An unbearable silence filled the air. Pirate liked the joke. He thought it was a funny one and he would have laughed about it at any other time. But now he was scared. Still, he must laugh. He breathed in and instantly squeezed the air out again. It was not a laugh coming from the bottom of his stomach, as Buddha had taught him. It was a hollow laugh forced out of his frightened heart. So it sounded like nothing more than an ordinary bark.