Wanda and I stared at each other. And then Wanda whispered, “Drowned?”
Billie nodded. “Drowned,” came her thin ghostly voice.
We all sat and looked at the fire for a very long time. It was Billie who spoke first. “But that was a long time ago, and now I am happy again because you found Mamma’s necklace. Thank you.”
“Oh, you’re welcome,” I said. I liked Billie and I was really glad I was able to help her. Suddenly Wanda gave me a sharp nudge. “What?” I asked.
“Show Billie your map, Araminta!” Wanda said excitedly. “You know, the one with the pirate treasure!”
“Shh!” Billie whispered. “Do not mention that word.”
“What word?” asked Wanda.
“Treasure, stupid,” I told Wanda.
“Shh!” Billie hissed. “Peg Leg can hear the word ‘treasure’ from miles away.”
Wanda and I looked at each other. Peg Leg sounded just like the horrible kind of pirate I had warned Wanda about.
“But I would love to see your map,” Billie whispered.
So I got out the treasure map and unfolded it very quietly, just in case Peg Leg Jake could hear treasure maps being unfolded from miles away too. In the light of my torch I put my finger on the cross in the middle of the map. “There it is,” I said. “There’s the pirate treasure.”
Suddenly Wanda squeaked a tiny terrified “Eeeeek!” I looked up and saw her and Billie staring at the old shipwreck. Now, I am used to Wanda being scared of things, so it doesn’t bother me very much. But Billie was brave and I could see that she was scared too. And that bothered me, so I made myself look.
It was horrible.
In the light of the rising moon the wrecked ship shone with a ghostly sheen. It looked really spooky, but that wasn’t what was scary. In fact compared with what was happening all around it, the ship looked almost cosy—because anything looks cosy compared with twelve pirate skeletons.
I couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Twelve skeletons had risen out of the water and were standing by the ship, staring at us with empty eyes. And then one began to move. It began to wade through the water, heading for the beach. And as soon as it moved, all the others did too.
“Run!” Billie whispered in her eerie, ghostly voice.
And that is what Wanda and I did. Fast.
You would not believe how fast skeletons can move, and what a creepy noise they make as their bones click against each other. If I had closed my eyes it would have sounded like we were being chased by a pack of Aunt Tabby’s knitting needles. In fact I probably should have closed my eyes, because when I looked around I saw the scariest sight I have ever seen. Behind us the skeletons were lurching up the beach, shining and wet from the sea with the moonlight glinting off their knives, daggers and cutlasses. The leading skeleton had a wooden leg below one knee. I knew at once who that was—Peg Leg Jake.
Billie was brave. She raced down the beach, waving her arms and shouting in her thin little voice, “Stop! Stop!” But not one skeleton took any notice of her. They zoomed straight past her and headed up the beach. There was no doubt about it—it was us they were after.
“Araminta, what are we going to doooo?” Wanda wailed.
When you are a chief detective and a gang of pirate skeletons are after you, it is always good to have a plan. And luckily I did. I reckoned that if Wanda and I climbed to the top of the island, we could throw rocks at the skeletons as they came up the steps after us. We could knock them off like skittles.
But first we had to get up there.
“Follow me!” I yelled to Wanda.
I went really fast, which is surprisingly easy to do when a load of pirate skeletons are chasing you. I was almost halfway up the steps when I realised I couldn’t hear Wanda’s thumpy little footsteps behind me any more. I turned around to see where she was and I knew my plan had gone wrong. Wanda had tripped over a rock and the pirate skeletons were catching up with her fast.
“Get up, Wanda!” I yelled.
Wanda was scrambling to her feet, but she wasn’t going to make it in time. I had a choice. I could either keep on going up the steps and hope that the skeletons chased me so I could carry out my plan—or I could go back and help Wanda. I was still wondering what to do when Peg Leg caught up with Wanda and poked her in the ribs with his bony finger. Wanda screamed. And it wasn’t a Wanda silly-scream—it was a proper scared-scream.
That was it. I knew I had to go back to Wanda, even though she was yelling, “Run, Araminta, run!” I won’t say I wasn’t tempted, but you can’t leave your best friend being poked at by a pirate skeleton. So I ran back down the steps to Wanda and Peg Leg Jake.
I ignored Peg Leg and helped Wanda to her feet. The bony hands of Peg Leg came down on our shoulders and Peg Leg’s sharp fingernails dug into me. By now the rest of the skeleton crew had arrived. They surrounded us, nodding and grinning, their empty eye sockets dark in their white skull domes, their bony hands grasping all kinds of daggers and cutlasses. They were the scariest things I had ever seen in my life.
There was a sudden movement in the skeleton circle and I saw Billie pushing her way through. Clutched in her hand was my treasure map. Billie didn’t look at me. She just handed the map to Peg Leg and stared at the ground. In a creepy, low voice that sounded like sea washing inside a cave, Peg Leg said, “Well, well, well. This is a good night’s work, Billy boy. You have found our long-lost treasure map.”
Wanda and I looked at each other, shocked. Billie had tricked us. This was much worse than what Nosy Nora and Creepy Cora had done. We knew they weren’t our friends, but this was different. We really did think Billie was our friend.
Peg Leg’s bony hand went up to his neck and I saw he had a rusty key hanging there on a piece of old rope. He turned to his skeleton crew and said, “Well, mateys, we’ve been wanting to know where our old treasure chest lies, haven’t we? But it’s been so long we couldn’t remember where we hid it.” He sighed like the wind blowing through the trees and then all the skeletons sighed too. It was like being in the middle of a ghostly gale.
“But now, mateys,” Peg Leg said, brightening up, “not only have we got our map with all the instructions but we’ve got two new recruits into the bargain. Well done, Billy boy. I’ll let you train them up yourself.”
Billie shrugged as though she was bored with the idea of training us to be pirates. Which I suppose she was, seeing as she obviously didn’t like us one bit. “Oh, they aren’t worth bothering with,” she said. “These are just a couple of sickly orphan children. You can tell by the nasty orphanage uniforms they are wearing. They would be but poor pirates.”
I could see that Wanda was getting annoyed. I was glad that she wasn’t scared any more but I didn’t want her to say anything rude and annoy Peg Leg Jake. I need not have worried. Wanda didn’t say anything rude—she said something much more dangerous than that.
“We’d make really good pirates!” Wanda said, crossly.
Billie caught my eye with a why-is-your-friend-so-stupid? glance, and suddenly I understood. Billie was still on our side. She didn’t want us to be pirates because Billie—unlike Wanda—knew what that meant. It meant that we would have to live under the sea with all the skeletons. And in order to do that something really nasty was going to have to happen to us. We were going to have to drown.
“Well, you’re keen enough, orphan child,” Peg Leg said. “I reckon we could make good pirates of you and your scowling friend here. Don’t you, boys?”
The skeletons nodded their horrible heads.
“Come on, mateys,” Peg Leg said. “Let’s get them orphan childs down to Davy Jones’ locker.”
“What’s Davy Jones’ locker?” Wanda whispered.
Peg Leg laughed. “It’s under the sea, where drowned sailors be.”
Billie stepped in fast. “But, Peg Leg, wait! What about the treasure—how are you going to dig it up? We’re just bundles of bones. We can’t hold the shovels, can we?”
“We can hold our cutlasses all right!” said one of the skeletons.
Billie was not impressed. “That’s because you were drowned with them. But you weren’t drowned holding shovels, were you?”
The skeletons’ big empty eyes stared at Billie. I could tell they were thinking about this. “Argh …” they muttered. “Argh.”
“So the orphan children will be much more use as they are,” Billie said. “Because the poor orphans can do the digging!”
The other skeletons nodded their wobbly heads and ghostly murmurs of, “Digging … digging … orphans do the digging,” began to surround us.
“You’re a clever lad, Billy boy,” Peg Leg said. “Right, you orphans,” he said to Wanda and me. “You are coming with us. Or else.”
Now, Wanda is an odd person, which is why I like her. She is a bit of a wimp at times about spiders and bats and she says stupid things too, but if someone really annoys her, she gets picky—no matter how scary they are. So I was not surprised when Wanda said, “Or else what?”
Everything went very quiet. If skeletons could hold their breath, that is what they would have been doing right then. Suddenly there was a weird noise, like someone sawing wood, and Peg Leg let go of our shoulders and began shaking. I realised he was laughing. The sawing wood noise spread and all the other skeletons began to shake too. Wanda and I stared in amazement, hoping that maybe their bones would all fall into a big heap. But then Peg Leg stopped laughing and, as if someone had thrown a switch, the other skeletons did too.
“I like your spirit, orphan child,” Peg Leg said to Wanda. “You’ll make a fine pirate.”
“No!” Billie said. “No, she won’t!”
“Really? And what do you know about it, Billy boy?” Peg Leg looked down at Billie properly. Then suddenly he stuck out his arm and hooked his finger underneath Billie’s mother’s necklace. “What’s this?” he snarled.
If a ghost can go pale Billie did right then. “N-nothing, Peg Leg.”
Peg Leg shoved his horrible bony face into Billie’s. “You’ve been double-crossing me, Billy boy. You found the treasure already and you’ve kept it all to yourself!” He turned around to the rest of the skeleton crew. “We don’t like being double-crossed, do we, mateys?”
There was horrible rattling sound as all the skeletons shook their heads. Then a threatening murmuring began. “No, we don’t … we don’t like being double-crossed … we don’t like it at all …”
Billie looked terrified. “I haven’t double-crossed you!” she said. “This is mine. My mother gave it to me!”
Peg Leg laughed. “You never had no mother, Billy boy. You’re just a no-good runt.”
“I did have a mother, I did!” Billie shouted. “And you killed her!” Billie pulled the necklace from Peg Leg’s grasp and raced away down the beach towards the sea.
“Get him! Double-crossing little brat!” Peg Leg charged after Billie and all the pirates followed.
Five minutes earlier, if you had told me that Wanda and I would be chasing after the skeleton pirate crew instead of running away from them, I would not have believed you. But I now knew for sure that Billie was our friend. And, like I said before, you don’t leave a friend when they are in trouble.
We raced down the beach, towards the wreck of the pirate ship that lay on the sand like a huge skeleton itself. As Billie reached the ship, Peg Leg caught up with her. He grabbed her necklace and pulled it over her head and the human shape of Billie began to fade away. Very soon she was back to being just another skeleton on the beach.
“Give the necklace back!” Wanda said angrily.
Peg Leg laughed. “There will be plenty more in the treasure chest,” he said, and he put Billie’s necklace on so that it hung over the top of the rusty key. “And if Billy is a good boy I might let him have another one.” He stopped and looked at his skeleton crew. “Right, mateys!” he said. “Grab the orphan childs. They’ve got work to do.”
And before we knew what was happening, the skeletons had got us and were marching us back up the beach. As we walked past our fire I saw the last bag of gummy bears lying on the sand. Wanda looked at them longingly and then she looked up at me and whispered, “Araminta?”
“What?”
“I don’t want to be a pirate after all.”
“Good,” I told her.
“Because if I was a pirate, I’d have to be a ghost too,” she said. “And then I’d never get to eat another gummy bear ever again.”
“No,” I said. “In fact you wouldn’t get to eat anything again. Ever. So there.”
The pirates pushed us past the fire and we headed along the foot of the cliffs, towards the steps. As we climbed up the steps surrounded by skeletons I looked out to sea. I longed to see the Fat Seagull coming back to rescue us. I could just imagine it riding through the waves, with Miss Gargoyle standing in the prow like a figurehead. But all I saw was the empty sea below us and dark clouds above.
And all I could hear was the clattering of skeletons.
At the tops of the steps there were some stone picnic tables. Peg Leg stopped by the first one and said, “Guard them orphan childs, Billy boy, while I check the map.” Peg Leg’s bony hands smoothed out Uncle Drac’s treasure map and all the pirates gathered around to look at it.
Billie linked her bony little arms through ours and pretended to drag us away. When we were out of earshot of Peg Leg and his crew, she whispered, “Don’t be cross with me for giving away your map. It was the only way to save you, because only you can dig for the treasure.”
“Billie, I understand,” I whispered back. “Thank you.”
Billie smiled—well, I think she did, although it was a bit creepy really. Her teeth parted and something in her deep, dark eye sockets twinkled like eyes do when someone nice is smiling. “I am so pleased you understand,” she whispered. “I thought you might think I was being horrible.”
“No, I didn’t think that,” I said. “Well, only for a minute or so.”
A lot of bad words were now coming from the pirate skeletons. They were arguing about the best way to get to the treasure. One of them took a knife from between his teeth and shoved it into the ribs of another one, who laughed and said, “Too late for that, Jim mate.”
“The longer they argue, the better,” Billie told us. “What we have to do is keep them busy until the sun rises, when Peg Leg and all the pirates … and me too … have to go back under the sea. Then you’ll be safe.”
Wanda looked at her pink fairy watch and from her expression I could tell that the pink fairy’s wings were not doing what she had hoped. “It’s ages until the sun rises,” she said.
“So you will have to take ages digging for the treasure,” Billie said.
Wanda frowned. “But I don’t want to dig for treasure,” she said in a moany voice.
“It’s either that or becoming a little skeleton pirate, Wanda,” I told her. “You choose.”
Wanda sighed. “All right then,” she said as though she was doing me a really big favour, “I’ll dig for treasure.”
The pirates had stopped arguing and Peg Leg was waving the treasure map in the air. “Follow me, mateys,” he was saying. “Off to the secret valley, where our treasure lies waiting for us.” He swung around and yelled, “Billy boy!”
“Aye, aye, Captain Peg Leg!” Billie said. She sounded really keen, just like a cabin boy should.
“Bring them orphan childs over here, we’re off to get our treasure.” Peg Leg laughed. “Oh, it be a good night, that’s for sure: finding our treasure and two new recruits. Things is looking up for the crew of the Cutlass Kate, ain’t they, boys?”
The skeletons nodded and rattled like a bag of knitting needles. “Three cheers for Peg Leg!” one of them shouted.
“Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!” The skeletons’ empty, echoing voices drifted into the night and we heard Billie’s thin, sad little voice cheering too. If any of the skeletons had bothered to listen, they would have known there was no w
ay she meant it.
We set off across the top of the island. Peg Leg led the way. Billie followed, holding on to me and Wanda. All the skeletons bunched up around us, their bones making clicky-clacky sounds as they walked, and at the end of the line—making sure we didn’t run away—came the fierce pirate with the knife between his teeth, the one they called Jim. Clouds were scudding across the sky, but the full moon shone brightly so we could easily see where we were going. The wind was blowing harder now and I could not help but notice that out to sea, in the direction that Baby Bat had flown, dark clouds were piled high and there were more ominous flashes of lightning. We hurried across the open grass and headed into a copse of small trees that were stooped like little old men after years of being blown by gales.
There was another distant clap of thunder as Peg Leg led the way down a zigzag path that dropped into a steep-sided, wooded valley, which I knew was labelled “Secret Valley” on the map. We could hear the gurgling of a stream below now and as we walked down the path the trees loomed over us, their branches swaying in the wind and casting moving shadows like huge grasping fingers over the path. It was very creepy. I glanced at Wanda and she looked back at me with big scared eyes. I can tell you, it is not at all fun walking into a spooky, rustling valley by moonlight with a crew of skeleton pirates.
After a while the valley opened out and we could see the glimmer of the sea ahead. And silhouetted against it was the forked shape of a lightning-struck tree.
“There it is, mateys,” said Peg Leg. “The forked tree. Remember?”
There was a little clattering noise as the skeleton crew nodded their skulls and picked up speed.