done. You've escaped with your life, and the Aurora besides. I'd say a pardon's a fair trade for that.”

I smiled as I, and then the rest, sat down around the fire. Ben, who was still a little unused to company, volunteered to tie Steele to a tree outside and then stand guard against the unlikely event of an attack.

The next day, it being a Sunday by Orde's reckoning, we rested. The only work anyone did was Ben going around to disarm his goat traps, reasoning that if it was alright to get a donkey out of a well on this day, then it should be acceptable to keep a goat out of a snare. Orde agreed, and gave him leave to go. I opted to accompany him. I don't know why, but there was something about him that drew me. His ease and familiarity with this place, his cunning and adaptability, were almost wolf-like. He was pure dog, and yet his ways were purely lupine, as if he bore within him the essence of both.

As we walked, he pointed out several places he'd grown fond of. He had placed trail markers that seemed ordinary enough, and yet once one looked at them it seemed silly that they could be missed. These markers led to many places: a clear spring running over rocks, where he claimed if you stood very still and learned to filter out the sound of the water, you could almost hear the trees growing. A clear ledge where one could watch the sun rise and set. A rock pool where he'd often found crabs and trapped fish, which he caught by hand or with crude spears to supplement his diet of goat.

We enjoyed the rest of our stroll, on which we saw quite a few different animals. Ben seemed delighted to show off his skills, from shimmying up trees to find eggs in birds' nests to sneaking up on unwary wild goats until he could take them by the legs. It was not long after he showed me this trick that we heard voices.

“I still says it was yous who got us into dis here mess,” came Nikki's familiar grumble.

“Me?” demanded Kaltag. “That is the most ridiculous, the most nonsensical, the most impossible...”

“It's not your fault!” added Star, followed by a klunk.

Ben placed a paw on my shoulder. “Ye wait right here, matey,” he hissed with a finger to his lips. “I'll go'n see what they're up to.”

He slipped into a nearby bush and disappeared. A moment later I heard him cackle with glee about ten yards ahead. “Well looky here, Balto! I fancy meself a fine catcher, but this is the first time I ever got three goats at once!”

I guessed even before I came in sight what he had found. There, swinging from a grass rope suspended between two bent pines, were the dog trio themselves.

“You think we should let them down?” I asked.

“Yes,” begged Star. “Please, my head feels like it's about to explode!”

“I dunno,” Ben mused with a hand to his chin. “I be not so sure we can trust these rascals. Maybe we ought ter leave 'em fer the beast what lurks 'round this island.”

“No!” cried Nikki. “Get us down! We surrender, really!”

“Completely, unconditionally, unreservedly...” Kaltag rambled again.

“Without a fight!” blurted Star before Kaltag kicked him with his free leg.

I looked at Ben and smiled, knowing the beast part had just been one of his games. “Come on, Ben,” I cajoled. “Let's cut them down.”

He sighed. “Well, I suppose,” he conceded with a show of false reluctance. “we be needing that rope they're swingin' from fer haulin' the treasure tomorrow, an' a couple o' sturdy backs fer doin' it wouldn't hurt either.”

We tied up Nikki and Kaltag and fashioned a sort of hammock from branches and other forest debris to hang between them for Star to ride on. They had bandaged his leg, mostly a flesh wound, and cleansed it with brandy, but he still claimed it hurt too much to walk on. Back at the cave, Doctor Boris examined the wound and said it would not get infected so long as it was kept clean and not walked on for a few weeks. Star was tied to his stretcher, and Nikki and Kaltag were bound to a tree near Steele's where they spent several hours verbally abusing their washed-up captain before they grew tired.

It took a week to get the treasure on board the ship. Ben, the doctor, and I were sent to bring the Aurora to a closer anchorage the first day while the rest were assigned to transport the treasure to shore at the same spot. Nikki and Kaltag were put to work as well, in exchange for food, water, and the captain's promise that we would all put in a good word for them with the judge. We finished loading the treasure, along with Ben's stores of food and all our water barrels re-filled from the springs on the island, at sundown a week after the day we started. Nikki, Kaltag, and Star were locked in the brig, although Doctor Boris made regular visits to tend to the recovery of his patient. Steele was locked up in private quarters for his own safety, and Jenna was given the captain's quarters while the captain bunked with us in the forecastle. Also moved in there was a small trunk she had brought which, she said, contained some things she had brought from home in the hopes of starting over in another land.

I couldn't sleep that first night, tossing and turning in my bunk, and finally I slid out of bed and wandered onto the deck, where the light of a full moon outlined most of the deck except for the yawning shadows of the sails, and moonbeams danced upon the waves. To my surprise, someone else stood there as well. “Ben?” I asked.

He looked my way with a cheery expression on his face. “Balto!” he greeted brightly. “What brings you out here?”

I yawned. “Couldn't sleep,” I admitted. “You?”

His smiled dropped a notch, although I saw it less by his mouth than by the abundant hair on his upper lip. “Thinkin',” he replied. He turned his gaze toward the island. “It's strange t' think of, boyo. I've been livin' here all these long years, an' day after day I prayed God would let me off the blasted rock. But now I c'n hardly believe I'm actually goin' home.” He paused, then added ruefully, “Funny thing is, I can't recollect-”

Just then a scream split the night, like someone being murdered. I recognized the pitch right away. “Jenna!”

 To be continued...