found out about this voyage and the map. And I've got us here our safety guarantee,” he added, picking me up and holding me aloft. “They won't try anything fancy while we've got their pet wolf along. What's more, he's the only one that knows where the ship is hid, so how do ye expect to get her back without his throat in its proper place?”

The pirates started murmuring among themselves, and several lowered their weapons.

Steele put me down and reached into his coat pocket. “But if ye don't like my leadership, fine. Choose yerselves a new leader, an' let him be the one that takes this from me!” And he raised his hand, clutching...

The map?

No! It was the map! How had he gotten that? Now I could see my plan to turn this mess around turning on me. They had the map, and I had no way of knowing whether I was dog (or wolf) enough to keep from telling them where the ship was if they tortured me.

The pirates did not share my concern. They began chattering excitedly as the swarmed around us for a look at the map.

“Be that the map?” asked one of them.

“It must be!” another cried. “I can see Flint's own handwriting, clear as day!”

“Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!” cried the parrot.

Steele smirked as the other pirates began a chant. “Captain Silver! Captain Silver!” they cried with fists raised in the air. Even George, though a little displeased at first, quickly joined in the chant.

All night I sat, propped in a corner of the stockade and feeling like a useless fool. It seemed the pirates now had two out of three, and who knew where Jenna was or how long she could stay free?

Or again, what if Steele was telling the truth about not wanting her and lying about the rest? These cutthroats could sail off with me any time, and leave Jenna and the rest here to die. The only hope as far as I could see was that Steele might be telling me the whole truth. And from the rope encircling my feet and leading to Kaltag's wrist lest I try to escape, I doubted that.

The following morning was a bustle of activity. Pickaxes and shovels were gathered up, along with hatchets for breaking the locks off of chests filled with treasure. Also, they rounded up salted pork, bread, and brandy to carry along for the midday meal, although the amounts were easily five times what we would need. They were terribly wasteful, as I had seen the night before then they cooked an unthinkable amount of meat and carelessly threw the leftovers into the fire. They all gathered in the courtyard of the stockade now, with me beside Steele, a rope leash around my neck and tied around his waist to leave his hands free. I rubbed my wrists, glad at least that he had kept his promise about that.

“Why'd you untie the wolf pup?” asked Star.

Steele laughed coldly. “He is tied up, can't ye see that?” he asked, lifting the leash so high that the collar bit into my neck like a hangman's noose and I had to stand on the tips of my toes in order to breathe. “He'll be faster walking and less dead weight if he can move his hands proper. And now,” he said, releasing the rope and pulling out the map, “Which shall we seek first? Flint's gold at 'bulk o' treasure,' the weapons at 'arms,' or the bar silver?”

“Gold!” the pirates shouted, lifting their tools in the air and shaking them wildly.

Steele grinned. “Gold it is, but keep yer eyes peeled for those lubbers. I reckon they ain't done with us yet, so look sharp and mind yer weapons! Half again a share to whoever brings me one dead, and double to anyone who brings me them alive for leverage on the wolf! But if ye kill the lady, I'll kill you painfully slow, and ye may lay to that!” And he proceeded to unfold the map and read the directions to “Bulk of treasure,” which read,

Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N of N.N.E.

Skeleton Island E.S.E. And by E.

Ten feet.

The directions were somewhat hard to decipher, and the X on the map was far too large to be much use as a marker, but I had no time to worry about that. They would take me wherever they wanted whether I liked it or not, and I had more than enough to worry about already. Steele was a good actor, one way or the other, and he had either me or the pirates at least partly fooled. I was glad that he had taken steps to encourage them to spare the honest crew's lives at least for the moment, and happier still that the pirates were buying it. But I also knew, given a choice, he'd take plundering on the high seas with the pirates over a narrow escape from the gallows, which was the best he'd get from us. My only hope was that the honest crew would stay away altogether and perhaps find the ship and escape. I couldn't help thinking how ironic it was; dogs always tried to say that us wolves and half-breeds were cunning and untrustworthy, and here this back-stabbing purebred was using me as insurance.

We set out with the pirates chanting and Captain Flint squawking, but both soon tired and decided to save their breath for the hike. I took some satisfaction in the endurance given by my wolf's blood, but even so it was a grueling trek to take with experienced sea dogs. The pirates fanned out, meandering slightly but staying more or less in formation, with Steele and I more or less at the middle and a little way behind. He had a rough time keeping up on his one leg, and many times I had to stop and help him on the loose gravel or he would have fallen backwards down the hill. For his part, he instructed me to take the rope which was around my neck and wind a loop around my wrist so he wouldn't choke me, and we kept on like that. I was so occupied with being a second crutch that I scarcely had time to notice my surroundings. That was too bad, because from what I did have time to notice, and what I would see later, it was one of the more pleasant parts of the island. Grass gave way to flowering shrubs with their pleasant aromas. Nutmeg trees stood here and there in thickets among the tall red-trunked pines, producing a mingled scent not unlike mother cooking in the kitchen. I sighed, missing her deeply. Some son I was, going off with promises of money and then disappearing without a trace to leave her, heartbroken and alone, to fend for herself. Just like my father.

We had gone about half a mile and were getting close to the ridge of a plateau when Star, a way off to the left, began to scream like he was being murdered. He screamed over and over as the others began to run toward him.

“He can't 'ave found the gold yet,” said Nikki, running past us. “It's s'posed to be higher up.”

Nikki was dead right, for when we got up there we found the other buccaneers gathered around something far different from any treasure. At the foot of a good-sized pine, surrounded by creeping vines which had begun to lift some of the smaller pieces, were the bones of a dog, still clothed in some scraps of fabric. I almost threw up, and I think the others were all similarly disturbed. Even Long John Steele grew strangely quiet.

Kaltag began to ramble as he often did. “This is the most gruesome, the most revolting, the most unthinkable-”

“It's not good!” Star blurted. Kaltag swung a fist to Star's skull, knocking him flat.

Nikki knelt by the bones and examined them. “He was a sea dog,” he said. Tugging at the cloth, he added, “At least dis is sum good sea-cloth.”

Steele snorted, though it sounded more forced than derisive to me. “Of course he was a sea-dog,” he snarled. “Who did you think you'd find out here, a bishop? Take a look at the way those bones are. That's not natural, I'll be bound.”

Sure enough, now that I thought to notice it, the bones weren't in a natural position. Aside from some minor disarray, probably thanks to birds and the vines, the skeleton lay perfectly straight – footpaws pointing in one direction, hands raised above him like a diver's pointing exactly the other way.

“W-w-what do you think it means?” asked Star.

“I'll tell ye what it means,” growled Steele. “There's the bones, and there's the tip of Skeleton Island, sticking up like a tooth. Someone take a compass and do a reading on this dog.”

Merry did, and the body pointed exactly in the direction of the island. Lined up with it, the compass read E.S.E, and by E.

“Ha!” laughed Steele. “I thought so. These bones 're a pointer to the gold, and make no mistake on that.”

Brown fox coughed. “It still scares me thinking of Flint, I don't mind saying it.”

Steele nodded. “This is one of his jokes, I'd swear on it. Six he brought with him, and killed them all, and left this one for a compass, shiver my timbers! See how long those arms are? That'd be Allardice. Remember him?”

“I do,” said Kaltag. “He owed me money, and took my knife ashore with him.”

“I'll tell you this,” said Steele, “If Flint still walked, we'd be in a bad spot. There were six of them, and six of us, and bones are all that's left of them.”

“But I saw him dead with dese same eyes,” rumbled Nikki. “Bones took me in, and dere he laid, with pennypieces on his eyes.”

“Y-y-yeah,” stammered Star, back on his feet, “But if there were ghosts, Flint would be one!”

“He went down with a fight,”