Now all they could do was wait. Wait for the night to end so they could keep working on their provisory habitations, wait for a vessel that would rescue them, wait… for Devon to appear.
A sudden noise close by made him tense, but before he could move, he was grabbed from behind. A hand covered his mouth while an arm wrapped powerfully around his chest, imprisoning him. He fought fiercely as he was taken to a shelter behind a large group of boulders.
Once there, he was released and turned around to face his captor. Prepared to growl his protest at being manhandled this roughly, he focused his attention on the man before him. And blinked.
“Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?” Devon finally asked, obviously amused at his speechless reaction.
“You… you lout,” Brett snapped, coming out of his daze, obviously surprising Devon with his anger. “I thought you were dead! And why the hell did you drag me out here? I thought it was a miscreant wanting to hurt me.” Then in one swift movement, he buried his right hand in Devon’s hair and pulled his head down, brushing their lips together in a featherlike caress. “I thought you were dead…,” he whispered brokenly against Devon’s mouth. “That I would never see you again, feel you again, kiss you again….”
“I’m sorry,” Devon said, capturing Brett’s lips and kissing him passionately.
Brett broke the kiss long enough to take a deep breath, then took Devon’s lips again, this time less frantically. When they finally parted, their eyes met and held, saying all the things they were unable to voice yet.
“Why didn’t you join us at the camp?” Brett asked.
“I wanted to see you first, speak with you first. I could not resist when I saw you by the beach.” Devon sighed tiredly. “I can’t believe we came all this way for nothing. Now we have no ship and no map. I wish I had never heard of that treasure.”
Brett smiled. “Well, I can’t assist you with the ship, but I still have the map.”
“You do?” Devon asked, confused. “I thought I left it in my cabin.”
“You did. But I still have it…. Memorized in my head,” Brett said smugly.
Devon hugged him hard, laughing softly. “You really are one hell of an amazing man, Brett Campbell.”
“SO WHAT happened to you?” Elijah asked Devon.
Devon, Brett, Elijah, and Cody sat around a warm fire, the remnants of roasted fish scattered on some leaves.
“I was thrown overboard by a wave,” Devon said as he stared into the flames. “Last thing I remember is Brett crawling over to you and Cody, then this huge expanse of water coming at me and then… nothing. I woke up on a beach on the other side of the island.”
“See anybody else?” Cody asked. “We still have seven missing.”
Devon nodded. “Simmons’s and Kershaw’s bodies washed up on the beach. I buried them before coming to search for the rest of you.”
“What now?” Cody asked. “We have no ship and the map is gone.”
Devon grinned at Brett, who sat beside him quietly. “Well, Brett here says he remembers what was written on the map. Since we are already on the island, all we need to do is follow the instructions.”
“Why bother?” Elijah asked. “Even if we do find the treasure, then what? We have no way of getting it off of this island. What is the point in finding a treasure if we can’t spend it?”
“We will have to be patient. The Caribbean Sea has a lot of navigation. Sooner or later a ship will sail close enough to locate us, providing we build a fire to catch their attention.”
Brett snorted. “With our luck, it will be a pirate ship and we will all be slaughtered.”
Devon glared at him. “Damn it, Brett, don’t say things like that. Look, even if it is a pirate ship, chances are they will not stop for us; they won’t care. On the other hand, if it’s a Navy vessel…. They patrol this area frequently, and if they see the smoke, they are bound to investigate. We can say we were attacked by pirates and left here to die. There is no reason for them not to believe us.”
“Then what?” Elijah asked, but he was grinning.
Devon chuckled. “You know what, we have done this before. We overpower the poor bastards sent to land, don their clothes, and take over their ship.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Cody laughed.
“It is. We did this twice before when we were after ships more powerful than ours and couldn’t afford to engage in a battle. They fall for it every time. It will work; you’ll see. The worst part is having to wait until a ship comes close enough for us to see it and for them to see our signal.”
“The plan still stands, then?” Brett asked. “Tomorrow we will go searching for McKenzie’s treasure?”
“Yes. I’ll talk to the crew. They will stay here; this place is well out of sight, and they should be safe. The four of us will leave first thing in the morning,” Devon said, ignoring Brett’s pitiful moan.
Seeing the others nod their approval, Devon rose and went to speak with the crewmen about the new plan. He took his time, going around all the small fires spread throughout the camp where the men were warming up. When he returned, the others were preparing to sleep, lying as close to the fire as humanly possible without getting burned.
Grinning, he waited until Brett was lying on his side before joining him. He spooned up behind the sturdy body, shaking his head chidingly as he felt Brett tense against him.
“Devon—”
“It’s all right, Brett,” Devon said softly, propping up on his elbow and looking down at Brett. “Nobody will say a thing. I just want to stay close to you.”
Brett stared up at him for a long moment, then nodded and nestled back against him, closing his eyes with a soft sigh. Almost immediately his breathing changed into a sleeping pattern.
“I’m glad you made it,” Elijah said, tone earnest. “I don’t know what we would have done with him if you died.”
Devon frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He hardly said a word all day. Kept to himself, did not let anyone get too close. He hid it well, but… it was easy to see how much he was hurting,” Cody said.
“Yes. You better not do something like this ever again, or I might be forced to hunt you down and kill you,” Elijah mock glared at him.
Devon grinned at his friends, understanding they had accepted his relationship with Brett and knowing they would give him hell if he ever hurt Brett. With a final nod to the others, he snuggled closer to the warm body lying so close to his own and proceeded to fall into much needed sleep.
“YOU SURE the map said we had to start at the ‘cliff of white’?” Elijah asked for the hundredth time.
“Yes,” Brett said tiredly.
“What the hell does that mean?” Cody frowned.
“I don’t know, Cody. The walls of the cliff will probably be made of a different kind of rock, white in color. Sort of like the cliffs at Dover.”
“Let’s keep circling the island. We are bound to find it sooner or later,” Devon remarked as he walked ahead of the small group.
Half an hour later, they had found the elusive cliff, which as Brett had predicted, was white. Devon leaned over the edge, looking down at waves crashing over the sharp rocks far below.
“Now what?” Elijah asked Brett.
“Well, the map said to look for the twin mounds.”
“Twin mounds?” Elijah said, looking around. “Don’t see anything resembling that description.”
Devon narrowed his eyes suspiciously as Cody suddenly snorted, chuckling softly until it turned into a full belly laugh. “Twin mounds,” he chortled. “Twin mounds.”
“What in the damnation is so funny, boy?” Devon asked, exasperated.
“There,” Cody gestured toward the mountains visible above the trees. “Twin mounds, can you see it?” He placed each hand in front of his chest, kneading the air as a man would knead a woman’s breasts.
And Devon laughed too, realizing the two mountains did resemble breasts, standing parallel
to each other and with their inverted V formation. He laughed harder as Brett shook his head disgustedly at the two of them.
“Unbelievable,” Brett said.
“We found the twin mounds.” Elijah chuckled as well. “What’s next?”
“We have to reach their base,” Brett replied.
Devon sighed, all laughter leaving him. The mountains looked far away, and it would take hours to reach them. He wasn’t sure he would make it without killing one of the others. They made for a great crew but were a pain to be with on dry land. He had never seen a more complaining group in his life.
From Brett, who didn’t like early mornings, to Cody, who kept telling them amusing stories—or so he said they were—to Elijah, who never shut up. Devon felt like an old matron trying to keep her unruly children in line.
“We should stop wasting time. It is nearly midday. Elijah, lead the way.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Elijah replied, giving him a maddening grin.
Devon exhaled softly, going back on his thought; none of them were behaving. It was going to be a long, long day.
DEVON FROWNED. “Where is Elijah?”
“Ahead of us. You sent him to lead the way, remember?”
Devon glared at Cody. “Yes. But we haven’t seen or heard from him in a few minutes.”
They stopped moving, all ears wanting to pick up on Elijah’s whereabouts.
“Elijah,” Brett called out. “Elijah, where are you?”
“I heard something,” Cody said. “It came from there.”
They marched that way, cutting through the dense foliage until they all heard it, Elijah urgently calling out, “In here. I’m in here.”
“Why the hell is he not coming back to find us?” Cody asked.
“Let’s find out,” Devon said.
They followed Elijah’s voice, reaching a small clearing in the middle of the forest. The floor was covered with dry leaves, which was obviously the reason Elijah had failed to see the quicksand he was rapidly sinking in.
“Damn it,” Devon growled, looking around. Spotting a sturdy piece of tree bark, he snatched it from the ground. “Elijah, grab the bark.”
Elijah reached slowly for his salvation, careful not to make any sudden moves that would make him sink faster. “Got it,” he said, barely daring to breathe.
Devon nodded, and with Brett and Cody’s assistance, began to pull Elijah out of the quicksand. Once Elijah was out of danger, Devon scowled at him. “You told me you’re supposed to be good at this scouting thing.”
“I am,” Elijah said, sounding defensive. “I heard something fly above me and looked up. When I realized I had stepped into quicksand, it was already too late.”
Devon sighed tiredly. “Fine. We should keep going. We are almost there.”
It took them over an hour to reach the base of the twin mountains. They were obviously traveling through a scarcely visited island, and it was hard to advance in such rough conditions. The vegetation fought them every step of the way, and even cutting through it with the axe Brett had found on the beach that morning, it was nearly an impossible task.
Once they were finally there, Devon turned to Brett. “Next?”
“Turn east. There should be a narrow path going up the left mountain,” Brett said.
Cody nodded. “Found it.”
Brett shrugged. “Then we go up until we find a cave.”
“Sure is a lot of walking to this treasure hunting thing,” Elijah complained.
“Well, you did not want it to be easy, did you? Everyone would be able to find it, then,” Cody said, youth keeping him spry.
They kept climbing for about another half an hour before they found the entrance to the cave. They walked inside, taking deep breaths, enjoying the cool air, relieved to be out of the suffocating heat.
“And now?” Cody asked. “Let me guess, we keep walking?”
Brett chuckled. “Right you are. There should be a tunnel to your right, heading down. We are to take it and keep going until we see a large chamber where we are to find the treasure.”
Cody grinned. “You mean this is it? No more threading through the jungle?”
“This is it. Although there was nothing in the map stating how long we have to walk before we discover the aforementioned chamber.”
“In that case…,” Devon drawled sarcastically, gesturing for them to get moving.
“LORD, THIS is tiring,” Elijah said as they found yet another fork ahead.
They had been walking for over an hour, always going farther and farther into the mountain, still moving downward. At each turn, they had found a fork, having to look for the scratches on the rock that pointed in the right direction. The inside of the cave was a real maze, and without the faint markings, they would have been lost, maybe forever.
Cody shuddered. “I just wish there were not so many bats in here. I really don’t like them.”
“You know what would be really ironic?” Brett said. “If we got to the chamber and there was nothing there.”
“Brett, you want me to shoot you?” Devon glared at him.
“No.”
“Then shut up.”
Cody tilted his head to the side. “I can hear running water.”
“Yes, so can I. It is just ahead,” Elijah said.
The passageway kept getting wider until they were standing in a large chamber. There was a cascade of water running from the cave ceiling and beautifully sculpted stalagmites and stalactites all around.
“This place is amazing,” Cody said breathlessly, looking longingly at the waterfall.
“Think this is the right chamber?” Devon asked Brett.
“No. The map stated it was the last chamber. There is another passage to our left.”
Devon groaned. “Of course there is. Keep going, then.”
“You know,” Elijah said as they continued. “If we keep going down, we are going to be below sea level. This chamber is not underwater, is it?”
“The map did not mention anything. Which in itself means nothing,” Brett said grimly. “It could have been done on purpose, in case someone had found the map and was trying to reach the treasure before McKenzie could retrieve it.”
“I can see light up ahead,” Cody said.
They followed the light into another chamber, and this time Devon knew that they had found the right one. It was probably the biggest cave chamber he had seen in his life. Water droplets were catching light as they fell hundreds of feet from the ceiling, making it look like it was raining stars. The walls were covered with luminous rock formations, and the impressive stalactites and stalagmites spread out through the ground and ceiling looked like polished chandeliers and candlesticks.
And there, right in the center of the chamber, resting in what looked like a natural cavity in the cave’s floor, stood the treasure. Chests and chests full to the brim with jewels, precious stones, gold coins, goblets, and tiaras.
“Oh. My. Lord,” Cody whispered, walking slowly toward the huge golden pile. He whooped, jumping into the pool of water surrounding the treasure. “We did it! We found it!”
The treasure hunt was finally over.
Chapter IV
WHILE THE others looked through the treasure, Devon gazed around the chamber, feeling a strong sense of foreboding. He kept waiting for something to happen, to go wrong. It didn’t augur well for them.
“I can’t imagine how long it must have taken to bring everything down here. Most of McKenzie’s men had been caught and hanged by that time. He had only a handful of trusted men left,” Elijah said as he walked toward Devon. “What’s wrong, Devon? Why aren’t you trying to bury yourself in riches with the others?”
“I can’t,” Devon muttered. “I have this feeling something is wrong. Makes me nervous.”
“That is just the sight of all that fortune.” Elijah grinned.
“I guess,” Devon said, although he wasn’t too certain.
Cody approached them, his whole face lit up wi
th a wide smile. “You do realize we are rich beyond our wildest dreams, don’t you?” he chuckled happily.
“Correction. I am rich beyond my wildest dreams,” a new voice stated from behind them.
Devon turned and found himself looking straight into the barrel of a pistol. Ten men were standing near the passageway, all heavily armed. Their leader was dressed all in black, looking smugly down at him, and Devon had no doubt about the man’s identity, especially after seeing the anger in Brett’s eyes.
“Blackburn,” Devon growled.
“Hall.” Blackburn mock bowed. “We finally meet face-to-face.” His eyes focused on Brett, turning impossibly cold. “Mr. Campbell, we meet again. I believe we have some unfinished business between us. Now, gentlemen, if you please. Relieve yourselves of your weaponry.”
Devon nodded to the others, who reluctantly obeyed, letting their swords and guns fall to the ground. “You will not get away with this,” he said.
Blackburn smiled. “I already have, Captain Hall.” He turned to one of his men. “Go back to the Skull and tell Cook we have found the treasure and need every available man to help carry it back to the ship.” After the man had left, he grinned at Devon. “It is most fortunate that my ship is anchored on this side of the island. It will save precious time.”
“How did you find us?” Brett asked.
“I have been following you since you left Tortuga. The storm gave me some trouble, but my ship is better equipped to handle it than yours was. It was easy to discover this island and where you camped last night. When you went in search of the treasure this morning, I followed. I have a good tracker among my men, and you gentlemen left a visible trail. Which one of you had the misfortune of landing in quicksand?”
No one answered, but next to Devon, Elijah crossed his arms over his chest defensively, scowl on his face.
Blackburn must have noticed Elijah’s disgruntled expression, for he shook his head, tsking softly. “Very clumsy. I expected more out of one of Captain Hall’s men. Appleton, Donovan, watch the prisoners. The rest of you, start taking the treasure out. And make it fast.”
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