by Ron Roy
“Can we stay for the meeting?” Ruth Rose asked.
“Of course!” her grandmother said. “After you read those books, I expect you to ask intelligent questions!”
The kids took their books out to the front porch.
“Look,” Josh said. “There’s a whole chapter just about Mel Fisher.”
Ruth Rose pointed to a map showing sunken ships. “They’re all off the coast of Florida,” she said. “If each one has treasure on it, think how much that is!”
Josh lay back on the porch and closed his eyes. “I’m staying here when you guys go back home. I’m gonna become a treasure hunter!”
Dink laughed. “You find treasure? You couldn’t find your shorts this morning, Josh!”
Josh jabbed Dink with his knee. “Call me Captain Josh, please!”
Just then, a car pulled up. Two gray-haired women climbed out and hurried toward the house.
“I’m going in to help Gram,” Ruth Rose said.
“We’ll help, too,” said Dink. He nudged Josh. “Come on, Captain Josh!”
Before they could go inside, a yellow cab stopped out front. Spike and Chip climbed out. Spike was carrying a wooden box. They were both dressed in clean pants, pressed shirts, and sandals.
“Hi!” Josh said as the two men walked up the sidewalk.
Spike and Chip stared at the kids. Finally, Chip waved. “How’re you doing? Do you guys live around here?”
Ruth Rose laughed. “No. We’re visiting my grandmother. This is her house!”
Spike smiled. “What a small world,” he said.
“Can I carry the box in?” Josh asked.
Spike shrugged. “It’s pretty heavy.”
“I can help,” Dink said. They ran down the sidewalk, and Spike handed them the box.
Josh grinned as they lugged the heavy box up the steps. “My fingers feel all tingly!” he said.
Gram Hathaway’s living room was crowded with people. Spike and Chip sat at a small table with the box in front of them. Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose perched on the stairs.
“Thank you all for coming!” Gram told everyone. Then she smiled at Spike. He stood up.
“Thanks for inviting us,” Spike said. “Chip and I have been diving for a few years now. A couple weeks ago, we found a sunken ship.”
Chip opened the box. Spike reached in and pulled out a gold cross, about eight inches tall. The gold shone warmly in the sunny room.
Someone said, “Oh, my goodness!” Spike gently laid the cross on the table.
Next he brought out a shiny hunk of silver, about the size of a big bar of soap. Then he spread a handful of gold coins on the table.
“There’s a lot more down there,” he continued. “We’ve found chains, silver goblets, even jewelry.”
Gram’s friends got out of their seats and crowded around Spike and Chip.
“May we touch it?” one woman asked.
Spike laughed. “Can’t hurt it, ma’am. It’s been on the bottom of the ocean for almost four hundred years!”
Josh was standing up so he could see. Gram Hathaway’s friends were passing around the gold and silver.
“Um, Spike?” Josh said. “How did you get it so clean? Wouldn’t it have barnacles and stuff all over it?”
Spike grinned. “Good question,” he said. “First we soak the pieces, then we rub them with regular old vinegar. You’d be surprised how easily it cleans up.”
Ruth Rose’s hand shot up. “Can I ask a question?”
Spike nodded. “Ask away.”
“It took Mel Fisher twenty years to find his sunken ship,” said Ruth Rose. “How did you find yours so quickly?”
Spike smiled. “I guess we were just lucky,” he said.
“And we had good maps,” Chip added.
Spike turned back to the group. “I hope you’ll all consider investing with us,” he said. “Once we can buy some more equipment, we’ll start bringing up some serious treasure.”
Ruth Rose’s grandmother stood up. “Why don’t we have refreshments now?” she said.
Everyone began talking and filling small plates with cookies. Ruth Rose went into the kitchen for the lemonade.
Dink and Josh stayed on the stairs, near the table of goodies.
Spike and Chip stepped over to the refreshment table. Dink watched Spike take a few cookies.
“‘These cookies are loaded with chocolate chips,” Spike whispered to his friend.
Dink was about to say something to Spike, but he stopped. He knew he had heard those words before!
Dink closed his eyes and tried to remember the voice he’d overheard in the airport. Dink was positive the man had said “…those cookies are loaded.”
Dink was almost sure it had been the same voice!
He looked down for a tattoo, but Spike’s pants covered his ankles.
The sandals looked the same. But a lot of people in Florida wore brown leather sandals.
“What’s the matter?” Ruth Rose asked Dink. “You look like you smelled something rotten.”
Dink stood up. “Come outside,” he whispered. “It’s important!”
Josh and Ruth Rose followed Dink through the living room to the porch. They sat on the front steps.
“What’s going on?” Josh asked. “I wasn’t through with those cookies!”
“Remember the guy I told you about at the airport yesterday?” Dink asked. “Talking on the phone?”
Ruth Rose grinned. “Yeah, the cook you thought was planning a robbery.”
Dink turned around and looked through the screen door. “I think it was Spike!”
Josh and Ruth Rose just stared at Dink.
Finally, Josh said, “What are you talking about, Dinkus?”
“I recognized his voice!” Dink said. “The guy at the airport said the same thing, that some old cookies were loaded.”
Josh shook his head. “So?”
“Don’t you see?” Dink said. “Maybe he meant Gram Hathaway’s friends are loaded—loaded with money!”
Suddenly, the door opened, and Gram’s friends began coming out. They all seemed excited about investing with Spike and Chip.
Then Spike and Chip came out carrying the box of gold. Gram Hathaway followed them onto the porch.
“Thanks for calling us a cab, Mrs. Hathaway” Spike said. “Do you really think your friends will help us out?”
Gram Hathaway smiled. “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised. I’m going to talk to my banker on Monday morning!”
A yellow cab pulled up, and Spike and Chip climbed in with the box. They waved out the window as the cab sped away.
“Wasn’t that fun!” Ruth Rose’s grandmother said. She stepped back into the house. “There are plenty of goodies left if anyone is hungry!” she called through the screen door.
“Thanks, Gram!” Ruth Rose said.
“She’s pretty excited,” she added after her grandmother had gone inside.
“I would be, too, if I was gonna get rich,” Josh said.
Dink stood up. “Well, I don’t think she’s gonna get rich,” he said. “I think she’s gonna get robbed!”
“ROBBED!” Ruth Rose yelled.
“Yeah,” Dink said. “Spike and Chip could just take off with your grandmother’s money.”
“But what about all that gold they just showed us?” Josh asked.
Dink shook his head. “I don’t know about that, but I do know what I heard.”
“You know what you thought you heard,” Josh said. “Besides, you don’t know it was Spike. You never saw the guy on the phone.”
“But I did see his feet!” Dink said. He told Josh and Ruth Rose about the tattoo he’d seen on the man’s ankle.
“It’s a good thing I’m such an observant young man,” Josh said. “I know how we can settle this whole thing.”
“How?” Ruth Rose asked.
“By finding out if it really was Spike that Dink heard on the phone.”
Dink looked at him. “And how do we do t
hat, oh observant one?”
Josh grinned. “Easy. We get Spike to show us his tattoo!”
“Good idea,” Dink said. “Let’s go to the dock.”
“Hold on,” Ruth Rose said. She opened the screen door, grabbed some towels, and yelled, “GRAM, WE’RE GOING TO THE BEACH!”
Ruth Rose tossed towels to Dink and Josh as they walked down the side-walk. “What if Spike’s still wearing long pants?” she asked.
“Dink will think of something,” Josh said. He grinned at Dink. “Right?”
Dink shook his head. “This was your idea. Besides, you’re the observant one!”
They thought about it as they walked. When they reached the boat dock, they still hadn’t figured out what to do.
“I know,” Josh said. “I’ll tell him Dink is thinking of getting a tattoo! Then Spike will show us his!”
Dink laughed. “Kids can’t get tattoos, Josh,” he said.
A few moments later, the kids reached Spike and Chip’s boat slip. But the boat wasn’t there.
“They’re gone!” Ruth Rose said.
“Now what?” Dink asked. “Should we wait till they come back in?”
“Why don’t we hang out at the beach for a while?” Josh suggested. “That way we can have fun and watch for the boat at the same time.”
“Okay” Ruth Rose said. “But we can’t stay out late. Gram will worry.”
“Last one in kisses pelicans!” Josh yelled. He thundered down the dock and leaped onto the beach.
The kids swam, searched for shells, and buried Josh in the sand. By five o’clock, their skin was itchy with sun-burn and salt.
“Look, isn’t that their boat?” Ruth Rose asked.
A white boat was pulling in at the end of the dock.
“I think it is!” Josh said. “Come on!”
The kids ran back along the dock. They reached the boat as Chip was securing the lines. Spike was behind the wheel, just shutting down the motor.
Both men were wearing T-shirts and jeans. Spike’s ankles were covered.
“Did you go diving?” Josh asked.
“We dive every day,” Spike said, stepping onto the dock. He patted his stomach. “Right now, I need a couple of burgers. Ready, Chip?”
The kids walked with Spike and Chip to the end of the dock and said good-bye.
“We still didn’t see a tattoo,” Ruth Rose said as they headed for her grandmother’s house.
“No, but I saw something else,” Dink said. “They finished painting the name of the boat. It’s the Golden Goose.”
Josh looked at him. “So?”
“The guy at the airport said something about drowning a goose,” Dink said. “Maybe that’s the goose he was talking about!”
“But what does it mean?” Ruth Rose asked. “Boats don’t drown.”
Dink shook his head. “I don’t know.”
A few minutes later, they saw Ruth Rose’s grandmother. She was weeding in her front garden.
“Hi, Gram!” Ruth Rose called.
She looked up and waved.
“Tomorrow we go back to the boat and try again,” Dink said, keeping his voice low. “You guys with me?”
“What if Spike’s still wearing long pants?” Ruth Rose asked.
“Then I put my plan to work,” Dink said.
“What plan?” Josh asked.
“I tell him about the tattoo contest,” said Dink.
Josh stared at Dink. “What contest?”
“The one I just thought up,” Dink said, tapping his head. “I’m gonna hang a poster down by the dock. The poster will announce a tattoo contest. Then I’ll tell Spike and Chip about the contest. If Spike has a tattoo on his ankle, he might mention it, or even show it to us.”
“Dinkus was in the sun too long,” Josh whispered loudly to Ruth Rose.
“I think it’s brilliant!” Ruth Rose said. “Come on, I’ll ask Gram for paper and markers!”
Dink jumped out of bed. He shook Josh by the shoulder. “Josh, get up! We’re going back to the dock!”
Josh opened one eye. “Time izzit?” he asked sleepily.
Dink glanced at the clock next to his bed. “Almost eight. Hurry up!”
Dink dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. He washed, brushed his hair, and grabbed the poster he’d drawn the night before.
“Come on, Josh!” he said, hurrying downstairs.
Ruth Rose was sitting at the table, spreading peanut butter on a bagel.
“Gram’s out for her morning swim,” she said. She pushed the plate of bagels toward Dink. “Where’s Josh?”
Dink sat down and reached for the strawberry jam. “Still waking up,” he said.
Dink unrolled the poster as Josh stumbled into the kitchen. His red hair was sticking straight up, “This plan had better work,” he said. “I was dreaming I was King Midas. Only everything I touched turned to chocolate!”
Josh got a bagel and read Dink’s poster through sleepy eyes. At the bottom Dink had drawn a man’s arm with a tattoo of an owl.
“What happens when a bunch of people with tattoos show up, and there’s no contest?” Josh asked.
Dink shrugged. “We have to find out if Spike has that tattoo on his ankle. Can you think of another way?”
Josh just shrugged.
“All right, then. Let’s get going,” Dink said.
They each grabbed an apple and headed for the dock. Dink carried the poster and four thumbtacks.
Even this early, people were strolling along the concrete pier. Dink tacked the poster to a light pole.
“Okay, now let’s go find Spike and Chip,” he said. They hurried to the dock.
A few people were on their boats, drinking coffee and enjoying the morning sun. The Golden Goose was tied at its slip.
Not a sound came from the boat.
“Think they’re still asleep?” Josh asked.
Dink shrugged. “I don’t hear any snoring.”
Ruth Rose peered through one of the round cabin windows. “Nobody’s down there,” she said.
“Look, the door’s open,” Josh said. “They must be here.”
Dink stepped onto the boat deck and knocked on the wood. “Hello?” he called. “Anyone home?”
Dink hopped back onto the dock. “Maybe they went out for breakfast,” he said. “Let’s wait.”
The kids sat in the sun. A pelican waddled along the dock, stopping at each of the boats. A woman tossed him some bread.
Josh pulled his book out and began reading.
“Listen to this,” he said. “‘No matter how long it has been on the bottom of the ocean, gold stays shiny. But silver requires several days in a special chemical solution before it looks shiny again.’”
Josh looked up. “Yesterday, Spike told everyone they cleaned the gold and silver with vinegar!”
The kids looked at each other.
Dink got up and stepped aboard the Golden Goose. He walked around the deck, looking at everything and peeking into corners.
He stopped near an oxygen tank propped against a bench, then came back to the dock.
“That tank’s empty,” he told Josh and Ruth Rose.
“How do you know?” Josh asked.
“There’s a round window with a dial,” Dink said. “The little arrow is pointing to E.”
“So maybe they used up all the oxygen and haven’t filled it up yet.”
“Maybe,” Dink said. “But I don’t see any other diving equipment.”
Ruth Rose stepped closer to the deck. “Maybe they keep it down below,” she said. She looked at the guys. “I say we check it out.”
“Me too,” Dink said.
Josh glanced back toward the pier. “What if they come back and catch us snooping?” he said.
“We’ll tell them my grandmother sent us,” Ruth Rose said. “I’ll say she wants to ask them more questions.”
“I think they hang pirates,” Josh said.
“Josh, just looking on someone’s boat doesn’t make us pirat
es,” Ruth Rose said. “If they’re trying to cheat my grandmother, I’m gonna find out! Come on, we won’t touch anything, we’ll just look around.”
She hopped aboard the boat and scooted down the cabin stairs. Josh and Dink followed.
The three stood in the middle of the small cabin. “What a smell!” Ruth Rose said.
“They aren’t very neat, are they?” Josh said. The beds were unmade, and the tiny kitchen was a jumble of dirty dishes and glasses. The small eating table was covered with sticky-looking stains.
Dink glanced into a few dark corners. “I still don’t see—”
“Shh! I heard something!” Ruth Rose said. She pointed above their heads. Suddenly, they all heard footsteps.
The kids looked at each other, wide-eyed.
Josh’s face was white.
Dink looked around the small cabin, then rushed toward a narrow door in the back.
He yanked the door open and motioned for Josh and Ruth Rose to follow.
The kids found themselves crammed in the boat’s tiny bathroom.
There was no room to sit or turn around. The kids just stood and stared at each other.
Suddenly, they heard heavy feet thunder down the cabin stairs. They held their breath.
They heard a small thump, then a bigger one. Then the feet were walking again, this time going up the stairs.
The small room got hot fast. Sweat ran into Dink’s eyes. He could barely breathe.
They waited, but heard no more noises.
“I smell scrambled eggs!” Josh whispered into Dink’s ear.
Dink rolled his eyes.
“Well, I do!” said Josh.
Dink waited a few more minutes, then opened the door a crack. Cool air rushed into the bathroom.
Dink quickly looked around the cabin. He could hear the men talking up above. He gently pulled the door shut.
“They’re up on deck,” he said. “We can’t stay in this bathroom. If one of them wants to use it, we’re sunk!”
“Why don’t we just leave?” Josh asked.
“How do we explain why we’re hiding in their boat?” Ruth Rose said. “It’s too late!”