X Marks the Spot (3 page)

And the captain stood in the hall, his eyes blazing.

“What! What!” he boomed. “Into my chest, are you!”

“We didn't see anything!” I said, jumping to my feet.

But the pirate's rage was terrible. He sprang into the room, drew his cutlass, and rushed at us.

Seconds before I became a Devin deli sandwich, he froze in his tracks. His eyes flashed. “No, no—listen!”

A faint sound was coming from the road outside the inn.
Tap, tap, tap
.

The pirate shuddered with terror. “They're coming! It's my chest they want. The lubbers are coming for me!”

“Lubbers?” asked Frankie.

“Old Captain Flint's crew, what's left of them. I was first mate of Captain Flint, that ice-hearted buccaneer of death. I'm the only one who knows the place. He gave it to me in Savannah when he was dying—”

“The place? What place?” Frankie asked.

“Excuse me,” I interrupted, “but what's this ‘it' everybody keeps talking about? Are we talking actual buried treasure?”

“Treasure? Aye …” the captain murmured. “And now they'll tip the old black spot on me. The spot!”

“What's the old black spot?” asked Frankie.

“It's a call,” said the man, his voice growing fainter, almost to a whisper. “It's a summons ….”

Tap, tap, tap
.

No sooner had we heard this noise, than the front door burst open yet again.

“Jim's wrong about this place,” I said. “It's very popular—”

Leaving the captain upstairs, we raced down to see a yellow-faced man, skinny and stooped over. He was dressed like our pirate, but was about half his size. He also smelled pretty bad. And he was plainly blind, for he tapped his way into the room using a crooked stick.

Even though he couldn't see, his hand suddenly reached out and grabbed Frankie by the arm as if he'd known she was there.

“Oww,” she said. “You're hurting me.”

“Take me to Billy Bones!” said the blind stranger.

At the mention of his name, our favorite pirate clomped down the stairs and into the room.

Seeing the blind man there, all at once, the color drained from his face.

“Pew!” he said.

“I'll say!” I said. “Pirates don't wash much, do they?”

“No, no, that's the blind man's name. Thomas Pew,” said the captain, his voice hoarse with fear.

“Hold out your hand, Billy Bones!” said the blind man.

Like a robot, Billy stepped forward, scraping his boots on the floor as if he didn't want to go, but had to.

Pew stuffed a small sheet of paper into the pirate's hand, which closed on it instantly.

“Now that's done,” said the blind man. He suddenly let go of Frankie and with awesome speed skipped out of the Inn and back to the road where his stick went tap-tap-tapping away into the distance.

Captain Billy slowly unclenched his fist and looked at the paper in his palm. “Ten o'clock! They will come for me then. It's so soon, so soo—soo—soon!”

With that, he put his hand to his throat, made a small gargling noise, staggered once, and crumpled to the floor.

Totally dead.

Chapter 5

I was quaking all over when Jim rushed into the room, his eyes red, his cheeks wet.

“My father …” he said, “my father just died…”

“That makes two,” said Frankie, the book trembling in her hands. “I'm sorry, Jim. Take a look.”

Despite his grief, Jim knelt next to Billy Bones. The pirate didn't move a muscle.

“He just keeled over,” I said. “What killed him?”

“My father died in peace,” said Jim Hawkins. “But this is something else. You can see it in his eyes. The captain died of fright. He was scared … to death.”

“Oh, great. Just what I'm feeling now,” I mumbled. “What should we do?”

Jim's mother burst into the room, still crying about Mr. Hawkins. When she saw Billy Bones lying there, she knew. “So they came for him, finally. Well, there is no help for the old pirate now.”

Jim took up a little round piece of paper from the floor. On one side it said, “You have till ten o'clock.”

The other side was all black.

“The black spot,” I said. “Now, that's fairly creepy.”

Mrs. Hawkins wiped her cheeks. “It's a call to us, too,” she said. “The others will come for what he was hiding in that chest. But before they come, I want what the captain owes us, not a penny more. Children, we must open the box—”

Leaving the captain there, we all went up to his room and knelt around the big wooden chest. Mrs. Hawkins took hold of the heavy lid and threw it back.

It was not crammed with treasure.

On top lay a suit of clothes, folded nicely.

“So neatness
is
on the pirate to-do list,” said Frankie.

Beneath the clothes was a bunch of small stuff—two pouches of tobacco, a couple of shiny pistols, a small bar of silver, an old watch, beach shells, some trinkets, and souvenirs of a traveling life—and, at the bottom, a bundle tied up in leather and a little cloth pouch that jingled when we took it out.

“Doesn't exactly sound like feathers,” I mumbled.

“Or lots of money, either,” said Mrs. Hawkins, opening the pouch. “I'll just take what we're due.” She spilled out the coins into her palm. They were of all shapes and sizes and amounts, from many different countries around the world.

“Look, Dev,” said Frankie. “Actual treasure!”

“I'm looking,” I said.

Jim just shook his head. “So, Captain Bones really was a pirate. He must have gotten these from foreign ships he plundered.”

“It's great-looking stuff,” I said. “But it really isn't all that much treasure. Why was he so nuts about this chest? And why do his old boat chums want to—”

I froze. In the silent, frosty air I heard a sound that pretty much stopped my heart.

Tap, tap, tap
.

“The blind guy!” I gasped. “He's coming back!”

Then we heard noises at the windows in the back of the inn.

“He's not alone,” said Frankie. “They're all around us!”

Jim dashed to the front window. “There are ten of them on the road. They have guns and swords.”

“Down with the door!” a rough voice cried out.

Whump! Whump
! The timbers of the old inn shook.

“Quickly now,” said Jim, helping his mother up. “Out the side window and onto the roof!”

Mrs. Hawkins trembled. “But your poor father—”

Whump!
The doors quaked.

“We have to stay alive, mother,” said Jim. “Let's go!”

“What about the chest?” Frankie asked. “What are the pirates after?”

“Nothing that I can see,” said Jim. “Except perhaps this.” He snatched up the leather pouch from the bottom of the box and stuffed it into his shirt. “Come on, everyone, follow me—”

With a finger to his lips, and his hand on his mother's arm, Jim darted out of the room and down the hall to the end of the building. There, he opened a small window and climbed onto a slanted roof. Reaching back through, he helped his mother out. Frankie and I followed after. As quietly as we could, we crawled across the roof to the edge and dropped to the ground.

We heard the call, “Pew! They've robbed the chest!”

“Is it there?” cried the blind man. “Is it there?”

“The money's there,” the first called back.

“Curse the money!” cried Pew. “I need Flint's pouch!”

“They took it!”

“You fools!” the blind man growled. “You'd be as rich as kings if you could find the pouch, and yet you stand there! Find them! Find them—and get me Captain Flint's treasure pouch!”

Just then, we heard the sound of horses, lots of them. “Pirates on horses?” I said. “Now, we're doomed!”

“Not pirates,” said Jim's mother. “Our neighbors!”

It was their neighbors, a ragtag bunch of regular guys coming to the rescue. We cheered as they swung their rakes and shovels and knocked the pirates down.

“Yahoo, the cavalry comes in the nick of time!” I said.

In the battle Pew didn't make out so well. He fled when he heard the horses, but made a mistake and fled
toward
the horses. Not a good move. He got totally trampled.

The other pirates took to their heels, chased by the neighbors all the way down to a little cove where a ship was waiting for them. We watched from above as the buccaneers scurried aboard the ship and sailed it out of the cove before anyone could stop them.

“I don't think we've seen the last of them,” I said.

“Anyway, we got the pouch!” Frankie said.

Jim removed the leather pouch from his shirt and stared at it. “Let's find Dr. Livesey,” he said. “He's staying at the local squire's house. He'll know what to do.”

“Go, go,” urged Jim's mom. “I'll stay with our good friends here. You go and find out what this pouch is all about. Hurry!”

The neighbors agreed to take care of Jim's mom while Frankie, Jim, and I ran through the English countryside to find Dr. Livesey.

Chapter 6

Squire Trelawney's big house stood in the middle of what looked like a park, but was really just the guy's front yard.

When we barged in, we found Dr. Livesey nestled in a thick leather chair looking bored, while Squire Trelawney, a pale, thin man, was posing in front of his fireplace, saying, “I have this jacket in three colors!”

I held up my hand. “Sorry, but we have to break up this fashion show—”

“Jim, children!” said the doctor, jumping from his chair. “What brings you here so late at night?”

“The blind guy!” Frankie blurted out.

“A blind man brought you here?” said the squire, his eyes bugging out. “How amazing! I've never known blind men to lead people anywhere!”

If the squire seemed a little light in the head, the doctor was the total opposite, all business.

“Never mind about that,” he said firmly. “Sit down and tell us what happened.” We did both.

I told the story about the blind man and the black spot, including a pretty exciting bit where I made the
tap-tap-tap
sound. Frankie added the part about the raid on the Admiral Benbow inn, and Jim finished off by handing over the leather pouch he had taken from the pirate's chest.

“We're pretty sure this is what the buccaneers were after,” said Frankie. “They were supermad when they couldn't find it.”

Carefully, the doctor opened the pouch. Inside were two things—a book and a sealed paper.

“Now we find out what these dark-hearted buccaneers were after,” the doctor said. “The book first.”

On the first page, there were only some small blotches of writing, like when you try out a new pen. But the inside pages were chock-full of dates and amounts of money and the names of ships and islands and other places. It went on for many pages.

“Humf! I wouldn't want to read that book,” said the squire with a big frown. “That book has no story at all.”

“No story?” said the doctor. “Ha! It tells a fascinating story. This is Billy Bones's account book. The entries on these pages stand for the names of ships or towns that he and his wretched Captain Flint plundered. And the money is what Billy Bones took away for himself.”

“Oh! I've heard of Flint,” said the squire. “He was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer who ever sailed in those … er … things that sail—”

“Ships?” said the doctor.

“Those!” affirmed the squire. “They say that Blackbeard was a mere child compared to Flint. Legend has it that his treasure is in the hundreds of thousands of pounds—quite a fortune of riches, I say!”

“Quite so,” said the doctor. “And now, for the paper.”

Because the paper was folded and sealed with wax in several places, the doctor took his time opening it.

When he finally did, we all gasped.

“It's a map!” said the squire.

On the paper was drawn the squiggly shape of an island, with notes about where it was located. The hills and bays and inlets of the island were named, along with info about how to get a ship to the place.

“Astounding!” said the doctor. “Notice the three crosses in red ink on the map. Two on the north part of the island, one in the southwest. And written next to the third are the words ‘bulk of treasure here.'”

“An island of treasure!” said the squire. “I say, let's call it—Island of Treasure!”

Frankie rolled her eyes and held up the book. “Um, how about, Treasure Island?”

“Ooh!” said the squire. “I like that better! Treasure Island. Well, I mean to say, after all, what are we doing here when there is huge treasure to be won? For that's what this map is, you know! Directions to the most marvelous treasure ever amassed by a buccaneer!”

“Yes, perhaps,” said the doctor, “but—”

The squire began jumping around like a nut. “No, no, it's all decided. Tomorrow I start for Bristol. That's right! And in three weeks—no, two weeks—ten days—ha! one day—well, perhaps not one day—I shall outfit the best one of those … those … wooden … water … things ….”

“Ships?” I said.

“One of those!” the squire went on. “With lots of those white cloth things that, you know, fill up with wind—”

“Sails?” said Frankie.

“Exactly!” said the squire, beaming. “And the very best bunch of people who know how to move the ship—”

The doctor sighed. “The crew?”

“The crew! And Hawkins shall be cabin boy! And his friends, Frankie and Devin, shall come! And you, doctor, shall be the ship's … medical … fixing person—”

The doctor rubbed his forehead. “The doctor?”

“Yes, yes! And all in a week! Well, ten days! All right, two weeks! But I shall be the admiral of our voyage! I shall give apples to all the crew. They will love me for it. We'll have favorable winds! We have the map! We shall find the treasure, the huge, huge treasure—”