inn.”

The dog-a dalmatian- squinted at us and coughed. “Oh, sorry Ma’am.” He lowered the gun. “Do you know who those bandits were?”

“They were pirates,” she replied. “And I’ll be glad to explain everything after my son and I have put things in…” she opened the door and screamed. Looking past her, I saw the reason.

The kitchen was a mass of flames.

A bucket brigade was hastily assembled, but by the time the fire was put out most of the Admiral Benbow Inn had been destroyed. Mother was devastated. She wouldn’t say why, but I already knew. My father had built the inn years before I was born, as a home and a source of income for the two of them and the family they hoped to have. Not only that, but in their spite the pirates had slashed the portrait of my father to ribbons. Two of the five things she had to remember him by were gone forever. Only her ring, her locket, and I were left.

A member of the town watch tried to comfort her. “There’s enough left to rebuild,” he reassured her. But he didn’t understand. Even if it were rebuilt, it wouldn’t be the same anymore. All the loving work my father had put into it – the carved panels, the ornate handrails, all of it was gone forever. And besides, any effort to rebuild would leave us penniless.

Then a greyhound strode up. “Are you Ms. Hawkins, the owner of this establishment?” he asked.

“Mrs. Hawkins,” she corrected him. Mother could never stand to be considered a widow, no matter the circumstances. “And yes, I am.”

“I’m Mr. Dance, head of the town revenue service.” The revenue men were in charge of catching smugglers. “I need you to come with me.”

“Where to?” I asked.

“Mr. Trelawney needs to know about this,” Mr. Dance replied. “If you’ll please come with me, Ms… er, Mrs. Hawkins.” It sounded more like a command than a request.

“I’m coming too,” I asserted.

He stared at me. “And who are you?”

“My son,” Mother explained. “He should come too.”

Mr. Dance nodded. “Well then, come along.”

Mr. Trelawney, or Squire Trelawney as most people called him, was a somewhat elderly Saint Bernard who served as the local judge. People called him Squire out of respect because squires had lots of money and valuable estates, and Mr. Trelawney had both.

We came to his house during dinner and, to my surprise, found doctor Livesey visiting as well. I was famished, but Mother was so upset that when the squire told us to sit down and have something to eat, I was the only one who actually ate.

As I ate and Mother brooded over the situation, we told the doctor and Mr. Trelawney about the whole business. From the bird’s expression as he listened, you would have thought he was listening to one of Billy Bones’ fish stories. The squire’s baggy jowels didn’t show much expression, but he too seemed very intrigued.

When I reached the end of the tale, the squire cleared his throat. “Well,” he said in his thick, deep voice, “I hold them blameless for running down that blind scoundrel. It was accident, and he was a w-” I think he was about to say “wolf’s head,” a common expression for outlaws and criminals, but he stopped short with a glance at Mother. “Wicked fellow,” he amended.

“But who vere these dogs?” asked the doctor. “And vhat vere they after?”

I nodded. “I think they were after a map,” I explained. “And I’m not sure who they were, but Billy Bones said something about them being Flint’s crew.”

The squire choked on a mouthful of steak and had to be pounded on the back by one of his servants. “Who did you say?” he wheezed when he finally recovered his breath.

“I said he said something about them being Flint’s crew.”

The squire was all business now. “Do you have this thing they were after?”

“I might.” I pulled it out of my pocket. “Here,” I handed it to him.

Doctor Boris took the oilcloth package. “Vhat have you heard of this Flint person?”

“Heard of him?!” the Saint Bernard cried. “Heard of him?! He was a terror! A monster! They say the Devil trembled at his name! And his treasure made Blackbeard’s look like this brass candlestick!” He pointed to a candleholder which sat on the table. “Blackbeard was a child compared to Flint! He was…”

“Calm down, sqvire! You’re talking so fast I can’t get a vord in. Now if this contains a clue to Flint’s treasure hoard, vill it amount to much?”

“Amount to much?!” cried the squire. “It will amount to this: I will personally commission a ship and crew, and we will find that treasure if we search for a year! And now, Balto, may we open this package?”

Open it? Open it? “Yes, please do!” I answered, caught up in the squire's excitement in spite of myself.

He asked the servants to clear a section of the table, then asked them to leave. Boris laid the package down and delicately untied the strings holding the oilcloth shut. Opening the package, we found two things: an old book, and a sealed envelope. The wax seal bore the sign of a skull with two swords crossed below it. Despite my excitement to break the seal and open the envelope, he examined the book first. “Hmm. Looks like an account book,” he noted. “Every time they robbed a ship, he wrote the date, their position, and his share. Qvite tidy for a pirate. Now for the other.”

“May I?” I asked. Doctor Livesey extended the envelope to me, and with trembling hands I broke the wax and opened the envelope. Inside was a folded piece of paper. “It is a map!” I practically howled in excitement.

The doctor and squire got up (the latter with such energy he almost knocked the table over) and came around to have a look as I spread out the parchment. The map showed an island nine miles high (that is, from North to South), five miles wide, and shaped like a fat dragon standing up. On it there were three Xs marked in red ink. One said, “Bulk of treasure here,” a second said, “Bar silver,” and the third was marked, “Arms.” Latitude, longitude, and landmarks were all marked, and on the back were directions to all three spots.

“That settles it!” declared the squire. “We sail for Treasure Island!”

Mother gave me one of her “oh-no-you-don’t” looks. “Balto, don’t even ask. I’m not letting you go along.”

“But Mother!” I protested. “With half a share of that treasure we could rebuild the whole Admiral Benbow twice and still live like royalty the rest of our lives!”

“Hang the treasure!” she snapped, speaking much more strongly than I’d ever heard. “The sea already took your father away, and now you want me to risk you too?”

The doctor cleared his throat. “Actually,” he interjected, “Balto does have some right to…” he stopped under a withering look from Mother. The kind which, she always said, only my father had never backed down from, which was part of why she had married him. Awkwardly, he shrugged. “But… he is your son.”

“Mrs. Hawkins,” the squire put in, “The men who attacked you will likely continue to persecute you and Balto. I think he would be safer if we brought him with us.”

Mother started to open her mouth, then stopped. “What makes you say that?”

“For one thing,” he replied, “Two are more easily tracked down than one. And once we were over the horizon, it would be virtually impossible for them to track us.”

Mother began to nod slightly. “I see,” she admitted.

“Madam,” pledged the squire. “If we do not return him safe and whole, let it stand on our reputations forever.”

“We?” asked the doctor, largely unnoticed.

Mother frowned.

“Please?” I begged.

She shook her head. “I must be mad,” she groaned, “But alright.”

I hugged her. “Don’t worry, Mother,” I promised. “I’ll be fine.”

She shook her head. “You’d better be,” she replied.

“Vell, good luck on your voyage,” offered the doctor.

“Our voyage, you mean,” the squire replied. “You’ll be coming too.”

Boris choked even though he wasn’t eating. “You said vhat?” he cried.

“Our voyage,” repeated the squire. “Doctor, find someone else to tend your patients. A good ship needs a doctor on board, and I pick you.”

“You are crazy!” Boris cried. “Vhat about pirates, storms, vhales, sharks, sea monsters…”

Sighing, I tapped Boris on the shoulder. Momentarily distracted from his ranting, he turned to me. “Vhat!”

I simply beckoned him to follow and led him out the door to a spot from which the remains of the Admiral Benbow could be seen outlined in the moonlight. Mother and the squire