II
Old pirate tales
Morgan saw Domino before she saw Paige and Charlotte coming down the beach.
“What is it?” she called to them, “I thought ye were gettin’ wood?”
“Aye sir,” Charlotte said as they approached, “We found some good wood, and this was in it.” She handed the bottle and the map to Morgan.
As Morgan studied the map she became very still. “This was my great grand father’s,” she whispered mostly to herself. “Where did ye find such a thing?” the ‘captain’ was back in her voice.
“It was in the tree we cut down sir,” Paige answered.
Morgan laughed. “Keep lookin’ for good lumber. And don’t worry about this.” She held up the map.
“Yes sir!” Paige took Charlotte by the arm and dragged her back up the beach.
“What do ye think she means,” Charlotte said when they were back in the woods. “By the map being her great grand father’s ‘n all?”
“I don’t know and she said not to worry about it, so stop worryin’.”
Vispilio had over heard them talking about the map and she got all exited, “A map!” she said to herself. “I’d wager we be goin’ treasure huntin’ soon. I sure hope so!” Soon she had found Destiny and told her what she had heard about the map. Destiny told Annemarie and soon the whole crew new, and they all wanted to go treasure hunting so when the repairs were finished they all approached Morgan except for Intero who is much to respectful to mess with something he knows he shouldn’t.
“We want to know what your keepin’ from us,” Charlotte demanded. “What does that map lead to?”
Morgan smiled and crossed her arms, “So I tell you not to worry about it and that is exactly what you do, worry.”
“We know about the map and that yer hiding it from us,” Annemarie pushed.
“Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte,” Morgan shook her head. “Spreading news of something you don’t know anything about can only result in false rumors.”
“I knew enough to say that you are keepin’ a map from us, and we deserve to know what it leads to.”
“I only kept it from you so that you could keep you minds on your work. But sense you all know about it now any way I will tell you;
My great grand father -Henry- was a feared pirate in his youth and a rich one, it was said that he had been robbing from his earliest years, of course no one knew that for sure except him. Any way by the time he was to old to fight he had a fortune of gold, silver, jewels, and silk, but he didn’t want to use it, instead he – like all other pirates – hid it and only made one map that he kept with him at all times. He took up fishing, and raised a family. It wasn’t until years later that another pirate named Black Beard, heard of his treasure and wanted it for himself. He confronted Henry but Henry would not give him the map. Black Beard swore he would find it, and to kill Henry when he did. Henry ran and hid with the map, and for a year Black Beard couldn’t find him, but eventually he did and Henry, knowing it was his last chance hid the map and was killed by Black Beard. No one knows where my great grand father hid the map except that it was on an island such as this one and I believe this is Henry’s map,” she held it up, “only because of the writing, it is in code the same code Henry used.”
“That is nothin’ but an old pirate tale!” Corr shouted angrily.
“Maybe it is maybe it isn’t. Either way it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know exactly were this map leads, and that you all disobeyed my orders and accused me of somthin’ I didn’t do. Even if this map does lead to somethin’ it is probably long gone by now.” Morgan threw the map on the ground and walked off, down the beach.
Every one was silent. Shasta slowly picked up the map and took a good look at it. It showed a rocky island but other than that it was nothing but a bunch of scrambled letters.
“I am sorry,” Charlotte said to every one. “I just got carried away I guess.”
“We all did,” Vispilio put in.
