Skeleton Island

by Angie Sage

  We all stopped under the tree. Two very rusty shovels were propped up against it.

  “Pick up them shovels, orphan childs,” Peg Leg said.

  We picked up the shovels. There didn’t seem much choice, seeing as we were surrounded by pirate skeletons and a lot of knives and cutlasses.

  Then Peg Leg said, “Billy boy, I’m going to read out the instructions and you and the orphan childs are going to do exactly what I tells you. Got that?”

  “Aye aye, Peg Leg,” Billie said.

  We stood beneath the forked tree listening to Peg Leg’s creepy voice reading out the instructions written on the treasure map.

  “Stand beneath the forked tree and face the sea.”

  So that’s what Wanda and I—and Billie—did. Above us the dead branches of the tree creaked. Ahead of us the sea glistened in the moonlight and the waves crashed on to the beach far below. Behind us the wind whistled up the secret valley.

  “Take ten steps forward,” Peg Leg said.

  So we did.

  “One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten!” Peg Leg counted. Then he said—and this shows that Peg Leg was quite clever—“And one more step because the orphan childs have short legs.”

  So we took one more step.

  “Now, orphan childs,” said Peg Leg, “turn to your left and face Pig Rock.”

  We turned to the left and sure enough, there was a rock that looked just like a little fat pig.

  “Take five steps forward,” Peg Leg told us. “One. Two. Three. Four. Five. And another half-step for the orphan childs.”

  There were so many more instructions that Wanda and I got quite giddy and confused. I was not at all surprised that the pirates had forgotten where they had buried their treasure. But at last Peg Leg called out, “Stop!”

  Wanda and I stopped.

  And then Peg Leg said, “Dig!”

  Wanda was looking really cross. Uh-oh, I thought. This is not a good time for Wanda to get picky.

  “Dig what?” Wanda said.

  Peg Leg did his rusty saw laugh again. “Dig the ground, orphan child.” He turned to his crew. “Oh, it is a simple-minded orphan child, that one. Dig what, ha ha!”

  But I knew exactly what Wanda meant. And I had a nasty feeling she was going to tell Peg Leg too.

  “What,” Wanda demanded, “is the magic word?”

  Peg Leg stared at Wanda. Wanda stared back. She was holding her shovel like a club and looked quite fierce. I decided to act the same, even though I didn’t feel fierce at all. But Peg Leg knew we were his only chance of getting his precious treasure so he decided to humour us. “I don’t know, orphan child,” he said very slowly, as though he was talking to someone really stupid. “What is the magic word?”

  “The magic word is ‘please’,” Wanda told him.

  There were a few chuckles from the skeleton crew and Peg Leg sighed. “Very well, orphan child. Dig. Please.”

  And so Wanda and I began to dig.

  At long last my training in shovelling up the bat poo in Uncle Drac’s turret came in useful. The ground was very sandy and even easier to dig than bat poo (which gets very heavy and squishy). Billie sat by us to keep us company and the other skeletons just wandered around or stood looking out to sea. No one said very much. All you could hear was the swash of the waves on the beach far below and the soft thud of our shovels hitting the sandy ground.

  We went as slowly as we could but before very long there was a loud clang! My shovel had hit something hard. I stopped digging and looked into the hole. It wasn’t very deep at all—the pirates were a lazy crew. Wanda, Billie and I could see a metal corner of what looked like a big metal chest sticking up.

  The clang brought the skeletons click-clacking over to us. They all stood around in a circle and Peg Leg said, “You’re not as puny as you look, orphan childs. Let’s see what we’ve got there. Keep digging.”

  Wanda leaned on her shovel and eyeballed Peg Leg. “Keep digging what?” she said.

  Peg Leg sighed. “Keep digging, please,” he said.

  So we did. Soon a big rusty metal chest was sitting in the bottom of the hole with the moonlight shining on the scratches where our shovels had scraped the rust off. Wanda and I looked down at the treasure chest. Then we looked at the circle of skeletons all around us, their bones gleaming in the moonlight, and then we looked at each other—and we smiled. This was exciting. Suddenly it didn’t matter that we were marooned on an island with a crew of nasty skeleton pirates—we had found pirate treasure!

  Peg Leg sounded just as excited. “Let’s see our treasure,” he said. “Oh, it will do an old pirate good to see his gold again.” And he took off the rusty old key that was hanging around his neck below Billie’s necklace and handed it to me. “Open the chest, orphan childs.” Then he caught Wanda’s eye. “Please,” he added quickly.

  The key fitted into the lock perfectly. It was hard to turn, but Wanda and I managed it. The lid made a long, slow creaking sound as we lifted it and then it suddenly fell backwards.

  Everyone gasped—including us.

  The treasure glittered and shone. Diamonds twinkled, gold glistened, silver shimmered and rubies, emeralds, pearls and sapphires made a rainbow of sparkling colours.

  “Take what you want, boys,” Peg Leg said in his hollow voice. “You earned it.”

  All the skeletons made a rush for the treasure chest. Wanda and I scrambled out of the way just in time. We stood with Billie, watching as all the pirate crew—apart from Peg Leg—festooned themselves with strings of pearls, shoved rings on their finger bones and grabbed bony handfuls of coins.

  “Why doesn’t Peg Leg take some treasure too?” I asked Billie.

  Billie shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said.

  The pirate crew had taken all they could carry. Looking like walking white Christmas trees, they danced around, twirling excitedly, their jewels dazzling in the moonlight.

  Peg Leg lurched over to the treasure chest and stared in. “Billy boy!” he called out. “Bring them orphan childs here!”

  “We’d better do what he says,” Billie whispered.

  I had a bad feeling about this, but we let Billie take us over to Peg Leg. He was still peering down at the treasure chest. All that was left was a dusty leather bag with the initials: SMD.

  Billie gasped. “Those are Mamma’s jewels!”

  “Don’t talk rot, Billy boy,” Peg Leg said. “Get them orphan childs to give that bag to me, Billy boy. These old bones and peg leg don’t move as well as they did.”

  “We could grab them and run away with them for you,” I whispered to Billie.

  But Peg Leg heard me. And to my surprise he laughed. “That’s the spirit, you double-crossing orphan child. You’re a natural pirate. Now get that bag of jewels.”

  So I clambered down into the almost empty treasure chest and picked up the dusty bag. Billie’s gaze followed the bag as I handed it up to Peg Leg. He took it and weighed it in his hands and then he gazed longingly out to the stormy sea for some time.

  After a while he turned around and said to us, “This bag is mine and the curse upon it is mine. It’s a curse that cost me my ship and binds our crew to the seabed. Now I have the bag I hope maybe one day to redeem the curse and be free once again.” Peg Leg sighed and I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. He turned his empty eye sockets towards me and said, “Now, orphan child, take a coin for you, one for your little shipmate and one for our Billie here. We pirates share our treasure with all the crew, right down to the cabin boy. It’s the pirate lore.”

  “I don’t want any treasure,” I said. “It’s stolen. It belongs to other people.”

  Peg Leg laughed. And then he grabbed hold of Wanda and his voice turned really nasty. “Take the coins, orphan child. Or I’ll push your little shipmate into the chest and close the lid on her.”

  “Araminta …” Wanda whispered. “Take the coins. Please.”

  So I did. I picked up three gold coins w
ith holes in the middle of them and handed one to Wanda and one to Billie, who put the coin on her little finger bone.

  Peg Leg laughed. “You’ve taken the pirate shilling now, orphan child. Welcome to the crew of the Cutlass Kate!”

  “Are we really pirates now?” Wanda asked as we followed the skeletons back up the valley.

  “Of course we’re not,” I told her. But I didn’t feel as sure as I sounded. I remembered stories about how in the old days soldiers were tricked into joining the army by drinking a pint of beer with a shilling hidden in the bottom of the tankard. It was called the King’s shilling and accepting the beer meant you had agreed to join the army. And we had accepted the pirate shilling.

  Peg Leg was still keeping us under guard. Jim with the dagger in his mouth was right behind us and we were surrounded by skeletons as they lurched slowly along, festooned with jewels and bristling with weapons.

  I was really tired now and I could tell from the way she was dragging her feet that Wanda was too. It had taken ages getting the treasure and as we walked slowly along all I could think of was hot chocolate by the fire and bed. At last we reached the grassy top of the island and as we wound our way along the footpath I looked out to sea. Far away in the distance on a hill I was sure I could see the lights of Spook House flickering through the trees. I wondered what Uncle Drac was doing. Maybe, I thought, he was reading our message on Baby Bat right now. Maybe, but I didn’t hold out much hope—Baby Bat must have flown right into the storm. I suddenly felt really sad. If wishes were wings I would have flown across the sea to Spook House right then. Although it probably would have been quite difficult, as I would have had to take Wanda with me, and she is surprisingly heavy. And she wriggles a lot. I sighed. I knew that if I wanted to be back home ever again I was going to have to do something about it for myself.

  When we got back down to the beach, the wind was blowing hard and the waves were rolling in. It was very noisy and cold too. Peg Leg stopped by our fire, which was just a heap of smouldering cinders. “Gather round, mateys,” he said. “Gather round.”

  And the skeletons did what they were told, rattling and jangling, pushing and shoving. Peg Leg raised his voice above the sound of the waves. “Shipmates, we’ve got two new crew. Tide’s up, so let’s get them on board, shall we?”

  “But we don’t want to come on board,” Wanda said.

  “Too bad, matey,” Peg Leg said. “You took the pirate shilling. You’re one of us now.”

  “No, we’re not!” I yelled. I felt really scared.

  But Peg Leg wasn’t listening. “Get them, boys,” he said.

  “Run!” hissed Billie.

  We didn’t need telling. I grabbed hold of Wanda’s hand and we raced across the beach, heading for the path that would take us up to the bat cave. I knew if we could get up there we had a chance to fight the skeletons off as they came up one by one. It was a good plan—except for one thing. As Peg Leg had said, the tide was up—and it had cut off the way to the path.

  We stopped by the foot of the cliff and looked at the waves pounding into the rocks.

  “Maybe it’s not very deep,” Wanda said doubtfully.

  It looked pretty deep to me. And rough. “Wanda, can you swim?” I asked.

  Wanda shook her head. “Can you?” she asked back.

  “Only with armbands,” I said.

  “But, Araminta, we don’t have any armbands,” Wanda said.

  “Then we’ll have to stay and fight,” I told her. “We’ll run at them and knock them down like skittles.”

  We turned around to see the pirate skeletons fanned out across the beach walking towards us. You might think it would be easy knocking over a pile of bones. But it isn’t. Not when they are waving knives and cutlasses around. We ran as fast as we could, yelling at the top of our voices, but we didn’t get very far. Peg Leg grabbed me and Jim-with-the-knife-between-his-teeth grabbed Wanda.

  “Let them go!” Billie yelled.

  Peg Leg just laughed. “Don’t you want your little friends to come with you, Billy boy?” he said.

  “No!” Billie yelled. “I don’t want them to come with me. I don’t!”

  Peg Leg laughed. “You’re telling fibs, Billy boy. I’ve seen you whispering to the orphan childs. You are best mates. And now you can be best mates for ever.” With that, Peg Leg and Jim began to walk us down the beach towards the waves, which were rolling in fast. And that was when I heard something. It was faint and hard to hear above the roar of the sea, but I knew exactly what it was—the engine of a boat.

  “The Fat Seagull!” I yelled to Wanda. “They’re coming!”

  All this time Peg Leg and Jim were pushing Wanda and me down the beach towards the waves and Billie was jumping up and down yelling, “Let them go, let them go!” But they took no notice. I could hear the boat coming nearer but I still couldn’t see it. And then, suddenly, a wave washed over my feet.

  The water was icy. I pushed back against Peg Leg but he just shoved me forward. Another wave came in and the water went over my ankles. I felt very, very scared—I realised that Peg Leg and his crew really were going to drag us beneath the sea with them. They were stronger than us, they were armed with cutlasses and knives, and there was no way we could fight them. But a chief detective cannot let a gang of murderers get the better of her and her sidekick. I had to think of a plan, and fast.

  And then I did—a really great plan.

  “I know how you can sail the seven seas again!” I yelled. “I know how to lift the curse on the jewels!”

  “You can tell us that when we’re back in Davy Jones’ Locker,” Peg Leg said and he gave me another push and a wave washed over my knees. This was not going well—how was my plan going to work if Peg Leg wouldn’t stop to listen to me?

  Jim gave Wanda a nasty shove too, and suddenly Wanda got very picky indeed. She pushed her elbow into his ribs and Jim’s knife fell out from between his teeth in surprise. “Stop pushing me!” Wanda told Jim. “It is rude to push.”

  Sometimes a chief detective can learn something from her sidekick—and I was learning to be picky too. I turned around and told Peg Leg, “If you push me and Wanda any further into this horrible cold sea I will never speak to you again. I will never ever tell you how to lift the curse and you will never ever, ever get to sail the seven seas in the Cutlass Kate.”

  “So there,” Wanda added for good measure.

  I folded my arms and stared up at Peg Leg. I had noticed that if you stand up to bullies—and that is what the pirate skeletons were—they will back down. But you have to be confident about it. And right then, I was. I had Wanda and Billie on my side, I had worked out my plan and I knew it was a good one.

  Peg Leg glanced over to Jim, who was busy shoving his knife back between his teeth. “Well, Jim. What do you say?”

  “Ar dreemor seelin ee ceertler ker werrr meerr,” Jim said. “Lerr err spik.”

  I’ve had a lot of practice translating what Wanda says when she has her mouth full of gummy bears, which was good because it meant I also understood what a skeleton pirate with a knife between his teeth was saying. And what he said was: “I dream of sailing the Cutlass Kate once more. Let her speak.”

  All the other skeletons began to join in now too and soon we were surrounded by ghostly voices. “We want to sail the seven seas … Sail away in our Cutlass Kate …”

  “Very well,” Peg Leg said. “Speak, orphan child.”

  I had not forgotten my lessons in being picky from Wanda. “I’m not telling you anything in this freezing water,” I told him. “You have to let Wanda and me get out of the sea. You have to sit down and listen very quietly and stop bossing us around. Got that?”

  Peg Leg didn’t say anything and I could tell he was thinking. Then he looked at me and said, “I like a crew with spirit. Very well, orphan child, have your way. For now.” And he let go of my shoulder. I took Wanda’s hand and we went up the beach to what was left of the fire and stood there trying to get warm. Bill
ie hurried after us. “What are you going to tell him?” she whispered.

  “Billie,” I said, “you did say one of your mother’s names was Dracandor, didn’t you?”

  Billie looked puzzled. “Yes.”

  “Good,” I said. “Just checking.”

  Wanda looked at me, puzzled, but I just smiled. Sometimes a chief detective has to keep a surprise secret, even from their sidekick.

  We waited for all the skeletons to join us. They sat in a circle waiting to hear what I was going to say. “Speak, orphan child,” Peg Leg said. “Tell us how we can sail the seven seas in Cutlass Kate once more.”

  When you are a chief detective you do not let a criminal mastermind tell you what to do. You tell them what to do. So I did. “Peg Leg, there is a message in the bag of jewels. Would you read it out?”

  Very reluctantly, Peg Leg pulled a slip of soft leather out from the bag. And then he intoned in his spooky, hollow voice, “‘I, Seraphina Maria Dracandor van Diemen, do place a curse upon the thief of these jewels. May your ship sink. May you be doomed to haunt the seabed beside her until the day these jewels are returned to their rightful, living owner.’”

  There was a big sigh and clicking of bones all around us. Some of the skeletons began to mutter: “… he took them from that nice lady … I told him not to … it’s all his fault we’re trapped on the seabed … all his fault …”

  “See here, mateys,” Peg Leg said. “I would never have taken this if I’d known. But what’s done is done. We’re stuck here for ever. Better get used to it, me hearties.”

  One of the skeletons spoke up in a squeaky voice. “But, Peg Leg, the orphan child said it knows what to do. Ask the orphan child.”

  I could hear the boat engine really clearly now and I was feeling much braver. “Go on, Peg Leg,” I said, “ask me.”

  “Very well,” Peg Leg said snappily. “Orphan child, what should we do?”

  “You must return the jewels to their rightful owner,” I told him.