Cora Flash and the Treasure of Beggar's Bluff (9 page)

"Can this go any faster?" I asked.

"No, I'm afraid not," said Gerald.

"Arrrr," growled Calvin, obviously frustrated at our lack of speed.

We stayed on our course, trying our best to keep up with the larger boat, realizing the distance between us was growing with every wave we passed.

"It's no use," said Gerald. "We'll never catch them at this speed."

"Ahoy there!" yelled a voice.

We turned around and saw Mr. Morgan's large sailboat just behind us. On the stern of the boat waved Shelby and Tricia. Just behind them stood my very,
very
, angry mother.

"Look!" I yelled. "It's Mr. Morgan!"

The Morgans' boat pulled up beside us so we could climb up the small ladder that we used to climb aboard after diving off the back.

"I thought you could use a lift," said Mr. Morgan.

"How did you know we were here?" I asked, once the three of us were safely on board.

"Tricia and Shelby had the good sense to tell their parents what you were doing," bellowed my mother. "When they found out, they called me right away. What were you thinking?"

"I just wanted to find the treasure," I said. "And we did, it's back there."

Shelby's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Are there diamonds and other jewels?"

"No, bars of gold. Tons and tons of gold bars. Some of it might still be on the boat. But Mr. Burton took a lot of it with him. He stole Gerald's boat. We have to catch up to him."

"Where did you leave Ethan?" my mom asked. "Is he with Mrs. Trumble?"

I hesitated, but realized there was no way around it.

"He's with Mr. Burton," I replied. "He took Ethan with him."

I had never heard that register of my mother's voice before. It was strangely high-pitched and booming at the same time.

"WHHHAAATTTTTTTTTT?!" she howled.

"I'm sorry! He said it was his insurance policy."

I thought that since my mother was in the insurance business, this explanation might help to calm her down. It did not.

"What on earth were you thinking?!"

She ran to the steering wheel of the boat, pushing Mr. Morgan aside and pulling the throttle to full. The boat surged forward, knocking Tricia and me to the floor.

"Here," said Mr. Morgan. "Let me. I think I can handle it."

"Just get them!"

The boat raced forward, quickly gaining on the small fishing boat ahead of us.

"Cora," my Mother said. "What you did was very dangerous and extremely careless! What if something happens to Ethan?"

"You're right," I apologized. "You're right. I shouldn't have brought him with me."

"You shouldn't have come at all! This is far too dangerous for anyone! You should have told the police and let them investigate it!"

"Cora," said Shelby. "Tell me about the gold. Did you take any with you?"

"No," I replied. "We didn't have time."

"There is
always
time for gold!"

"How did you find this place?" asked Tricia.

"There were two parts to the map. When I saw the whole map, I knew the treasure had to be somewhere in a place called the Three Wise Men. That's where we were," I said.

I turned to my mother, feeling I owed her as much explanation as possible. "It was Mr. Burton who broke into our house. He was looking for the other part of the map."

"Jake," said my mom to Mr. Morgan. "Can you radio the police? Ask them to call Officer Orzabal and tell him what's going on?"

"Already on it," he said, reaching for the radio.

As Mr. Morgan radioed the police, the fishing boat grew larger, the distance between us decreasing.

"Not far now," I said. "We'll catch up with him soon."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

"Your boat has some serious power," said Mr. Morgan to Gerald.

"I spent a fortune upgrading the engine last year," he said. "Money well spent, apparently."

As the distance between the two boats grew smaller, we could see Mr. Burton's face grow more and more alarmed. He was not counting on a large sailboat catching up with him and his stolen gold bars.

"Ethan!" my Mom yelled from the side of the ship. "It's Mommy!"

Ethan waved at our mother, happy to see she was participating in our fun little adventure.

"What is he doing?" asked Tricia.

Mr. Burton had started to turn the boat back towards us, and was coming up to the side of the boat. He was aiming the fishing boat right at us!

"Is he crazy?" asked Mr. Morgan as we watched Mr. Burton slam the fishing boat into the side of Mr. Morgan's ship.

"You're going to kill us all!" yelled Mr. Morgan. "Frank! Do you hear me? Stop slamming the boats or we'll all drown!"

"The police are coming! You won't get away with this!" my mother yelled. "You can't kidnap a child and expect to get away with it!"

"I don't care about the kid," he shouted. "He's unharmed! Let me go and I'll give him back in return."

"Pull up around the back!" yelled Mr. Morgan.

Mr. Burton did as Mr. Morgan said, and pulled the boat up to the back of the Morgans' boat. We were close enough for my mother to jump over to Gerald's boat and grab Ethan. She hugged him tightly, much to the impatience of Mr. Burton.

"Take him and go!" he yelled.

My mother stood up with Ethan in her arms and climbed back onto the Morgans' boat. No sooner had she stepped aboard than Mr. Burton roared away again, trying to distance himself from us as quickly as possible.

"Fun!" cried Ethan, clearly enjoying himself.

Calvin, happy to see Ethan again, ran over to him and started licking his face, causing Ethan to fall to the floor of the boat in a fit of laughter.

"He's getting away!" called Tricia.

"Not for long, look," I said, pointing to a speedboat quickly approaching from another direction. "Police Marine Unit" was written on the side. "The police are here!"

We could see Officer Orzabal yelling instructions to the captain of the boat, making sure he pursued the right craft.

The police boat grew closer to the fishing boat, which was clearly not matched for speed.

"Hold it there, Burton!" called Officer Orzabal from the loudspeaker of the police boat. "Turn yourself in before anyone gets hurt."

"Never!" yelled the librarian. I could see him picking up one of the bags of gold from the boat and, clutching it tightly to his chest, he jumped overboard into the water.

His attempt to swim was pointless; the gold weighed far too much and was starting to pull him under. He flailed around in the water, his head bobbing above and below the waves.

"Frank!" called Officer Orzabal. "You're going to drown! Drop the gold!"

"Never!" Mr. Burton yelled.

"You'll drown!" yelled Gerald. "For Pete's sake, drop the bag!"

Mr. Burton must have realized it was either going to be his life or the gold, so he dropped the bag and started to tread water, trying to keep himself afloat.

"It's gone," he cried.

The police boat pulled up beside him and Officer Orzabal, with the assistance of another officer, was able to pull him safely onboard.

"Frank Burton," the officer said. "You're under arrest."

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Back at the docks, Mr. Burton had been handcuffed and pushed up against the back of the police car, its lights flashing. The second officer who had accompanied Officer Orzabal wrote down some information on a clipboard as Mr. Burton rolled his eyes in disbelief.

We had all made it back to the dock safely. Gerald's fishing boat was docked in his slip, but as it still had one of the two bags of gold on it, it was off-limits. Yellow police tape surrounded it to keep anyone from boarding.

"How long will I be without my boat?" he asked Officer Orzabal.

"Not too long, Gerald. We'll try to keep the investigation short. Maybe a week, two at most."

"Two weeks?" he cried. "What am I going to do for two weeks?

"Take a vacation. Enjoy it!"

Gerald did not look happy. "Take a vacation? I have
never
taken a vacation. Hey, wait a minute. That's not a bad idea. Hey everyone, I'm taking a vacation!"

We laughed at his excitement, happy that he was able to find a silver lining in the situation.

"I don't think the damage is too bad," said Mr. Morgan, inspecting the part of his boat Mr. Burton had rammed with the fishing boat.

"Insurance should cover it," my Mom said with a smile.

"What is going to happen to the rest of the gold?" asked Shelby, anxious to get back on the boat to collect the rest of the bars.

"The police will send over some investigators, I suppose. They'll see how much is left and work with the officials to determine who owns the gold."

"But Cora found it," said Tricia. "It's hers!"

"I don't think that's how it works, unfortunately," my mom said. "It belongs to the company that was shipping it, if they're still around. Fortunately, gold is worth far more today than it was then, so they'll be happy to know it has been recovered."

"You know who else is going to be happy?" I asked. "Maggie."

***

"Come in, come in," said Maggie, ushering me into her living room.

The day after the most exciting Sunday I'd ever had, I called Maggie to ask if I could stop by her place to see her. The news of what happened the previous day was all over town. The local paper dedicated four full pages to the story, which was one too many in my opinion. They'd even reprinted the treasure map in full color.

"Thank you," I said, taking a seat on her sofa.

"I just can't believe everything I've been hearing," she said. "I can't believe the boat has been discovered after all these years."

"It must be nice to know what happened, even though it didn't turn out very well," I said.

"Oh, you're wrong, it did turn out well. It's a terrible tragedy that I lost Lyle, but at least I know he did not pirate that ship and take off with stolen gold. I know he died trying to save his fellow sailors. He's a hero."

"I found this in the cavern," I said. "It's for you."

I produced the handwritten note from Lyle that I'd found in the bottle.

"I need my specs," she said, reaching for her eyeglasses that were dangling from a chain around her neck. "Let's see here...."

She began to read the letter and a small tear appeared on the side of her eye and rolled down her cheek.

"Oh, Lyle," she said, holding the note to her chest. "He cared enough to write to me, even at the end."

"I have something else for you," I said, producing a letter from my bag.

"Two letters?  My goodness, I never get this much mail!"

She took the letter from my hands and inspected the envelope. "What is this?"

"It's from the insurance company. Now that they know what happened to the gold, and to Lyle, they're going to pay out the life insurance and you can keep your house."

"But how..." she stammered.

"My mother works for the insurance company," I explained. "She experit... expeti..."

"
Expedited
?" said Maggie.

"Yes. Made it go faster."

My mother had worked all day Monday to have the claim settled, and the letter explained to Maggie that her claim would be paid out within seven days.

"Oh, Cora, that's marvelous. I can't thank you enough for all your help."

"You're welcome," I said, "but I have a request to make. I need your help with something."

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

A week later, the day of our presentations at school arrived. I'd decided to have some guest speakers: Gerald Pape, Maggie Gordon, Mr. Morgan, Officer Orzabal, and my mother accompanied me to school to talk about what had happened on the day of our adventure. Even Calvin came along.

Most of the class already knew what happened that day, but they were happy to hear the story first-hand.

"And then we yelled at him to drop the gold," said Officer Orzabal.

"Did he?" asked Alex Bass.

"Yes, absolutely. He would have drowned otherwise."

"So where is the gold now?" asked Jimmy Carson.

"At the bottom of the river," I answered.

The glass gasped at this statement, as each of them considered how to get to the bottom of the river to recover the gold.

"Don't even think about it," said Gerald. "You'll never be able to find it. And even if you did, it would be too heavy to carry up to the surface."

"What about the other gold? Where is that?" asked someone in the class.

Officer Orzabal stood up. "All of the gold that was recovered at the site of the crash has been moved to a vault until the investigation concludes. We are speaking with representatives from the company that was shipping the gold and making sure that this belongs to them. It will probably be returned to them in the end."

"Does Cora get
any
of it?" asked Jimmy.

"No," I answered. "Sorry, Jimmy."

"Don't apologize to me," he said. "You're the one who doesn't have any gold."

I explained to the class that Mr. Burton had made a full confession and was being totally cooperative. He was expected to serve time in jail, but since the trial was still another few weeks away, no one knew how much time he would serve.

At the end of my presentation, the class clapped loudly and even gave me a standing ovation!  I was a little embarrassed, but only for a minute.

"Thank you, Cora," said Mr. Levine. "We'll take a few minutes' break, if you want to ask our guests more questions."

Many of the students got out of their seats and ran up to my guests to ask more questions. They wanted to know more details, even though my presentation covered most of what happened.

"You realize," said Shelby to me, "that I have to present now. I have to go up there and talk about Vegetables."

"I'm sure it will go very well," I said, only half-believing it.

"Yeah, right," she said, turning away from me. As she was about to walk away, she turned around and said, "That was really good Cora, and I'm glad you're safe."

"Thanks," I said, smiling.

"Next time maybe I'll come with you. But you can bet I'll take some of the gold for myself."