replied. “You have proven quite resourceful, I'm sure.” He turned to where Ben, Doctor Boris, and the two bears had just finished loading the smallest of our remaining lifeboats and boring a small hole in the bottom. It would get Steele as far as the island, but be pretty much useless after that. I helped the others to put supplies, including a pouch or two of gunpowder and a pistol, into the boat, which was swung out over the side. Orde nodded to Ben, who untied the ropes holding Steele to the mast and then trained a pistol on him along with the rest of us except for Jenna, the doctor, the bears, and myself.

“We will lower you into the water and let you row ashore,” said the captain. “If you stop at any time to load your weapons before you reach the sand, you will be shot. Am I clear?”

Steele's eyes were wide and pleading. “Please, have mercy,” he begged.

“I am having mercy, far more than you had on all the poor chaps you killed,” Orde snapped. “It's your choice, Long John Steele. Live in exile...” he tapped his pistol, “...or not at all.”

Steele lowered his head in defeat, and even after all he'd done I almost felt sorry for him. But I looked at Jenna and knew this was the only way short of execution that she, or any of us, could be safe.

Steele climbed into the boat and was lowered to the water. As soon as it reached the waves and the ropes were hauled up, he began to row for the island. He looked back at us, and even at a distance I could seen the hatred in his icy blue eyes.

As the pirate climbed out on shore and unloaded his craft, Orde turned away. “All right, gents,” he announced. “Let's head for home.”

Sailing the ship with only ten of us on board proved difficult. Longer shifts, heavier loads, and slower going thanks to the ship sitting lower in the water than it had. Billy Bones hadn't been exaggerating when he spoke of Flint's hoard. The hold, the ballast, even some of the quarters were occupied with a treasure fit for ten kings. But gold did little to ease our work, or to improve the food. Salted goat's meat got old fast, especially with next to no bread to go with it. Boris asserted that if the pirates hadn't all but ignored the stores of dried fruit, we would have all died of sickness on the way.

Ben was an all-around godsend on that voyage. Before the first day was up, he had devised a system of ropes and pulleys with which we could adjust the sails all at once instead of one at a time. And his cooking wasn't half bad either. Being a world unto himself all those years had treated him surprisingly well, and now that he was back with other dogs, he seemed determined to make himself useful.

Unfortunately, there was one thing Ben couldn't help with: the silence from Jenna. She wouldn't speak to me at all, and since she was up in the crow's nest most of the time (the captain gave her permission to dress as a man while she was at work in the rigging), I hardly ever even saw her. But that didn't stop me from wondering.

Why had I used the ring anyway? She was beautiful, it was true, but I had done it mostly to protect her. She had been through so much, she deserved some protection. But now it seemed I had become an enemy to her. Why? It would have been so easy to just tell her what I had in mind before I did it. But instead I had acted without consent, no better than a thief. No wonder she wanted nothing to do with me.

None of the other sailors mentioned her around me either, though I suspected more than once that it was on their minds. Only Ben broached the subject with me, about five days into the voyage as I was helping him prepare supper.

“That lady husky still not jawin' to yeh?” he asked.

It took me a moment to understand. “No,” I admitted. “And I don't see why she would.”

He laughed. “Ah, cheer up, lad. She'll get over it. An' if'n ye don't mind me sayin' so, she be a good one for ye.”

“Too bad I can't offer her the same,” I mumbled. “I'm just a sneaky half-breed. Besides, her father would never allow it.”

His face took on an odd smile, and he reached into his pocket and handed me something. It was a carving of dark brown wood, and it looked exactly like Jenna. Exactly. The shape of her face, the angle of her ears, even the fur of the figure looked just like her but for the color.

“I can't give her to yeh,” he said, patting me on the back, “But think o' this as a bit o' luck to carry with ye. An' for what it's worth,” he added, leaning in with a conspiratorial whisper, “If I was her father, I'd let ye have her in nothin' flat, if'n she was willin'.”

I smiled, more to humor his kind remark than because I really believed it. After all, she'd never be willing. Why would she be?

Weeks passed, and I admit that even with the exhausting work on the ship, I lost more than a few hours of sleep. Eventually I took to walking up on deck in the evenings. One night about two weeks into the voyage, these walks brought me into touch with the good doctor, who was staring out to sea off the port bow, or front left, of the ship.

“Beautiful isn't it?” he asked when I had stood in silence following his gaze for a few minutes.

I looked out and nodded, but added, “I'll be happier to see the coast of England and the Black Cove again.”

He nodded. “Yes, I know vhat you mean.” He ran his index feather under his beak. “I too miss the simple days in good old England, vitout all this nonsense about pirates and vhatnot.”

“This sure has been a crazy trip,” I agreed. “Double-crossed by a friend…”

“Rescued by a stranger…” added Boris.

“And now we’re heading home with a shipload of treasure,” I wrapped it up.

Boris cleared his throat. “Speaking of treasure,” he added slowly, “Vhat about you and…”

I knew before he finished what he was going to say, and in the fraction of a second between words I hoped somehow he wouldn't finish.

“Hello, Balto.”

I turned my head to see Jenna walking across the deck in our direction, and swallowed hard. Maybe Boris finishing his remark wouldn't have been so terrible after all. The sway of Jenna's pale-blue dress, combined with the rocking motion of the ship, made it look like she was dancing. Her expression said something else.

“Well, what are the odds?” I asked, trying to mask my unease. She did look nice in a dress. “We were just talking about you.”

She stood beside me and put her hand down on the railing. I could hear a soft click of metal on wood as the palm side of the ring struck the rail. “I’m sure you were,” she answered.

I blinked. The ring? I thought. It was plainly the same one. A gold band with a large diamond glittering in the center.

Boris craned his neck to look past me. “Didn’t you trow dat overboard?” he asked, apparently as confused as I was.

She shook her head. “I only made it look that way,” she answered.

I chuckled nervously. “I guess you’re probably wondering about it, huh?” I asked.

She looked at me with her eyes narrowed to slits like a cat’s. “Well, as a matter of fact, yes.”

I gulped. “Uh, yeah. See, I figured one of the pirates might try to hold you to what you said. I found the ring while I was wandering the island, so I slipped into your room that night in the palisade while you were asleep and put it on your finger as a backup plan. I thought if they saw it, they would start arguing among themselves and give you a chance to escape.”

“A clever, if highly unorthodox, method of ensuring your safety,” Boris put in.

“Stay out of this, please,” I muttered.

If my explanation made Jenna feel any better, she showed no sign of it. I was beginning to feel like I was in a staring contest with a statue of Medusa. “Let me see if I understand you,” she said in a low voice. “You wanted to protect me from a bunch of pirates, so you put a ring on my finger while I was sleeping, engaged us without asking me, and you think I’m going to be happy about it?”

“Actually,” Boris interrupted again, “Your promise isn’t binding. You said you vould marry the first dog to put a ring on your finger, but Balto is still really a pup.”

“Stay out of this,” grumbled Jenna without taking her eyes off me.

I gulped. For a girl, she could be very intimidating when she wanted to. “I only did it to protect you. If Steele hadn’t tried to put one on your finger, I would have just taken it off some other night or pretended I didn’t know where it came from when you realized it was there.”

“In other vords…” Boris began.

Jenna and I both snapped our heads in his direction. “Stay out of this!”

He raised his wings as if we were pointing guns at him. “Okay, okay, I’ll go.” And he waddled off, looking about as indignant as a goose can manage.

Jenna focused her eyes on me again. “If you wanted to take it off, why didn't you? It was there over a week before I noticed it.”

I lowered my shoulders. “I tried,” I admitted. “But you sleep different on a bunk