around the deck, he was seized by an impulse.
    “Open the trunk!” he shouted.
    “FIFTEEN LENGTHS AND CLOSING.”
    “But, sir,” said Smee,