by Tony Abbott
Then Zeek leaned over my shoulder. “Well, come on. Are you going to do it, or not?”
I smiled and opened the chest.
But then Zeek did it again. Clutzy thing number two.
He stuck his head right into the opening. He screamed. And he jumped back into me.
I tumbled backward. My arms went flying. I grabbed on to the roof branches to catch my balance.
Zeek grabbed on to me.
The vines holding the roof snapped.
The roof slid off.
And we went with it.
FIVE
“It was him! It was him! I saw him, the dead guy, in the box. It was horrible!”
Zeek didn’t get it.
Not right away.
It took him a second. Then he went quiet.
And he looked down.
“Noodle?” he said quietly. “We’re not in the tree house anymore, are we?”
Bingo! He finally got it.
But I didn’t answer him. I was too busy trying to hold on to the tree house roof. Just why I was holding on to it, I didn’t know. It made us fall even faster.
“We’re falling, and we’re going to die!” I screamed.
Suddenly, the sail in the roof puffed up with air. Hot ocean air. We stopped falling so fast. In fact, we stopped falling at all.
The sail caught a breeze and pulled us up. We soared around the tree and up to the left.
“Hey, we’re hang gliding!” I cried.
“You’re gliding, I’m hanging! Pull it up, Noodle!”
I looked down. Zeek was hugging my knees. His feet were kicking through the treetops as we drifted over them.
“Hey,” I called down to him. “You think I like this? I told you I don’t like heights. We wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t …”
Then he started to wiggle.
“Don’t do that!” I cried.
“I can’t not do it! I’ll fall if I don’t do it! Help! Noodle, I’m slipping!”
Zeek slid down to my ankles.
“Just don’t grab my sneakers,” I yelled. “The laces aren’t—whoa!”
The wind caught us again, and we sailed clear up over the island.
That’s when I saw it.
“Zeekie! Look!”
There, under the blue water, about a hundred feet below the surface, was a long, dark shadow.
Even from way up there I knew what it was.
“Zeek! It’s a ship! It’s Captain May’s ship! We found it. We found it!”
“Uh-huh. That’s nice,” Zeek squeaked. He was still wiggling at my ankles.
But that wasn’t the only thing I saw. There was a campfire smoking on the beach below. And in a cove nearby, some men were moving around. Some of them had scuba diving gear on.
And not only that. A high-powered motorboat came growling into the cove.
Whoosh! A quick breeze pushed us back around and over the trees.
“I knew it, Zeek! I knew something cool would happen. You just have to wait. Talk about different! This is different, all right. It might even be scary, even though scary is not on your list.”
“Noodle? We’re flying a little low.”
“And of course, you can’t really scare Danger Guys. No way.”
“Watch where you’re going, okay?”
“But it might even be getting a little fun. I think it’s getting fun. Do you think it’s getting fun?”
“Noodle, pull it up!”
“Listen, Zeek. It’s pretty clear what we have to do. Those guys are up to no good. And we’ve got to—”
“NOOOOOODLE!”
SIX
Wham!
we hit a tree.
Wham!
We hit another tree.
Wham!
We hit a third tree, I let go of the sail, and we dropped like a sack of stones.
The last thing I saw as I looked up was the sail gliding on over the treetops.
We ripped down through the tree branches and landed headfirst in a bush.
I stood up. Zeek stood up right next to me. He looked okay, but then he did something weird.
“Noodle! Where are you?” he yelled, as if I were a mile away.
“Right here. Where do you think?”
He turned and looked straight into my face. “Whoa!” he said. “I didn’t see you!” Then he started to crack up.
“What’s so funny?”
“You! Jungle Man!”
I looked down. It was true. Big leaves, vines, and branches were sticking out of my shorts, through my hair, and in my socks. I was totally camouflaged!
“Yeah, it’s the latest.” I went to pull off the junk.
“No,” said Zeek. “Keep it on! We can sneak up on these guys, and they won’t even see us.”
Then Zeek ripped some leaves off the bush he was standing in. He jammed them into his shirt.
“Okay, now we’re ready!”
“Not quite,” I said. I picked up a handful of dirt and smeared Zeek’s face with it.
“Commandos!” I said.
Then Zeek smeared me.
“Hey, pal,” I said. “Is it fun yet?”
“Yeah,” said Zeek. “It’s getting there.”
Slowly we made our way down to the beach. We didn’t make a sound. When we passed by, not even a leaf moved. We were good.
Then I froze. I held up my hand.
The camp was just a few feet away. The motorboat was moored in the cove nearby.
I looked around. Three men were moving crates and underwater equipment to the boat.
I nodded at Zeek. He nodded back.
We moved up slowly. We stood right next to a leafy tree, held our breaths, and listened.
One big guy with silver hair picked up a crate near the campfire. He sang a song as he brought it over to the boat.
“Many brave hearts are asleep
In the Deep.
So, beware!”
A man with a little thin mustache stopped what he was doing and stared at the first guy.
“Stop it. You know this island is haunted.”
“Beware!” the other man sang again. Then he laughed.
“Well, there is a ghost,” Mustache said. “And he’s angry we’re messing around with his treasure. Heck, I feel like someone’s watching us right now!”
I nudged Zeek. It was hard not to smile.
Just then, a strange shadow passed over the camp. It was gone in a second.
“Wooooooo!” said the first man, laughing. “Maybe that was your ghost!”
“Shut up, both of you!” grunted a heavy bald guy in scuba gear. “Here comes the Boss!”
Suddenly, they all started hustling around. The Boss was walking up the beach.
I expected a big ugly guy with a scar on his face.
I was wrong. The Boss wasn’t big. The Boss wasn’t ugly. And the Boss wasn’t a guy!
The Boss was a woman. She looked like a TV actress, with lots of big blond hair. She wore black scuba gear with red stripes up the sides.
“Get to work, you bums!” she growled. “This whole place goes up in an hour!”
“Goes up?” Zeek whispered. “What does she mean goes up?”
I shrugged my branches.
The Boss pulled something from a little pack she had. “I’ll find more of these if I have to blast that wreck to smithereens!”
Then she tossed the thing onto a crate. It spun there for a second then flattened. I squinted through my leaves.
“GOLD! Zeek! Look! A gold coin! I knew it! I told you there was treasure!”
Suddenly, things got very quiet. Everyone looked over at where I was standing.
“Hey!” shouted the bald guy. “Did that tree say something?”
Zeek tore off into the bushes.
“It’s the ghost!” Mustache cried.
But the silver-haired guy knew better. Before I could move an inch, he had leaped over the campfire and grabbed me.
Suddenly, some kind of big round nut drop
ped from the tree.
Bonk!
The guy stopped pulling. He smiled at me. Then his eyes closed. And he fell backward.
“Way to go, Zeekman!” I yelled out.
I was about to dash into the jungle when I heard the leaves rustling above me. I looked up.
Bonk!
The last thing I heard was Zeek saying something like “Sorry, Noodle!”
Then everything went dark.
SEVEN
When I woke up, there was a plate of steaming, hot waffles in front of me. My favorite food! I could smell the butter melting.
Someone was pouring syrup on the waffles and handing me a fork.
Only I couldn’t move my hands. I tugged and tugged but I couldn’t get at those waffles.
That’s when I really woke up.
The waffles disappeared right away. And the smell wasn’t butter, but something stinky burning on the campfire.
I couldn’t move my hands because they were tied. My head hurt, too. And boy, was I hungry!
But first things first.
I looked around. Zeek wasn’t anywhere. But everybody else was. Maybe they would just take their gold and go.
That’s when the Boss said something that sent chills up my spine.
“No more little blasts, you guys. I want another five hundred pounds of dynamite in that wreck. Let’s blow that old hulk out of the water now!”
“But …” the mustache guy said. “Five hundred pounds? That will make a blast so big … it’ll cause a tidal wave!”
So that’s it! Suddenly all the pieces fit.
The big Golden Crest waves were caused by underwater explosions. But they’d be like bathtub splashes next to the blast she was talking about.
“So what!” the Boss snapped back. “Ka-boom! One little town on the coast gets washed away. Who cares?”
I couldn’t take it. “I care, lady!” I shouted at her. “And Zeek cares too! Gold doesn’t mean anything when people’s lives are at stake!”
I tried to wiggle free, but the knots were tight.
“Shut up, small fry,” the Boss growled at me. “Or your next word will be your last.” Then she tossed a nasty looking black dart gun over to Mustache. It was the kind divers use to protect themselves from sharks. “Shoot him with a stun dart if he tries anything funny.”
The Boss walked over to the boat with the other two men. That left Mustache keeping his eye on me.
This little adventure had just turned serious.
Then I got an idea.
“Hey,” I said to Mustache. “You’re right about that ghost. I saw him too. Big guy. Ugly. With a skull for a head.”
“Aw, don’t talk about it. Or do I have to tie up your mouth, too?”
Good. It was working. I was trying to scare him so he’d make a mistake. Then I’d run for it. “Slimy eyeballs! And creepy bloody—!”
“Aaaaaaeeee!” A horrible cry echoed through the cove.
Everybody looked up.
“Aaaaaaeeee!”
There, on the cliff above the cove, stood a ghostly figure. It looked like a skeleton with creepy old clothes hanging off it. And it had a huge sword in its hand!
“The ghost!” Mustache yelled. He took off for the boat.
I wanted to do the same thing. That ghost was right out of the kind of horror movie I’m not allowed to watch!
But I couldn’t get up.
“Aaaaaaeeee!”
Everybody picked up their underwater stun guns and started firing at the ghost.
Fwing! Zing!
The ghost struck quickly. It leaped off the cliff, its giant cutlass flashing.
Plonk! Silver-Hair’s stun gun went flying.
Pwing!-splash! Baldy dove face first in the sand as the ghost knocked his gun into the water.
“Aaaaaaeeee!” the ghost screamed its ugly scream again. My blood ran cold.
It swooped down on me now. I couldn’t move. It raised the gigantic sword.
I shut my eyes.
Chomp!
EIGHT
The blade flashed down inches from my neck.
It missed me.
But suddenly, my hands were free. I tried to run before the ghost hacked me for real.
Too late. It grabbed me and pulled me up into the air. It stuck its creepy mouth in my ear. It spoke to me.
“Noodle! You okay?”
“Zeekie!” I yelled. “It’s you! It’s—! But how did you—? I mean, where did you—?”
Whoom! The vine we were swinging on pulled tight, and we started to swoop back up to the cliff.
“The chest in the tree house!” Zeek shouted. “It wasn’t a dead guy, it was his clothes!”
Suddenly, the motorboat roared into life.
My brain worked lightning fast. I had to tell Zeek everything I knew in a split second. But all that came out was: “Dynamite! Explosion! Tidal wave! MAYVILLE!”
I grabbed Zeek’s huge sword from him. I aimed it at the vine just above us.
“Noodle? What are you doing? Noodle!”
Chomp!
Zeek looked at me as we fell. His mouth opened wide. He screamed.
But I think he understood.
Wump! Wump! I had timed it perfectly. We fell right into the boat, just as the Boss steered it out of the cove.
Zeek in his yucky old ghost clothes dropped right on Mustache. The guy freaked. Then he fainted.
I landed on Silver-Hair and knocked him over.
“Quick!” yelled Zeek as Baldy came for him. “What’s the plan?”
“Part One!” I yelled, tossing the sword back to him. “You hold them off while I grab some scuba gear!”
He made a face, but swung the cutlass, and Baldy backed away. That gave me time to grab two masks, a couple of oxygen tanks, and some flippers.
“Part Two. We dive!”
Then that dark shadow passed overhead. Baldy and the Boss looked up.
Splash! We disappeared into the water before they knew it. The boat tore off toward the wreck.
We swam to shore dragging the scuba gear.
“Quick,” I said. “Suit up before they blast.”
The flipper feet were big on us, but we strapped them tight. Then we pulled on the heavy oxygen tanks.
“Wait a minute,” said Zeek. “What am I doing? I barely remember how any of this stuff works. Besides, I really hate to get wet, remember?”
I looked at Zeek and patted him on the back. “Trust me on this one, pal.” I sucked on the spout that came from the mouthpiece. “You just do this. Remember?” I had dragged Zeek to scuba lessons a couple of summers ago.
He took a quick breath and smiled. “Oh, yeah. It’s all coming back to me.”
“And another thing,” I said. “If something cool happens down there, don’t give me the thumbs-up.”
“Um … Give me a hint …”
“Because underwater, thumbs up means to go to the surface. Do this instead.” I made a circle with my thumb and forefinger and stuck my other fingers straight up. “This is the okay sign.”
“Cool. The bunny sign.”
“Very funny. And this,” I said, running my finger across my throat, “means …”
“Something uncool. I remember already,” Zeek said. “Noodle, wait. What’s the plan?”
The truth? I didn’t have a plan. And Zeek wouldn’t go for something dumb like Stop Those Bombers!
So I just smiled a big smile, snapped my face mask down, gave Zeek the new okay sign, and dove out into deep water.
A second later he was beside me. Yeah, I guess we’re a team, no matter what.
It was a whole different world down there. The water was warm and green. Blue light rippled through it. It was beautiful, all right.
Then there it was, dead ahead. The wreck.
The long wooden ship was lying on its side. The hull was still together. Old ghostly rigging hung off the mast and quivered in the water.
Then we froze. The motorboat roared just above us. The motor s
hut off.
Three splashes. The Boss, Baldy, and Silver-Hair all dove in. They carried a black bundle.
Dynamite!
Maybe they won’t see us, I thought.
Fwing! A stun dart whizzed by my face mask!
Okay, so they saw us! We took off into the wreck. It was cramped and creepy in there. We swam up stairways and through hatches, paddling our flippers as fast as we could.
But Baldy was after us as though he had a motor strapped on him.
We just managed to escape out a tiny hole when everything went white with light. And two giant eyeballs glared at us from the depths.
The sea monster!
It shot up from the shadows.
Zeek looked at me with wide eyes and started for the surface.
He didn’t make it. A huge snakelike arm snapped out and grabbed his leg in its claw.
Clamp! Now it had me by the leg.
It was pulling us down.
I caught a last glimpse of Zeek as the shadows closed on him.
He was running his finger slowly across his throat.
NINE
“Zeekie!” I bubbled.
The monster’s slimy arms dragged us down under its belly. We were locked tight in the grip of its claws.
Down we went.
I was waiting for huge jaws to open and for us to be eaten like little bugs.
But that didn’t happen.
When we got down under the belly, I couldn’t believe it. The bottom of the monster opened up, and the arms lifted us into some kind of small room.
Hey, I thought, monsters don’t have rooms. Especially metal rooms, with ladders running up the side.
The claws let go, the floor closed up beneath us, and the water started to drain out.
I tore off my mask. Zeek did the same.
“Hey, Nood!” he said. “I figured it out. This is no monster! It’s a … well, it’s a …” He looked at me to fill in the word.
“Submarine?”
“That’s it. Some kind of mini-submarine.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Pretty exciting, no?”
“You bet!” he smiled. “But really, who’s …”
Krrreeekkk! The hatchway at the top of the ladder started to turn. It flipped open.
A face poked through the hole.
“You boys okay?”
“Mrs. Emerson!” Zeek and I shouted together. “Boy, are we glad to see you!” We started jumping up and down.