Long Fin Silver Read online

  Mom whispers, “Sorry, but it’s your aunt and uncle’s anniversary, remember?”

  Dad pretends to be looking something up on his octopiPAD.

  Hank takes Mom and Dad’s things into their room, leaving Ralph and me in the corridor with only one way to go-into the room with Harvey.

  Ralph looks at me.

  I look at Ralph.

  “Make the jellyvision work, Harry!” Harvey yells. “I wanna watch Shark Point’s Got Talent!”

  Luckily, by the time we’ve unpacked, it’s dinnertime.

  Ralph, Harvey, and I follow the grown-ups down to the dining room. It’s just as dumpy as the rest of the hotel.

  We all look at the menu. Harvey demands a sandy-floss starter, with a sandy-floss main, and double krill-cream and sandy-floss for dessert.

  As I read my way down the menu, I feel a fin in my ribs. Ralph’s trying to get my attention.

  “Look!”

  I glance up from the menu. Coming through the doors are Crystal and the rest of the dolphin girls, followed by their parents.

  I just stare.

  I must look crazy.

  I HAVE TO GET A GRIP!

  I have a treasure to find! I can’t lose my focus. Concentrate, Hammerskull. Keep your eyes on the prize.

  But as soon as Harvey notices Crystal looking at me, he stops complaining to Aunt Hettie about being made to order sea-vegetables, and twists his hammer into the shape of a love heart.

  “Oooooh, Crystal!” he teases. “Here’s your boyfriend, Harry. Come say hello!”

  Crystal hides behind her friends, and Mom gives me a harsh look for hissing at Harvey. But before I can complain, the dining room’s plunged into almost total darkness.

  I jump, and a shivering Ralph tries to swim under my left fin.

  “W-w-w-what’s going on?” he stammers.

  If the hotel had looked spooky in the daylight, it’s nothing compared to how it looks now.

  A single spotlight hits a pair of long seaweed curtains, which open up to reveal a wide stage. Hank the Turtle is standing there behind a rusty microphone.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Hank mumbles into the mic. “It’s time for the cabaret.” He sounds nervous and tense. Maybe he knows how awful the acts are and he’s worried about the complaints he’s going to get!

  Hank limps off the stage, and the show begins.

  The show is just as rundown and ratty as the hotel.

  First up are Lobsters Eleven-a dance troupe in faded sequins who perform to the worst music ever. I know it’s terrible because Dad taps his tail along to it as he eats, and claps like an octopus when they finish. My dad has legendarily bad taste in music, so you know that if he likes something, it’s going to stink.

  Next on stage is someone Hank introduces as the Great Tentaclops, who is majorly ungreat. He’s an ancient gray-green octopus wearing a red wig that keeps slipping around his big, shiny head.

  He starts singing a song called “My Sea-Way,” by someone called Frank Finatra.

  Mom and Dad love it.

  I just sit here yawning. Ralph darts in and out of my mouth to grab bits of food, and Harvey keeps swimming under the table to tickle my dorsal!

  When will this night ever end?

  When will I be able to start searching for the Black Blood Pearl?

  And will Crystal ever smile at me again?

  I thought Treasure Reef was supposed to be the best vacation spot in the ocean. And this was supposed to be the most awesome vacation ever.

  So far, it was the worst.

  “Listen carefully,” Ralph says to me the following morning. “I’m about to give you a list of all the things I want you to have for breakfast. Number one: Kelp Krispies. Number two: cod-eggs-over-easy. Three: streaky whale bacon. Four: an extra-large helping of halibut hash browns. Five: all washed down with a glass of-”

  “Ralph, stop! Number one: It’s my breakfast. And number two: I do the lists.”

  Ralph stops on the spooky staircase and frowns at me. “Harry, this is my vacation too, and it’s my breakfast too. I want you to eat that stuff so I can pick out the leftovers from between your teeth. Okay?”

  Before I can reply, Harvey tears past us, screaming, “BREAKFAST!” He’s going so fast Ralph and I are sent hurtling back up the stairs in his wake. If only we were on the actual Barracuda, instead of this rickety hotel named after it. At least then we could trick Harvey into climbing up to the sea-crow’s nest so we wouldn’t have to lay eyes on him.

  But then as Ralph and I mope our way downstairs, the weirdest thing happens. A wailing sound starts coming from the dining room. At first I think it must be Harvey making more trouble, but then I see that the dining room is full of guests gathered around Hank. Some are holding up empty octi-purses and suitcases.

  “Everything is gone! All my jewelfish-jewelry!” An elderly squid cries, her tentacles trembling.

  “My diamond necklace-fish is missing too!” a young reef shark says.

  Hank holds up his forefeet, trying to calm the crowd. “Please, everyone, settle down.”

  A dressed-up monkfish holds up an empty jewelry box. “I saw someone! A thief leaving my room with my pearls!”

  “What? Well then, why didn’t you stop him?” a clown fish demands.

  “Because,” the monkfish begins quietly. “Because, it was the ghost of Long Fin Silver!” the monkfish replies, trembling with fear.

  Everyone gasps.

  Especially me.

  Hank’s face falls an entire fathom.

  A terrified-looking bull shark chimes in, “Yes! I saw the ghost too. It was clanking and moaning down the corridor, waving its wooden fin and gleaming sword!”

  The ghost of Long Fin Silver? Here in the hotel?

  Hang on.

  I don’t believe in ghosts.

  This has to be fake.

  “My mom saw the ghost too!” says a voice that I recognize immediately. Crystal swims to the front of the shoal. “Just after he took her rings and barnacle bracelets.”

  “Everyone calm down! You must stay calm!”

  Oh no, this is just what we don’t need. Dad appears from behind the crowd, floating onto a table and addressing the guests like he’s addressing a meeting of the Shark Point Council.

  Please, floor. Open up now. Swallow me whole.

  “It’s the mayor of Shark Point!” someone says. Unbelievably, the crowd turns from Hank to Dad and actually starts to listen.

  “Fellow guests, I have already spoken to Hank, the owner of this charming hotel, long before you discovered the thefts of your precious jewelry. You see, my wife and I were also visited by the ghost of Long Fin Silver last night, but luckily we disturbed him before he could make off with any of our prized possessions.”

  Dad, you’re only making it worse.

  A cheer goes up from the group.

  WHAT?????

  “That’s lucky!” one of them calls.

  “Well done!” says another.

  I look at Ralph.

  Ralph shrugs.

  Harvey looks around for Kelp Krispies.

  “Hank tells me that he is very sorry for what has happened,” Dad continues.

  Hank nods and I think I see tears in the corners of his eyes. “It’s been happening all summer,” he says sadly. “But this is the worst night yet. If news gets out, we’re going to go out of business and lose everything! And who knows what will happen to all of Treasure Reef!”

  “We can’t let that happen, can we?” Dad shakes his fin in determination. “As public-spirited citizens we’re not going to stand for this, are we?”

  Yes, Dad. Yes they are.

  “No!” shouts everyone. “No we’re not!”

  I look at Ralph.

  Ralph double-shrugs.

  Harvey has found some of last night’s sandy-floss on a table at the back of the dining room and is eating it happily.

  “I say we help Hank keep his hotel by keeping our eyes open and our sonars peeled,” Da
d says. “And if we do that, I’m sure we’ll not only be able to stop this from happening again, but we’ll also be able to recover all your lost jewelry.”

  The cheers from the guests are so loud they make the coral-carved windows rattle in their frames.

  Unbelievable.

  “Shhhhhhh! Keep your voice down!” I flap my fin over Ralph’s mouth and look up at the top bunk, where I hope Harvey’s still napping off his enormous sandy-floss breakfast. I remove my fin from Ralph’s face.

  “But how is staking out the reception area of the ocean’s creepiest hotel at midnight going to help you find the Black Blood Pearl?” he whispers. “It doesn’t make any sense!”

  Well it all makes perfect sense to me. I give Ralph a quick list.

  1. We’ll be in the best place to see the ghost of Long Fin Silver.

  2. He has to go through the lobby to get to the rooms.

  3. We can follow him.

  (Ralph looks quite pale at the idea of following a ghost. I carry on with my list . . . .)

  4. Once he’s robbed some jewelry, one of two things will happen.

  “I can think of a million things that will happen,” Ralph interrupts, “all bad, and about three quarters of them involve being SCARED TO DEATH!”

  “As I said, one of two things will happen-One: The ghost is real-so we follow him back to his lair and find out where the Black Blood Pearl is buried.

  “Well, that sounds safe,” Ralph says. “NOT!”

  “Two: He’s not a real ghost, but he is a real jewel thief-so we follow him back to his hideout and get all the jewels back and become heroes!

  “I WANNA FOLLOW THE GHOST!”

  The sides of my hammer droop with disappointment. Harvey is sitting up in his bunk, his eyes glimmering with excitement.

  “I wanna come,” he whines.

  “You can’t,” I say. I think Number 3: Harvey will spoil everything. He won’t be able to keep quiet. He’ll be looking for someone to annoy or food to eat.

  “Okay, then,” Harvey says, getting out of bed, pulling on his robe, and heading for the door.

  “Really?” I say, stunned.

  “Really,” says Harvey with a grin, opening the door.

  “It’s a trap,” says Ralph.

  “Where are you going, Harvey?” I ask, stopping the door with the end of my hammer.

  “Just going to tell Mom, Dad, and Uncle Hugo exactly what you’re planning tonight, and that you’ve both been calling me names and making me cry and won’t let me go to sleep!”

  “Told you,” says Ralph. “A trap.”

  It’s almost midnight and the hotel lobby is totally silent.

  Apart from the creaking of the floorboards as they settle in the night . . .

  Apart from the chill ocean currents whistling past the windows like the dread calls of the lost . . .

  Apart from the grandfather clock in the corner, ticking away like it’s counting down to the appearance of an unspeakable terror . . .

  Apart from Harvey, who’s chomping on a seaberry-ripple and asking, “So when’s this ghost pirate gonna turn up, Haz?”

  He’s started calling me Haz because apparently it “takes too long” to say Harry. Or even Harry Hammerskull.

  Ralph is hiding behind me because he’s too scared to look.

  But Harvey? He is swimming from side to side flashing his angler-fish torch, not even looking the slightest bit nervous.

  Ahead of us and behind us, hallways stretch off into the darkness, their waters getting chillier by the second.

  Maybe Ralph is right.

  Maybe this is a bad idea.

  “Got another seaberry-ripple, Haz Hammerskull?”

  “No.”

  “What have you got?”

  A ferry ride home, if you’re not careful, I think to myself. “Nothing!” I hiss.

  “You’re a goon! A goofy goon! RGNGNGNGHHHHH!”

  I grab Harvey and put my hammer over his mouth. “Please be quiet! Silver’s ghost isn’t going to appear if you’re going to keep begging for ice cream!”

  Poink!!!!

  Ralph pokes me in the dorsal. “Harry!”

  “Wait, I’m dealing with Harvey! He’s nibbling my hammer and it hurts!”

  Poink!!!!

  “Ralph! Stop it!”

  Poink!!!!

  Poink!!!!

  Poink!!!!

  “Ow!” I yell, letting go of Harvey and spinning around to look at Ralph. But . . .

  “ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHH!” yells Harvey, seeing what I see, now that his face is out of my hammer.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” yells Ralph, putting his fins over his eyes.

  “Oh my cod,” I whisper.

  At the end of the corridor-huge, glowing green, and rattling a pirate’s sword-comes the terrifying sight of Long Fin Silver’s ghost. It’s floating straight toward us, moaning.

  “YO . . . HO . . . HO . . . !”

  WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!! Silver’s ghost flashes past us in a rush of cold water and a green glow.

  It moans its way through the lobby toward the dining room. I drag Ralph and Harvey along behind me as I follow. “Silver! Silver!” I call to the mysterious apparition. “Where’s the Black Blood Pearl? Please tell me!”

  Silver’s shoulders hunch and he seems to speed up . . . .

  There’s a strange smell in the water that I don’t recognize, but it definitely wasn’t there before the ghost wafted past.

  I see Silver’s green glow in the dining room, then suddenly it blinks off as if a phantom switch has been flicked.

  When I finally drag Ralph and the protesting Harvey through the dining room door, Silver’s ghost has completely disappeared!

  “It had to be a ghost,” I say to Ralph the next morning on the way down to breakfast. “We looked everywhere for it-and it was totally gone.”

  “I don’t care if it’s a ghost or not. I don’t want to see it ever again!” says Ralph as we enter the dining room.

  “I WANNA DOUBLE CHOC-BAIT SUNDAE FOR BREAKFAST!” yells Harvey. How much food can one little shark eat?

  Just like yesterday, the dining room is full of unhappy hotel guests. Only this time Dad isn’t trying to calm anyone down.

  “Silver’s ghost stole my octopiPAD!” he wails.

  It turns out Silver’s ghost stole even more possessions last night. Hank is beside himself with worry, promising free vacations to everyone who’s had stuff stolen.

  I think about telling Dad I saw the ghost last night but decide not to. It’s not as if we caught him or recovered the stolen goods. I’ll get into trouble for being out of my room late at night. And I’ll get into even worse trouble for taking Harvey with me.

  And I don’t plan on telling him we’re after the Black Blood Pearl.

  “Shall we go into town and buy some snacks?” I say to Ralph. “I don’t think breakfast’s going to be served anytime soon.”

  Ralph nods eagerly.

  “I wanna come too!” Harvey whines. He swims up to my ear and whispers into it. “If you don’t take me, I’ll tell my mom and dad you made me go ghost-hunting last night and I almost died.”

  I’m about to make a list of all the reasons why I hate Harvey, but then my stomach starts to rumble. “Okay,” I hiss. “Let’s go.”

  We tell our parents what we’re doing and swim toward the hotel entrance. A huge shadow falls across us. The Not-So-Great-Tentaclops is floating in the doorway. He’s scratching his head with one tentacle, while holding what looks like a map with two others.

  “Excuse me,” I say as we try to squeeze past him. He reeks of the strongest aftershave I’ve ever smelled-it’s making my eyes water. “Can we get past please, Mr. Tentaclops?”

  Tentaclops looks up from the map. “Yeah, sure, kid.”

  As he moves aside, the morning light glitters on the surface of the map.

  I see that it’s a very old chart of Treasure Reef.

  I can’t help noticing that marked in one corner of it is a
big X next to the letters “B. B. P.”

  Doink!

  Ralph has seen it too. He mouths “B. B. P. ,” at me and then equally silently, his lips make the shapes for: BLACK BLOOD PEARL!!!!!!

  I nod excitedly and look up at Tentaclops. “Er, excuse me, Mister . . . what is that map?”

  Tentaclops shrugs three of his shoulders. “Dunno, kid. Found it outside my room this morning. I hate people who drop litter, don’t you?”

  I nod, but at the same time I’m thinking, Was it dropped by Long Fin Silver’s ghost?

  “If it’s garbage, shall I put it in the trash for you?” I ask nervously.

  Tentaclops nods and hands me the map. “I can’t make head nor beak of it, sonny-knock yourself out.”

  Tentaclops heads off and I look down at the map like it’s the most precious thing in the world . . . BECAUSE IT IS! Hammerskull is about to discover the greatest treasure of the seven seas!

  “ARRGGGHHH!!!!! Haz! Help me! HELP ME!!” Harvey screams as the riptide drags him up and over the reef!

  Wait.

  What?

  How did we get here?!

  Okay. I don’t have a lot of time to explain, so here’s a quick list . . . .

  1. Me, Harvey, and Ralph have some breakfast in the Treasure Reef Diner.

  2. We study the map so closely it makes my eyes hurt. (Harvey isn’t interested in the map. He has the ocean’s largest choc-bait sundae, while Ralph and I plan our route up into the Coral Mountains to the B. B. P.)

  3. After breakfast we head up the Coral Hills behind the hotel, getting more excited by the second. I can smell the treasure!

  4. The map takes us up and up toward the shallows of the Diamond Sea. Ralph is a little bit scared. I put on my brave Hammerskull pirate face (including fin-patch) and lead the way with my swordlike tail.

  5. When we reach the top of the mountain, the sea’s surface is only two tail-lengths above our heads! But we’re sooooooooooooo close to the big X on the map!

  6. We get to the X .

  7. We start to dig . . . .

  8. “ARRGGGHHH!!!!! Haz! Help me! HELP ME!!” screams Harvey.