PART 2

Whenever I walked past one of the dead Quartermaster's mates I felt my back prickle. "The worse the leader the more fanatical the allegiance," said Mr. Birdsong, "We could well be run through at any moment."

Willy smelled my unease; through the night he'd taken to riding my shoulder facing to the rear and making outrageous threats to any tar who looked after me as I passed, about half of it in the strange language of the Light People, who created the chameleon leech that was on him. The tars were bewildered by him, for they saw nothing but a parrot of ordinary appearance but posessed of extraordinary cleverness. They had no idea that the weight of his intellect was being provided by the leech.

"This cannot continue," said Mr. Birdsong. "We must blot out the Quartermaster's loyalists, else we must never return to this ship."

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