The Treasure Keepers Read online

  Stanley chose the nearest hole and shoved everyone down it. “Run!” he screamed at Berkeley.

  They thundered onward through the mines, the buccaneers chasing them through the darkness. But the more they ran, the more the pirates’ numbers gathered behind them as one by one the skeletal protectors awoke.

  Stanley took a sneaky glimpse behind him. By now there must be hundreds.

  The only advantage the children held was that they were small and they flew through the tiny spaces like little rockets—all except for Annabelle, whose height meant she kept banging her head.

  Stanley pushed them on, but the children were so exhausted they could barely keep going.

  The gathering force behind them was so large that its noise became deafening.

  Stanley was thinking quickly as he ran, and threw his directions toward the front.

  “Follow the fuse wire, Berkeley.”

  Berkeley puffed and blew; he was running out of steam. The musical sound of the skeletons’ hollow bones echoed in the children’s ears.

  But at last they could hear the sounds that told Stanley he was where he wanted to be.

  “Hear those voices, Berkeley?”

  “Yeah,” Berkeley replied, gasping.

  “That’s what we’re heading for.”

  Olive was flagging, slowing down until the others were almost tripping over her. Stanley put his hands around her waist and hoisted her up, carrying her along.

  “Keep going!” he roared.

  Only seconds later, the children spilled out into a big cave and fell on top of one another, gasping for air. But Stanley looked up and could see what he had wanted to find: Beale and Nook, laying more fuse wire.

  “It’s those pesky kids again. You’re a little late,” grinned Mr. Nook.

  “Really?” said Stanley. “That’s a shame. I wanted you to meet your neighbors.”

  Right there and then the hordes of warriors filed out of the narrow tunnels, fixing their eyes upon the two villains. Nook and Beale stared back in sheer panic. For a second everyone was still.

  The Alliance looked to Stanley.

  Mr. Nook held his shotgun in both hands, shaking violently. Mr. Beale was equally dumbfounded and seemed unable to move.

  Swords were raised, shields were primed, and the commotion began.

  Stanley had to get his gang out of there.

  As the treasure thieves were confronted by its protectors, Stanley pulled the children on to all fours and they sneaked away unnoticed. Through a crowd of bony legs they filed in line to the nearest escape hole.

  Down they went into the darkness, up to their elbows and thighs in water, until they reached a pinprick of light that led them to an empty space where more candles were slowly burning out. And as they went, they listened to the clattering of swords and shields with which Beale and Nook fought for their lives.

  The battle would be begun and finished, like so many others had been, in the depths of the smugglers’ mine.

  In a short while they were back in the basement. Water had started to wash through the mines, and the dynamite would now prove to be useless as it swam around in the drink. As they spilled out onto the rough grass at the back of the Darkling house Mr. and Mrs. Darkling appeared, back from one of their walks with Steadman.

  “Get down,” said Stanley, and they hunched into a corner as the pair sauntered by, talking and smiling. The Darkling children had been so wrapped up in recent events that they had neglected to notice how much happier things had become at home: Mrs. Darkling was more cheerful than she had ever been, and Mr. Darkling was somehow a milder-mannered, more pleasant form of his old self.

  Steadman wagged his broad tail, licked Stanley’s face, and then carried on behind Mr. and Mrs. Darkling.

  Eventually they made it back to Candlestick Hall.

  Mr. and Mrs. Carelli stood at the door as the sand-caked, sodden figures of the Secret-Keepers Alliance wandered toward them.

  Stanley expected Mrs. Carelli to explode. She had probably just mopped the floor or cleaned the hallway. But with an expression that almost said, “I give up,” she greeted them in turn and watched them track mud through the house.

  In a short while the Alliance was standing under the glass case, reporting the fantastical episode to the pike.

  “Who would have believed it?” laughed Stanley. “Saved by pirates after all!”

  “A happy ending?” said Daisy, turning to Annabelle and the twins.

  “Well, about as happy as it could get on the Rock!” said Olive and Berkeley at the same time.

  “What will become of the skeletal buccaneers?” asked Stanley.

  “Oh, don’t worry. As quickly as they awoke, they’ll return to their sleep,” the pike assured them.

  “And if anyone else tries to take the gold?” asked Daisy.

  “Good luck to them! They won’t get very far,” the pike replied. “Now, can I rest? I don’t seem to have slept soundly in such a long time. Not since Stanley first arrived!”

  “I’m sure you can sleep,” said Stanley. “The Rock is at peace.” He looked out through the open window onto the harbor as the moonlight began to wash across the streets and houses.

  In a short while the pike was indeed asleep. He slept comfortably at first, but then he began to twitch. His heart beat a little faster. Fast enough to wake him in wonder. He stared with an open eye into the blackness of the corridor. And he was sure, just for a moment, that something was about to disturb him!

  Text and illustrations copyright © 2010 by Chris Mould.

  First published by Hodder Children’s Books,

  a division of Hachette Children’s Books, a Hachette Livre UK company.

  Published by Roaring Brook Press

  Roaring Brook Press is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing

  Holdings Limited Partnership

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  www.roaringbrookpress.com

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  Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress.

  ISBN: 978-1-59643-389-2

  eISBN: 978-1-42995-171-5

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  First Edition October 2010

  Book design by T Dikun

  in September 2010

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