LONGHOLME ISLAND
JONAH’S JOURNEY
Part 22
Jonah and Roy Cooperate
There was a slight but noticeable difference in height between Dave and Koff, with Koff being the taller but Roy already had an idea how he could negate that difference – or at least reduce it to insignificance. In the meantime, though, he wanted to make things easy for himself and his assistant. Dave and Koff were positioned carefully under a substantial tree branch and made to stand back-to-back. Roy invited Jonah to echo what he was doing on the other side of their prisoners.
Long ropes were taken and doubled while the prisoners were told to hold hands. Both Dave and Koff held his fellow’s right hand in his left, leaving their arms more-or-less straight. Roy bound Dave’s right wrist to Koff’s left by wrapping the bight three times round both wrists and tying off simply leaving a loop “just in case”, and a lot of left-over rope. Jonah copied the tie on the opposite wrists. Roy then took the free ends on his side and tied them together with a simple overhand knot in both ropes so that it would be just below the victims’ elbows when the ropes were raised. He then told Dave and Koff to hold their arms out. Taking the strands in counter directions before tying them off with several simple knots left his subjects tied at the wrists and just below the elbows. Jonah copied him and suggested that a few frapping turns would be in order.
“Oh yes, just a few frapping terms,” repeated Dave, mimicking Jonah’s (comparatively) posher accent.
Jonah affected his poshest accent, “And, of course a jolly nice gag in a minute.” Dave didn’t think he would bother mimicking that.
After the frapping turns had been tied off, there was still a lot of rope left and the prisoners’ arms fell to their sides. Jonah had a suggestion. Roy thought it was a good one. He was also thinking that it was a pity that the Pirates couldn’t recruit the grockle but the thought of what he believed was still hanging over the Pirates soon drove that idea from his head and, besides, he wasn’t even a local. Jonah brought both his free ends down through the loop that he had left “just in case” and suggested that his subjects might like to, “Move their bums apart”. Experience told both Dave and Koff what was likely to happen next and, sure enough, Jonah and Roy swapped ropes by passing them between the two bound boys. By the time the binders had pulled tighter and tied the ropes off to the handy loops, there was no way Koff and Dave could raise their arms and there wasn’t more than about two feet of rope left in each of the free ends.
“Doan’ toi bad f’r a grockle, do y’?” Jonah just looked smug.
“OK, Shrimp, gags next or feet?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to hear any more of that insulting mimicry so how shall we do it? They brought a lot of stuff across.” They certainly had: there were fabric strips, short ropes, short sticks, all sorts of things.
“What, no socks?”
“When did you last wear socks?” That was a fair question because, as you know, the boys had worn little more than swim-briefs, bush hats, and flip-flops or sandals for weeks. Roy didn’t get the implication of Jonah’s question, though.
“Watch this.” Jonah selected a reasonably short, thinnish nylon rope and wrapped it three times round his fingers. A further three turns round the loops thus formed and another three dexterously threaded between the previous sets soon gave Roy the idea: Jonah was forming a monkey’s fist just like he would use for a throwing line. He could guess what it was for and copied the knot. Jonah declared that. With such a thin rope, the knot would not be big enough for Dave’s gob and Roy agreed that Koff needed something bigger as well. The insertion of a small pebble into each while Dave demonstrated the need for it, was declared to be in order. Roy and Jonah tightened the knots around the pebbles. Even Koff thought that the result of tying a gag made of such a thin rope could be quite painful if it was applied too tightly.
Once the knotmeisters, as they had styled themselves, had completed their masterpieces, Roy gave Jonah the choice of recipient. He chose Koff, who immediately embarked upon one of the usual diatribes about, “Dong his worst because he was an Englishman . . .,” except that Koff was claiming to be an “Engwiffma’” by the time Jonah had lodged the packed knot in his mouth. He was right about the pain, though and only hoped that the cord would loosen with time. He was (relatively) pleased to note that it was, at least, a nylon rope so the knot would not swell as it got soaked with his saliva. Both tiers certainly did tie the gags very tightly in place.
“Think they’re tight enough?”
“Yeah, they’ll probably bed in a bit yet.”
“True, but there’s always all the packing tape.” Opinion was divided among the four lads as to whether that was a good thing or not. Jonah was certainly fitting in better than any of the pirates would have believed.
There was obviously a certain amount of staggering around as Dave and Koff were being secured but there was, as yet, no danger of their falling over and, obviously, no point in their trying to escape. Nevertheless, Jonah decided that prisoners should have their legs secured. Roy agreed. I think that those enraged responses were more heartfelt from Dave than for Koff but, you know, “England expects . . .”
The binding was very similar to the way the victim’s arms were secured, except that they were secured at the ankles and just below the knees (a bit further below Koff’s knees than Dave’s), but there wasn’t as much rope left over. What was left was used to make sure that Dave and Koff were unable to spread their legs by more than about a foot. That reduced their stability by a surprising extent. Jonah had relaxed enough and Roy had forgotten his place enough to share high fives. Two of those present didn’t appreciate that.
“Think they’ll be OK?”
“Might need a bit of support.” Both Koff and Dave tried to reassure their tormentors that they did not.
“Yes, I think you’re right. I got an idea.” Dave wondered whose side the slender blonde was supposed to be on. Roy went for another rope, a well-worked, coarse, hemp rope that had been carefully back-spliced to prevent its ends from fraying. Koff didn’t think that it was a good time to draw attention to the quality of his work. (The Pirates had a lot to thank Koff for, not just for being a willing (usually) and uncomplaining (when he was gagged) prisoner, but also for the time he often put into maintenance tasks when he was in one of his “I want to be alone” moods. Roy wound the rope tightly round the waists of his subjects. It was fiddly work with their arms secured as they were but it was certainly effective. When he had finished, there was a wide, almost corset-like binding round their midriffs that sat down on Koff’s hips and up against Dave’s ribs. It did not look comfortable. Neither was it going anywhere.
Jonah didn’t quite see how what Roy had just done was going to give Koff and Dave any support until he remembered that hefty branch above their heads. The branch wasn’t too high off the ground but would be just out of reach if either of the captives was able to reach up. That made Roy’s next job easier than it might have been. He didn’t even need to tie one of those monkey’s fists in the end of the nylon rope that he had selected for the purpose of “supporting” Dave and Koff. On the third attempt, Roy threw enough of the rope over the branch to be able to grab the end. He asked Jonah to hold the other end while he pulled more of the rope over the branch. He grabbed hold of the hanging rope and threw the free end back over the branch whilst being careful not to relinquish the loop so formed. OK, so that left both ends of the rope on one side of the branch and a hanging loop on the other. Roy threaded both free ends through the loop and carefully adjusted them until both strands were roughly equal. Pulling on both rope-ends resulted in a lark’s head tied round the branch.
Roy reached up and tied a simple overhand knot somewhat above Koff’s head in both strands simultaneously. “OK, Grockle Boy, one for you and one for me.” Roy handed one end of the rope to Jonah. The following actions were somewhat difficult to achieve due to limited working space and a lot of free rope. Jonah copied what Roy was doing.
Firstly, the rope ends were pushed between the upper arms of the victims and forced down between the rope ‘corset’ and the hips of the losers, one on each side. Dave’s assertion that Jonah could keep his hands away from his bum could be heard quite clearly in spite of the still fairly effective, and certainly far from comfortable, gag. Roy sounded very upset, “Oh come on Dave, don’t make us stop now; but we really need to reinforce that gag, just in case Jonah gets upset.”
“You wouldn’t like me when I get upset.” Jonah was still happy to play along.
“Don’t worry about it too much, though, there’s lots of packing tape left.”
“And we can always do it once we’ve made sure you’re safely supported.” Yup, Jonah was fitting in better with each passing torment.
As I’m sure you will understand, the sensation as the nylon rope was pulled as far through the gap as possible made both boys stand up a bit straighter. Once more, a gentleman would not have commented but, once more, Koff felt very little shame; there were prices to be paid for a Pirate’s enjoyment. The ropes were taken in hand, pulled tight and kept as tight as possible given the working conditions as they were raised again. Dave’s heels left the ground but returned by the time Jonah and Roy had secured the rope with a couple of half hitches. Ok, so that might have provided a bit of support to the conjoined prisoners but they would be more likely to be left with all four feet in the air if they did lose their footing. Roy had not finished.
“Oi, Grockle Boy, watch this.” Roy formed a blood bight in his rope end just below the level of Dave’s armpit. Then he threaded his end of the rope through it so that the resultant loop enclosed Dave’s right arm and Koff’s left rather loosely. The result immediately slipped down to his subjects’ bound elbows. Jonah repeated the procedure with his end of the rope. Roy looked up at the overhand knot. Jonah smirked and nodded.
Jonah, being slightly the larger binder, took both free ends in his hands and crouched down enough to allow Roy to sit on his shoulders. Then he stood and handed one end to his passenger. Who threaded it between the strands above the overhand knot. The other end soon followed in the opposite direction and Roy dismounted. The ropes were soon pulled tight and Roy decided that they should be tied-off around the loops circling Dave’s and Koff’s armpits. Neither tier spared the knots.
“There. All nice and safe now.” Once more, high fives were shared.
Dave just couldn’t resist it. What he said was something like, “Why don’t you two just kiss and have done with it?” Neither Roy nor Jonah could be absolutely sure of what he said but it did serve to remind them of something that might otherwise have been forgotten.
“You wanna go?” Roy offered the seemingly inexhaustible roll of packing tape to Jonah who bowed his head in acceptance and unwrapped about a foot of the stuff in front of Dave’s face. Dave could have tried to avoid the brown stuff because it was always a pain trying to stop it sticking to itself but he knew that such attempts would, eventually, prove fruitless and that measures taken to prevent his avoidance techniques would probably be painful. Jonah carefully wrapped three rounds of tape round Dave’s head trapping the knot in his mouth and one of those fabric strips against the back of his neck; Jonah was in a relatively merciful mood.
Jonah said that he thought Roy was being very considerate protecting his mate’s hair like that. Roy said that there was plenty more white cloth where that came from for other uses. Both prisoners got the implications of that and, sure enough, both were soon blindfolded.
Jonah and Roy stood back to admire their work. “Testing?”
Roy and Jonah stepped forward again. “Testing!” Roy and Jonah each simply raked the nearest pair of ankles to him sideways. The pair of prisoners stayed upright although more or less hanging by their armpits and soon regained their footing. Koff earned himself a reinforcement to his gag, but Roy didn’t bother with protecting his hair. Two self-satisfied binders returned to the folding chairs but only Jonah got to sit.
TBC