The Great Treasure Hunt Read online

  “Look,” said Lily, “an actual bed!” She threw herself onto it, but it was hard and she yelped in pain.

  “Ha, not like the comforts of our hammocks, Lil!” laughed Button.

  “Even the pillows are wooden,” Lily groaned.

  Button tugged at a door leading out of the bedroom.

  “This way, Lil—there’s a staircase into the attic. Maybe we can escape through the roof and leave those pesky mice behind for good.”

  The attic room looked like a study, with a desk and a bookcase carved to look like there were endless volumes of encyclopedia filling the shelves. In the corner they could see the enormous catch where the front of the dolls’ house could be opened up.

  And then they noticed it. Indeed, how could they have missed it? A huge jewelry box shoved in the corner!

  They stopped and stared. “I think we’ve struck gold!” cried Button.

  Lily grinned. “Whoooaaaa. Here be treasure!”

  It was a human-size jewelry box and they just knew it would be filled with pirate gold.

  “Let’s double-check that door and make sure those rotten rodents definitely aren’t heading in here,” said Button. “We’ve got some pirate digging to do!”

  They stood looking up at the jewelry box. It had a small clasp that, for Mr. Tooey, would just need a little press downward. But for the Pocket Pirates it was going to need a good thump with something hard.

  Button dragged the chair from the desk and climbed onto it. “Hold the back of the chair, Lil!”

  “Please!” she said, glaring at him.

  “SORRY. Please. Pretty please, with a cherry on the top.”

  “I should think so, young man.”

  “You’re the young one,” he said, smiling.

  “I’m taller than you . . . and wiser!”

  He climbed right up, standing on the back of the chair and hauling himself onto the lid of the box. Once he’d gotten his balance, he jumped onto the clasp with all his strength. As he tumbled off, he could hear the catch release.

  Button fetched another chair. He and Lily stood on their chairs at two corners of the lid.

  “I can feel my heart beating,” said Lily.

  “It’s because we’re real pirates, Lily, that’s why. We’re on a treasure hunt.”

  “It’s like the moment when you’re digging for gold and suddenly you can feel something in the sand.”

  “Like you’ve gotten ahold of the lid of a treasure chest!”

  “Exactly,” said Lily. “And you’re about to look inside. . . .”

  “PUSH!” yelled Button.

  Together they prized the lid up and shoved it back. It creaked and wobbled and for a moment it felt like it might come crashing back down.

  But it didn’t. As it opened a ballerina sprang upward and danced, turning slowly to the music suddenly coming from the box. She wore a leotard and a frilly lace skirt that appeared to be lifted by her pirouetting. Button and Lily were entranced.

  Gradually she slowed and stopped. There was a mirror behind her and Button could see his own face, staring.

  “What are you looking at, cabin boy?” said Lily, grinning.

  “Nothing,” said Button, realizing he’d been lost in a trance.

  “It’s a dummy, you dummy,” she quipped.

  “Oh . . . yeah, I know.” Button took his hands slowly off the lid, half expecting it to crash down on him. The box smelled old and a bit damp, like most of the things in the shop.

  They climbed in, feeling the red velvet lining beneath their feet. Except for three or four wooden beads and a few hair clips, the box was empty. Not a trace of hidden treasure. Then they spotted a drawer at the back with a shiny handle.

  “Let’s try in there!” said Lily.

  Button tugged at the drawer. It was stuck fast, with time and dust and damp, but he gave one final yank and it burst open.

  Out streamed an army of earwigs, rearing up at them, scratching and grasping with their strange armored bodies.

  Button drew the broken toothpick from his rucksack, his expression turning from excited treasure-seeker’s grin to fierce swordsman’s determined glare. Lily took off her hat and began to swipe at the earwigs, kicking the beads to send them rolling in all directions.

  “There’s nothing in the drawer, Button! No gold, just a filthy stinking insect den!” Lily cried in disappointment.

  The tiny pirates found themselves hurdling over their enemies, jumping this way and that until in the end all they could do was retreat out of the box and leap back into the attic room, leaving the ballerina girl to dance among the insects alone.

  They escaped, forcing open a window in the roof and clambering out onto the little wooden tiles.

  “That was close,” said Button, wiping his brow and feeling the scratches on his face.

  “You and your adventures,” said Lily, leaning against the chimney stack. “I think I’ve had enough of them for a lifetime. I’d be much better off staying at home and relaxing in my hammock.”

  Button grinned.

  “What are you smiling at, buccaneer boy?” Lily asked.

  “It just feels good to have an adventure,” laughed Button. “I know it gets scary sometimes . . . but it just feels right. We’re pirates, Lil. It’s what we do.”

  “Oh . . . oh really,” Lily said, pointing out over the shop. Footsteps were echoing down the hallway.

  Mr. Tooey appeared, armed with dusters and brushes and heading toward the Pocket Pirates’ shelf. Button and Lily hid behind the chimney, peeking out to see what was happening.

  “Trust him to turn up,” muttered Lily. “What’s he doing in the shop so early? It’s not lunchtime yet, is it?”

  Then their mouths dropped open in horror, and they stared wild-eyed as he picked up the ship in the bottle. He was springing a tidying session on the old junk-shop shelf!

  And though Mr Tooey didn’t notice, Old Uncle Noggin was hanging out of the bottle’s opening and gripping on for dear life.

  “Oh no!” screamed Lily, her small voice unheard across the shop. “Hang on, Uncle Noggin!” She held her hands to her mouth in horror, slipped, and started cascading down the tiles. Button grabbed her arm, pulled her back and held on tight.

  Mr. Tooey walked across the tiles and placed the bottle gently on the floor, all without catching sight of Old Uncle Noggin.

  “Disastrous!” said Button. “He needs to get back into the bottle NOW! If the mice get near, our buccaneering brother has had it. And right now, those mice are ANGRY!”

  And then just as Old Uncle Noggin had almost pulled himself through the opening in the neck, they watched Mr. Tooey accidentally knock the bottle across the floor. It went rolling across the floor, the ship turning and turning. Uncle Noggin’s tummy was wedged in the opening, his little old legs flying around like a spinning top. Whizzing in circles like he was on a waltzer and he wasn’t going to stop until BANG, it crashed into the baseboard.

  Old Uncle Noggin was thrown out and splattered against the wall.

  Button and Lily were frozen with fear.

  Lily imagined their captain going tumbling around the inside of the ship. Jones, the ship’s cat, was probably not in a good state either. The whole place would be a mess. Button thought of his room, everything upturned and out of place.

  Mr. Tooey had chased the bottle and tried to stop it with his foot, but as he bent to inspect it Old Uncle Noggin was hidden by the ship. “Seems all right,” muttered Mr. Tooey, leaving it be.

  Button and Lily held their breath, hoping for a sign of their captain or for Old Uncle Noggin to pick himself up off the floor. Mr. Tooey ran his old brush along the shelf, whistling as if nothing had happened. Didn’t he know that he had just caused a major disaster in the world of small? But he didn’t seem to have noticed anything as he gathered odds and ends into a box.

  “There goes our cotton reel,” said Button.

  “And your outdoor sleeping area,” added Lily.

  “Outdoor sl
eeping area?”

  “The broken egg cup. You’re always asleep inside the broken egg cup.”

  “I once fell asleep inside the broken egg cup.”

  And still there was no sign of the other Pocket Pirates.

  The sound of the clock striking midday made Button and Lily jump. It always brought everything to a halt—no matter what Mr. Tooey was doing, it meant he would stop for lunch. Off he went, back to the place called Fridge.

  “Quick,” said Button. “Let’s head over to the bottle.”

  They shinned down the roof, grabbing onto the gutter, sliding clumsily down the little wooden drainpipe glued to the front of the dolls’ house. It creaked and groaned and they felt it come away from the wall as they lowered themselves. They bashed onto the paving outside the house, tried to ignore the pain, and raced over to help Uncle Noggin. He was already trying to fight off the baseboard mice with the first thing that came to hand. This just happened to be a pink cocktail umbrella.

  “Get back!” yelled Lily as she thrashed at them with a lump of sticky marshmallow. It was all she could find—but it worked. As the mice tried to fend it off with their sharp teeth it stuck their mouths together, and they were forced to retreat to their hole.

  Just then Captain Crabsticks appeared, looking like he’d been put through a laundry cycle. “Ahoy, young Button. Cast your rope aboard, my fine fellow! We have a rather untidy deck up here.”

  Button’s shoelace had already bailed them out once today. He pulled it from his backpack and hurled it up for the Captain to secure.

  They sent Uncle Noggin up first and prayed that the shoelace would hold, since it was already frayed and worn. Up the old pirate went, slowly but surely.

  “You next, Lil,” said Button.

  “Oh, you are a gentleman after all!” grinned Lily.

  “Hurry up,” said Button, climbing up after her.

  He hadn’t exactly expected a hero’s welcome, but he was still a little surprised by Uncle Noggin’s greeting.

  “Err . . . you owe me some marshmallow, young Button.” Old Uncle Noggin had his cross face on.

  “But . . . I just helped save your life.”

  “Well, yes, technically speaking, you did. But you know what I’m like if I don’t get my sugary snacks. I get all grumpy.”

  “Huh, well you almost became someone else’s sugary snack just now, so think yourself lucky.”

  “Now, now, now, never mind sticky marshmallow nonsense,” put in the Captain. “What on earth are we going to do with this ship? It’s a complete wreck.”

  The mini pirates had waged war with mice and insects, battled with the biggest of spiders. But never before had they needed to repair a shipwrecked vessel. Every bit of its contents seemed to be broken. Only the ship itself seemed intact.

  “Where on earth do we start?” asked the Captain.

  “I’m not sure,” said Button. “But there’s something else I’m worried about.”

  “What?” quizzed Lily.

  “Where is Jones?”

  But Jones was nowhere to be seen.

  The whole ship was a disaster. The jam-jar-lid dinner table had been hurled across the ship and its matchbox base was dented and squashed. Anything that wasn’t nailed down had been thrown around like laundry in a tumble dryer.

  “Did you see Jones?” asked Button, hoping the Captain would know where he was.

  “Certainly not, old chap. Haven’t seen him anywhere. I was too busy hanging on to my hat as I was thrown around the cabin like a rag doll.”

  “What if the mice got him, in the middle of the mayhem?” gasped Button.

  “Oh . . . no,” said Lily, a tremble of fear in her voice. She rushed off into the ship, calling Jones’s name.

  “Look,” said the Captain. “I say. The old clock has been ruined.”

  On the floor was the wristwatch face that had hung on the wall, shattered into a thousand pieces. Cogs and glass and tiny hammers and little screws were laid out in front of them like an unsolvable puzzle.

  “Oh, dear,” said Old Uncle Noggin. “It’s ruined for good.”

  “What a mess. It looks like we’ve been robbed!” said the Captain.

  “We’d never do this to anybody,” said Button. “We might be pirates, but we’re only Fridge raiders. We’ve got good hearts.”

  “Don’t worry, lad,” said Old Uncle Noggin. “Old Mr. Tooey don’t know we’re here, does he? Ain’t his fault. He’s only keeping the old place tidy, and we’ll soon have our ship back to where it was.”

  “But we don’t have our clock anymore, and we still don’t know where Jones is and everything is broken,” groaned Button.

  He followed Lily into their cabin, just in case Jones had been hiding there all along. But she’d found nothing, and the room was smashed to pieces. His matchstick-box wardrobe had toppled over and been crushed, the hammocks were in twisted knots, and everything else they owned seemed to be either torn or broken. Lily sighed in defeat and went back to join the rest of the crew.

  Then, in the silence, Button’s hammock shuffled and rustled. The twisted lumps of cloth seemed to be moving.

  Button drew closer.

  And then . . . the hammock meowed.

  “JONES,” said Button calmly. “There you are, old boy. I thought I’d never find you.”

  They sat on the hammock together and Button held the small cat tight.

  “He’s here!” cried Button. The rest of the crew rushed in, making a huge fuss of Jones. He purred noisily at every stroke of his fur and dug his head into Button’s side as if he never wanted to let go of him again.

  “Ah, bless his tail and whiskers. Poor old mog,” said Old Uncle Noggin. “Reminds me of the time I got trapped in the bottom of an old sock.”

  “Oh, here we go,” whispered Button to Lily. “Prepare yourself for another of Old Uncle Noggin’s tales!”

  “Terrible it was. Not the being trapped bit. No, that was bad enough all right, especially seeing as it was such a stripy old stinker. But then I got thrown in the washing machine! Felt the drum filling up with cold soapy water and had to find my way out of the sock and swim to the top. Wasn’t easy, mind you. Thought I was on my way down to old Davy Jones’s locker. But here I am to tell the tale. Didn’t need a bath for a long time after that, I can promise you.”

  Lily and Button chuckled then fell silent. “What a disappointment today has been,” said Button, sighing.

  “What do you mean?” asked Lily.

  “Well, we were set for a day of treasure-hunting, bug-bashing adventure. And in the end all we’ve got is a ship that looks like it’s had cannonballs fired at it all night long.”

  Button stood stroking Jones in his arms, staring out of a porthole window.

  “Come on,” said Lily. “It’s not been that bad. At least we’re all OK.”

  “Yeah, for now,” said Button, still looking out of the round window. “But Mr. Tooey will be back before long, and he’s clumsy at the best of times.”

  “You’re right,” said Lily. “We’d better brace ourselves, hang on to our hats, and prepare for the worst. He’ll be putting us back on the shelf soon.”

  “We need to do something to save the day, Lil,” said Button.

  “Like what?”

  “I’m thinking,” Button muttered. “I might just have an idea bubbling up.”

  “You’ve got that stupid look on your face again, Button,” said Lily.

  “What stupid look?”

  “That look you have when you’ve got a crazy idea in your head and you’ve convinced yourself it will work. That look that worries me . . . A LOT!”

  “I think we have to abandon our treasure hunt,” suggested Button, looking toward the Captain for permission.

  “Oh . . . well, I guess it’s not a bad idea . . . for the time being,” muttered the Captain. “The old place is ruined.”

  Button and Lily had never seen the Captain looking so broken. He was such a cheerful old soul that whenever he l
ooked even vaguely miserable it felt like the world had come to an end.

  “Ah, shame about the treasure,” said Old Uncle Noggin. “But at least the food supplies are OK.” He rubbed his tummy. “I’ll probably be a bit peckish soon. I haven’t eaten for an hour or so.”

  Button grabbed Lily by the hand and hauled her off to check on the supplies. But it was not good news. The thimble jam pot had fallen into the butter and squashed the cheese underneath it. The biscuit bits had been crumbled so much that they’d turned from crumbs to dust and were falling between the floorboards of the ship. Most of the rest of the food seemed to have been shaken out of the bottle.

  “I don’t know where to start,” said Lily, head in her hands.

  “Look!” said Button. Lily joined him at the porthole and they watched as the sneaky mice scurried past with broken bits of the Pocket Pirates’ food.

  “Those cheeky . . .”

  “Now now, old boy,” said the Captain calmly. “They’ve gotten away with it this time. Don’t let them get to you. We’ve a lot of tidying up to do.”

  “What’s the point in starting before we get back on the shelf?” pointed out Lily. “We might as well wait until we’re back in position, or we’ll end up with the old place upside down again.”

  “Come on,” Button whispered to Lily. “There’s something important we need to do.”

  “I thought you’d abandoned the treasure hunt?” said Old Uncle Noggin.

  “Yup. We have,” Button replied as they headed off again.

  “Don’t leave me here to tidy all your mess! Garggggh, young ’uns. They’re all the same!” cried Uncle Noggin.