Long Fin Silver Read online

  Okay, we’re caught up now.

  The map hasn’t led us to the treasure of all treasures . . . .

  It’s led us into some really dangerous riptides!

  Harvey, who isn’t used to water moving this fast, is being dragged away!

  I drop the shovel and power my tail as hard as I can.

  “Ralph!” I call. “Go back to the hotel and tell Mom and Dad!”

  In the middle of all the commotion a swirl and whirl of a riptide knocks me over, and the treasure map goes swooshing away.

  Gone and lost forever.

  Now, you would think that Harry Hammerskull would be shouting and yelling that his glorious treasure was never to be found.

  But that was the old Harry Hammerskull.

  The new Harry Hammerskull?

  I don’t care about long-lost stolen pearls.

  I don’t care about goofy treasure.

  I don’t care about dorky pirates.

  All I care about?

  Saving High-Seas-Harvey!

  Out of the corner of my hammer I see Ralph swimming back down the coral slope into safer waters, hopefully on the way to my parents.

  I’m swept out toward the rapidly disappearing Harvey.

  There’s no way I can swim fast enough through the churning water to catch up with him. I have to think of something.

  Ding!

  An idea!

  Ding! Ding!

  Two more.

  Yes . . . yes . . . it might work!

  I dive hammerfirst into the reverse riptide, pulling me away from Harvey! Switching on my hammer-vision, (Hammerheads might have ridiculous rubbery heads, but we have the best shark-senses in the sea.) I trace the line of the two currents, looking for where they meet above the sharpest coral.

  Ping!

  There they are!

  My hammer-vision sizzles with blue radar signals and yellow sonar-leading to where the currents crash into each other in a rushing whirlpool.

  WHAM!!!!

  I crash into the whirlpool.

  SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

  I let it take me, hard, around and around . . . .

  Ping! goes my hammer-vision as I focus on Harvey’s tiny shadow.

  I begin the most vital countdown of my life.

  FIVE!

  FOUR!!

  THREE!!!

  TWO!!!!

  ONE!!!!!

  ZERO!!!!!!

  I dig my left hammer into the wall of whirling water-which crashes my hammer-vision software immediately.

  My body jackknifes straight-out into the bright, waterless air-just a dark speck of boy-shark sailing across the endless blue of the sky.

  I try to remember EXACTLY where I last spotted Harvey with my hammer-vision. I twist a three-sixty nose-fluke straight into the sickest dorsal-wing and fin-propeller! I turn in the air, flip over, come crashing back into the waves, and . . .

  BANGWASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHAPPPPP!!!!

  Harvey is in my fins, and the force of my splashdown pushes us both away from the rushing riptides over our heads and . . .

  WHOOOOOOPOOOOO-SWISH-WHOOOOPPPPPP!!!!

  HARVEY IS SAFE!

  “Thank you, Harry! Thank you!” Harvey hugs me tight. Just like he did when he was a baby shark. As we reach the safer, deeper waters, he looks up at me with the googliest, happiest hammer-eyes ever!

  “And now I will perform my greatest trick! The Disappearing Cabinet of Doom!”

  A gasp goes up from the hotel diners as a spotlight hits a shabby cabinet being wheeled onto the stage by the Not-So-Great-Tentaclops.

  The cabinet has pictures on the side that look like they’ve been painted by a three-year-old lobster. They’re supposed to show Long Fin Silver, but they look more like an accident in a squid-ink factory.

  WIN!

  “Into the Cabinet of Doom I will place various items,” the Not-So-Great-Tentaclops says, as he opens the cabinet door and stuffs a potted coral inside. “Abrabarracuda!” He waves his magic frond around, then opens the door.

  The potted coral is gone.

  Everyone claps wildly, especially Dad.

  In fact, Dad makes so much noise, whistling and whooping, that Tentaclops shades his eyes against the spotlight and waves over at him. Then his huge glassy eyes spot me and he takes a sharp breath. I guess he’s feeling guilty about giving us the map that sent us off into such danger, and didn’t even lead us to the Black Blood Pearl.

  Tentaclops continues shoving things into his cabinet and making them disappear.

  I tried to catch Crystal’s eye. She’s sitting at the next table with her family, but she’s too busy looking at Tentaclops.

  Poink. Ralph fins me in the side.

  I ignore him and start folding a napkin into a stingray shape, ready to launch it toward Crystal to get her attention.

  Poink!

  “Ralph!”

  “I’ve had an idea,” he says.

  I sigh and put the napkin down.

  “What is it?”

  Ralph swims closer to me. “You know last night when Long Fin Silver’s ghost came into the dining room and then completely disappeared?”

  I nod.

  “Well, what if he went into that Cabinet of Doom thingy?”

  “Huh?”

  “It’s just a stupid trick, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, those things that Tentaclops is putting in there must be going somewhere . . . maybe, just maybe, it’s where the ghost went too!”

  It doesn’t take me two seconds to realize that Ralph has a point.

  “We need to get a look inside that cabinet, Ralph.”

  But before we can do anything, Tentaclops runs out of things to make disappear, so he stuffs himself in the cabinet and slams the door. There’s a muffled “Abrabarracuda!” from inside the cabinet. Then the door swings back open and, shazam! The cabinet is empty.

  The crowd goes wild, the stage curtains close, and Hank floats up onto a chair. “Sharks and crustaceans, I would like to thank you all for your kind support during this difficult time . . . .”

  As Hank drones on, Ralph and I dart under the tables and head for the stage.

  Ralph pulls aside the curtain, and we dive behind it. Backstage is dimly lit, and we can only just hear the voices and clapping beyond the curtains. What I can smell, immediately, is Tentaclops’s horrible aftershave. It lingers in the water like bad bottom-toots.

  Covering my nose with a fin, I approach the Cabinet of Doom.

  Close-up, the pictures of Long Fin Silver are even more pathetic and childish.

  I slowly open the cabinet and peek inside. The stench of Tentaclops is even worse.

  Holding my nose, I swim in.

  The walls, the floor, and the top of the cabinet all seem pretty solid. I can’t see how anything, let alone Tentaclops, managed to disappear from inside here.

  “Where’s Harry, Ralph?”

  Oh no! It’s Mom! She must have stuck her head through the curtain. Ralph slams the cabinet door shut and suddenly I’m in total darkness.

  “I don’t know, Mrs. Hammerhead,” I hear Ralph say. “Maybe he’s gone back to his room. He must be really tired after today.”

  “Ah, that’s a shame, his dad’s about to make a speech.”

  I hear the curtain swoosh back into place, so I reach out to push the door open, but in the darkness I can’t find the handle. As I fumble about with my fin, there’s a click, and . . .

  Bam!!!!

  The floor beneath me falls away. But I balance on the ledge and see a long, rocky tunnel lit by an eerie green glow. It leads right down under the hotel.

  I get a whiff of Tentaclops’s aftershave, but strangely I can smell the same weird smell I noticed when Long Fin Silver’s ghost appeared!

  Ralph was right. This must have been how the ghost escaped.

  I should go down there, shouldn’t I?

  I should go to check if Tentaclops is okay.

  But it’s really scary, and cold and g
reen and glowy.

  Harry Hammer would never be brave enough to go down there.

  But . . . the Dread Pirate Harry Hammerskullandcrossbones would go down there like a shot!

  I push my tail-like sword forward and whisper, “Yo, ho, ho.” I crank my Pirate Courage to maximum and drop down into the tunnel!

  Down, down, deeper and deeper I go. The green glow gets greener and the weird smell gets stronger. Eventually the tunnel opens up into a wide cavern. The water is cold and stagnant and deathly quiet.

  Even Harry Hammerskull is getting a bit creeped out, but I’ve come too far to turn back now. I have to go on.

  As I reach the back of the cavern, something glimmers and catches my eye. The glimmer is red and it’s blinking beneath a pile of coral and seaweed.

  I reboot my hammer-vision and use it to scan beneath the coral.

  Leaping into focus, sharp-edged and flat-screened, is my dad’s octopiPAD!

  I quickly move the coral and seaweed out of the way.

  And there, in the sand, is not only my dad’s octopiPAD, but the jewels stolen by Long Fin Silver’s ghost! I move the octopiPAD to one side and start collecting finfuls of jewelry. Suddenly my hammer-vision almost pings my hammer off! It’s picking up something round buried deep below the surface.

  I start to dig.

  And dig.

  And dig.

  And just when I almost stop digging, something rolls out from beneath a rock. It’s black and beautiful and the most amazing treasure I’ve seen on this entire vacation.

  Could it be?

  No!

  Could it?

  It must be! It’s the BLACK BLOOD PEARL!

  I’VE FOUND IT!!!

  I hold the pearl up to my hammer, looking deep into its shiny black surface. I can almost hear the voices of the baroness of sharks and the king of sands as they curse Long Fin Silver for stealing the pearl and ruining their love forever!

  “GIVE ME BACK THAT PEARL! IT’S MINE!”

  I spin around to see Long Fin Silver’s ghost glowing green through the gloom.

  My heart does seventeen nosedives in my chest. Silver’s sword slices through the water toward me.

  I have to get out of here right now!

  Kicking up a cloud of sand to hide my escape route, I clutch the Black Blood Pearl and Dad’s octopiPAD in my fins and swim as fast as I can toward the tunnel.

  “Come back, you little thief!” Silver’s ghost booms as he whooshes after me.

  With no time to waste, I carve a sharp semicircle through the water and dive hammerfirst up the tunnel, trying not to scrape my back against the sharp coral walls.

  I can feel Silver’s breath on my tail as I kick.

  “Give me that pearl! It’s mine, I tell you! Mine! I’ve been searching for it for years!”

  I swim on, kicking harder than I ever have before, going up and up toward the Cabinet of Doom.

  Up . . .

  and . . .

  up . . .

  and . . .

  up . . .

  until . . .

  CRASHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

  I smack into the roof of the cabinet and almost knock myself out.

  As I look down I see that Silver isn’t quick enough to brake, and I just manage to get out the of the way as he slams into the cabinet and . . . KERRRRRRRRRRRRRRASHHHHHHH!!!! . . . it disintegrates!

  Silver and I cartwheel out of the shattered box, through the stage curtains, and burst into the dining room into the middle of the hotel guests.

  Everyone starts to panic.

  “Run! It’s the ghost!” they cry. “THE GHOST!”

  Holding the Black Blood Pearl and his octopiPAD, I rush toward Dad, who’s still midspeech.

  Long Fin Silver is in hot pursuit, his weird smell filling the water around me.

  I crash sideways into a group of startled hotel staff-squids, getting totally tangled in their tentacles . . . and that’s when the pearl and the octopiPAD fly out of my fins!

  Dad ignores the pearl and dives straight for his octopiPAD.

  The pearl bounces off his hammer . . . and lands right in the middle of Crystal’s dinner!

  Dad’s tail slips sideways.

  Silver crashes straight into it, and he gets tangled in the mass of squid legs beside me.

  My heart is beating like it’s going to bust out of my chest!

  Luckily, the squids realize they’ve caught the ghost, and they tighten their tentacles. Long Fin Silver tries to break free, but the more he wriggles, the more tangled he becomes. Then his sword floats away on the currents caused by the panicking guests. The same powerful currents start pulling the ghost’s hair up, up, and . . .

  Oh my cod! Long Fin Silver’s hair floats away!

  But he’s a ghost! How can that even be possible???

  What’s left is a red-colored wig and the green head of . . . THE GREAT TENTACLOPS!

  “Look, everyone!” I yell. “Tentaclops was the ghost all along!”

  Half in and half out of his Long Fin Silver costume, Tentaclops is a pathetic sight. And now I know where the horrible smell is coming from. The ghost costume is covered in sticky, green, luminous paint. That must be why Tentaclops wore so much aftershave-to try to cover the stink.

  Everything is starting to make sense.

  And ding!

  I remember Tentaclops giving me the map.

  He probably thought we knew he was behind all the thefts. He also probably believed we knew he was masquerading as the dreaded pirate Silver. But-we knew nothing until we discovered everything!

  So Tentaclops faked the map to take us up to the dangerous riptides and get us out of the picture!

  What a nasty piece of work.

  “Hank,” Dad calls, hugging his octopiPad. “I think we have your thief. I suggest you call the police and have him arrested. Do you have anything to say for yourself, Tentaclops?”

  Tentaclops struggles in the tight tentacles. “I would have escaped if it hadn’t been for those pesky squids! You were all foolish enough to believe I was the ghost of Long Fin Silver! I could have gotten away with the Black Blood Pearl-the greatest jewel of the sea!”

  “Well done, Harry!” proclaims Dad. “You exposed his evil stealing ways! You’re a true hero!”

  “Harry the Hero. Harry the Hero!” everyone in the dining room starts to chant. Ralph and Harvey each take one of my fins and hold them up in the water. Harvey starts dancing around as they all cry: “HARRY THE HERO!!!!”

  After the police have taken Tentaclops away, Hank comes over and shakes me warmly by the fin. “Harry, I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done today,” he says with a beaming grin. “Now that Tentaclops is behind bars, I’ve got the chance to make the Hotel Barracuda the success I’ve always wanted it to be. It’ll be tough, but I’m going to give it my best shot.”

  “Oh, I don’t think it’ll be that tough, Hank,” I say with a knowing smile.

  “Really?”

  “Yes.” I turn and call out to Crystal.

  “Yes, Harry,” she says as she swims over.

  “Show Hank what plopped onto your plate in all the commotion.”

  Crystal smiles broadly and holds out her fin.

  The Black Blood Pearl gleams in the water.

  “Is that-is that what I think it is?” Hank stammers.

  “It sure is. The Black Blood Pearl was buried beneath your hotel, Hank. So it must belong to you. I bet every fish in the sea would come to see the famous Black Blood Pearl of Long Fin Silver on display!”

  Hank’s eyes fill with happy tears. “Harry, you’ve saved the Hotel Barracuda. How can I ever thank you?”

  I think for just one second and then say, “How about fully loaded choc-bait sundaes for my mom, my dad, my aunt, my uncle, Crystal . . .”

  Crystal smiles at me.

  I smile at Crystal.

  “And . . .”

  “I WANNA CHOC-BAIT SUNDAE!” cries Harvey.

  “High-Seas-Harvey,” I
say, and give an even bigger smile to the most annoying, pesky, and unforgettable little cousin in the deep blue sea.

  THE END

  Meet Harry and the Shark Point gang . . . .

  HARRY

  Species: hammerhead shark

  You’ll spot him . . . using his special hammer-vision

  Favorite thing: his Gregor the Gnasher poster

  Most likely to say: “I wish I was a great white.”

  Most embarrassing moment: when Mom called him her “little starfish” in front of all his friends

  RALPH

  Species: pilot fish

  You’ll spot him . . . eating the food from between Harry’s teeth!

  Favorite thing: shrimp Pop-Tarts

  Most likely to say: “So, Harry, what’s for breakfast today?”

  Most embarrassing moment: eating too much cake on Joe’s birthday. His face was COVERED in pink plankton icing.

  JOE

  Species: jellyfish

  You’ll spot him . . . hiding behind Ralph and Harry, or behind his own tentacles

  Favorite thing: his cave, since it’s nice and safe

  Most likely to say: “If we do this, we’re going to end up as fish food . . . .”

  Most embarrassing moment: whenever his rear goes toot, which is when he’s scared. Which is all the time.

  RICK

  Species: blacktip reef shark

  You’ll spot him . . . bullying smaller fish or showing off

  Favorite thing: his black leather jacket

  Most likely to say: “Last one there’s a sea snail!”

  Most embarrassing moment: none. Rick’s far too cool to get embarrassed.

  About the Author

  DAVY OCEAN has traveled the seven seas in search of good seafaring shanties and fishy tales. He currently resides in a small fishing town that overlooks Shark Point and allows him uninterrupted access to the antics of a small community of hammerhead sharks and its fellow ocean neighbors.

  AARON BLECHA is an artist who designs funny characters, animates silly cartoons, and illustrates humorous books. His work includes illustrations for the bestselling book series George Brown, Class Clown. Originally from the United States, Aaron now lives with his family by the south English seaside.