The Goose's Gold (4 page)

The kids found themselves crammed in the boat’s tiny bathroom.

There was no room to sit or turn around. The kids just stood and stared at each other.

Suddenly, they heard heavy feet thunder down the cabin stairs. They held their breath.

They heard a small thump, then a bigger one. Then the feet were walking again, this time going up the stairs.

The small room got hot fast. Sweat ran into Dink’s eyes. He could barely breathe.

They waited, but heard no more noises.

“I smell scrambled eggs!” Josh whispered into Dink’s ear.

Dink rolled his eyes.

“Well, I do!” said Josh.

Dink waited a few more minutes, then opened the door a crack. Cool air rushed into the bathroom.

Dink quickly looked around the cabin. He could hear the men talking up above. He gently pulled the door shut.

“They’re up on deck,” he said. “We can’t stay in this bathroom. If one of them wants to use it, we’re sunk!”

“Why don’t we just leave?” Josh asked.

“How do we explain why we’re hiding in their boat?” Ruth Rose said. “It’s too late!”

Dink slipped out of the bathroom and saw a trapdoor in the floor.

Kneeling, Dink pulled the trapdoor open. Josh and Ruth Rose tiptoed out of the bathroom.

Suddenly the kids heard a roar. Then Dink felt the boat begin to move—backward!

“They’re taking the boat out!” he whispered. “Come on, down here!”

The kids scampered down into the boat’s hold. Dink lowered the door over their heads. Except for a crack of light around the trapdoor, they were in darkness.

“This place stinks like rotten fish!” Josh said.

“Now what?” Ruth Rose said.

“I don’t know,” Dink answered. He thought for a minute.

“They must be going out to the dive site,” he said. “We’ll have to hide till they decide to go back to the dock.”

“But that could be all day!” Josh said.

The kids squirmed around, trying to get comfortable.

Dink put his eye up to the crack and saw the underside of the table. To the right, he could just make out the bottom stair leading up to the deck.

“Ouch!” Josh said suddenly. “I think I sat on an anchor!”

“And I scraped my knee on a cinder block!” Ruth Rose said.

Dink moved his hands around the sloping wooden floor. His fingers felt hard, scratchy surfaces. More cinder blocks, a bunch of them.

Then he touched something squishy.

“Guys, I found some life vests,” Dink whispered. “Put ’em on!”

The kids struggled into the vests. Dink kept his eye on the crack. He wanted to know if Spike or Chip came down into the cabin.

“Whose idea was it to get on this boat?” Josh said. “I feel like a prisoner!”

“You wanted to go out on a dive,” Dink said. “You got your wish!”

“Yeah,” Josh said. “But not trapped in some smelly dungeon!”

Dink saw a movement through the crack. A pair of bare feet were backing down the stairs!

“Shh!” he said. “They’re coming down to the cabin!”

They heard footsteps, then voices. Shapes moved back and forth across the trapdoor.

“This place is a pigpen,” one of the men said. Dink recognized Spike’s voice.

“Why bother to clean it?” Chip answered. He giggled. “It’ll get real clean in a little while.”

Dink heard something scrape, then a thump right over his head.

Through the crack, he saw skinny wooden legs. A stool or chair had been dragged up to the small table.

“We got any juice?” Spike asked.

“I doubt it,” Chip answered. “I think there’s milk.”

“They’re eating breakfast!” Josh hissed into Dink’s ear. “I told you I smelled eggs!”

Then somebody sat down at the table. Dink could see one person’s leg from the knee down.

The leg was hairy and tanned.

Suddenly, Dink gasped. Just inches from his eye, he saw a tattoo.

It was an eagle’s head.

Spike was the man he’d overheard at the airport!

Suddenly, Chip was talking. “Ya know,” he said, “I’m gonna miss this old tub when it’s gone.”

“Not me,” Spike answered. “When we get the dough from the old folks, I’m buying the hottest car in Florida. I’m sick of living like a sardine!”

“So when do you want to do it?” Chip asked.

“Soon as I finish eating,” Spike said. “I’ll even let you have the pleasure of using the ax.”

Dink heard Chip laugh. “With all those cinder blocks we brought aboard, the
Goose
will go down in ten seconds!”

“Yeah, it should,” Spike said. “Don’t forget the box. We don’t want that to sink, too!”

Dink felt Josh grab his arm and squeeze. On his other side, Ruth Rose let out a small gasp.

Spike and Chip were planning to sink the
Golden Goose!

“Don’t worry,” Chip was saying. “I already put the gold in the dinghy.”

A chair scraped, and the tattooed ankle disappeared from Dink’s sight.

“After we drown the
Goose
, we’ll take the dinghy back to town,” Spike said. “We’ll lie low till we get the money from the old folks.”

He laughed. “Then we disappear.”

Dink felt his stomach sink. He heard more thumps and footsteps.

“Make sure you don’t leave anything aboard with your name on it,” Spike said. “Paper floats, you know.”

“Don’t worry,” Chip said. “Where’s the ax?”

The voices faded away.

“Did you hear that?” Josh asked. “They’re gonna sink this thing!”

“Shh!” Dink hissed. Suddenly, the kids heard loud smashing noises, one after the other.

Dink gulped. It was an ax striking wood!

Then he heard a thump and footsteps running up the cabin stairs.

Suddenly, he heard a new sound—the gurgle of water flooding into the boat!

“Now!” Dink said. He shoved the trapdoor open and scrambled out. Josh and Ruth Rose were right behind him.

They stepped into salt water.

“Look!” Ruth Rose pointed to a hole in the side of the cabin. Water was rushing in.

“What are we gonna do?” Josh asked.

Dink raced up the stairs and peeked. He saw Spike and Chip tearing across the water in the dinghy.

“They took off!” Dink said. “Come on!”

The kids ran up the stairs and sprinted toward the rear of the boat.

Josh looked down into the water. “Now what do we do?” he squeaked.

“WE JUMP!” Ruth Rose yelled.

And they did.

Dink felt the water rush over his head. Some got in his mouth before he remembered to shut it. His eyes stung from the salt.

Then his life vest shot him to the surface. He was floating.

Josh and Ruth Rose were bobbing nearby in their orange life vests.

“You guys okay?” Dink asked.

“Look!” Josh said, pointing at something over Dink’s shoulder.

Dink spun around in the water.

The
Golden Goose
lay on its side. A few seconds later, it went under.

The kids heard a loud WHOOSH! as the boat disappeared.

“We got off just in time!” Josh said.

“Let’s swim,” Dink said. “Spike and Chip might decide to come back to make sure the boat sank!”

“Swim where?” Josh asked. “I can’t even see land!”

“But I see some boats,” Ruth Rose said, pointing one wet arm. “See those things sticking up out of the water?”

Josh began splashing his arms. “I think those are shark fins!” he yelled.

Ruth Rose laughed. “Sharks don’t have white sails, Josh.”

The kids began swimming toward the boats. Suddenly, Dink heard a roar.

He whipped his head around, expecting to see Spike and Chip bearing down on them. Instead, he saw a large white boat. On the side, in black letters, he read COAST GUARD.

The boat zoomed up, then slowed. The kids bounced in the waves like corks.

“What the heck are you kids doing!” a voice boomed from the boat.

Dink saw a man in a white uniform standing on the deck. He was holding a bullhorn and glaring down at them.

Dink tried to yell, but a wave filled his mouth with water.

Another man threw three round life preservers into the water. “Hang on to those!” the man in white bellowed.

The rings splashed into the water only a few feet away.

Seconds later, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were hauled onto the boat’s deck.

The kids huddled together. A group of men stood staring at them.

The sun was warm, but Dink couldn’t stop shaking.

One of the men draped blankets around their shoulders.

“Well?” the uniformed man said. “I’m waiting.”

He stared at the kids with a strange expression on his face. “You do speak English, I hope.”

Josh grinned. “Yeah. Do you guys have anything to eat? I’m starving!”

The men laughed.

The man holding the bullhorn grinned. “Okay kids, first you tell us why you were swimming to Cuba,” he said, “then we feed you!”

“Awesome!” Josh said as burst after burst of fireworks went off in the sky. It was ten o’clock on New Year’s Eve, two days after they’d been rescued by the Coast Guard boat.

The kids were lying on the lawn in Gram’s backyard. They had just finished a lobster dinner, and their stomachs were full.

Gram came out carrying a tray. “Who has room for chocolate ice cream?” she asked.

Dink groaned. “If I eat one more thing, I’ll bust wide open!”

Josh sat up. “I’ll have some!” he said.

Gram set the tray on the blanket. “Help yourself,” she said, joining the kids.

“That was a super meal, Gram,” Ruth Rose said.

“My pleasure!” Gram said. “You kids are heroes! Thanks to you, the police were able to catch Spike and Chip. We almost lost a lot of money!”

“Well, Dinkus,” Josh said, “you were right. It was Spike on the phone at the airport, and he did say, ’take the dough!’”

Gram Hathaway squeezed Dink’s hand. “You saved the day!” she said.

Dink blushed. “Well, you guys helped, too,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for Ruth Rose, we wouldn’t have been on the
Golden Goose
when those two guys came back. They’d have sunk the boat
and
gotten away with the money.”

“And Josh figured out they were lying about how to clean gold and silver,” Ruth Rose said. “I never even saw that in my book.”

Gram Hathaway smiled. “I know three children who are going to get a reward,” she said.

“A reward?” Josh said. “For what?”

“The gold and silver Spike and Chip showed us was stolen from a museum in Miami,” Gram said. “The museum was offering a reward, and it goes to you three!”

“Awesome—how much?” Josh said.

Ruth Rose laughed. “Don’t be greedy, Joshua.”

Josh slurped up the last of his ice cream. “I’m not greedy,” he said. “I just like money!”

Suddenly a huge mushroom of fireworks went off over their heads. Red, blue, and green sprays of light cascaded toward the earth.

“Make a wish, everyone!” Gram said.

“I wish I had more ice cream,” Josh said.

“I wish I had my own computer,” Ruth Rose said.

“I wish we could stay here longer,” Dink said. “Our vacation went by so fast!”

Gram Hathaway gave Dink a kiss on the cheek. “Your wish is granted,” she said. “You’re all invited back this summer!”