The Treasure of Dead Man's Cove Read online

  You follow the mayor as she heads off to the town hall.

  Inside, she takes off her huge pirate hat, revealing a tall beehive hairdo that looks like it’s straight out of a bad 1960s movie. She unlocks a door that is tucked away at the back of the hall.

  ‘This ’ere be my pirate room.’

  You stare in wonder at the pokey little room, which is filled from floor to ceiling with boxes and books and newspapers and magazines. Your eye is immediately drawn to an old frame leaning up against a battered bookcase. There’s a map behind the glass.

  You pick it up and stare at it.

  ‘Ah, the map.’ The mayor sidles up beside you. ‘I was so sure that would lead me to One-Eyed William. But no luck.’

  You ask about the skull-and-crossbones symbol on the map.

  ‘It marks a cave in the cliffs to the east of the cove,’ explains the mayor, her eyes gleaming. ‘I used to go there on my days off to search for William. Everyone thought I was mad. Mad! But I was sure he was there … hiding somewhere within the rocks.’ She sighs. ‘Now, the cliff face has become unstable. Mind you, that doesn’t stop the local kids from playing there.’

  If you think that going to the cave sounds exciting, despite the danger, go here.

  If you’d rather stay and look through the mayor’s amazing pirate collection, go here.

  You and Jack start digging. After a while, you notice that you’re doing more of the digging than him. You are about to complain, when he announces that he and the others have to leave. Before you can say anything, they’re gone.

  You look at the hole you’ve been digging and wonder if this is all just some kind of trick.

  If you think you should keep digging just in case there is treasure, go here.

  If you think that digging is a waste of time, you can go down to the cove. Go here.

  You and your parents walk along a path towards the cove, stopping off at the guesthouse to pick up a bag that your mum packed earlier. The path leads you through some trees. You come to a junction. One path heads down towards the cove. The other goes further into the trees that line the top of the cliff.

  You go down the first path and onto the sand. Your parents unpack the bag, put up a beach umbrella and lay out some towels. Your dad takes out a book and your mum gets her iPod. You look around at the cove with its pebbly sand and high cliff.

  If you want to go exploring, go here.

  If you’d rather stay and have a snack, go here.

  Professor Wagner thanks you for agreeing to help. He takes a letter from his jacket pocket and hands it to you.

  The letter is so old and tattered it’s almost falling apart. ‘This letter,’ explains the professor, ‘is from William to his wife.’

  You read the letter …

  My dearest Mavis,

  I sense that my time is near. The men grow restless for their share of the treasure. But those scheming bilge rats will never get their hands on it. I’ve hidden it. When our son has come of age, give him this letter and this advice …

  At the cave of the deceased pirate, William’s Roger points.

  Always shake a hand.

  Be swift of foot.

  Seeing red will help you out.

  Yours always,

  William Wagner the First

  A ‘deceased pirate’ is a dead man. It must be referring to Dead Man’s Cove. Maybe there’s a cave there?

  The two of you head down to the cove. You see your parents set up under a beach umbrella.

  You and the professor walk along the bottom of the cliff, where the sand meets the craggy rock wall. A dip in the sand against the cliff catches your eye. You look closer. You can just see the top of a hole in the rock. You get down on your knees and dig away the sand, revealing a narrow tunnel.

  ‘That must be it,’ says Professor Wagner. He pulls a torch out of his pocket, gets down on his hands and knees and tries to squeeze in. It looks much too tight. Perhaps you should go back and get the shovel the professor had used when digging the hole?

  If you decide to get the shovel, go here.

  If you think that fetching the shovel is too much effort, go here.

  You ask the mayor if you can borrow her map.

  ‘Sure ye can,’ she says, slipping back into pirate-speak, her eyes lighting up with hope. She takes the map out of its frame and hands it to you.

  ‘Just be careful,’ the mayor calls out as you leave the town hall.

  You follow the map down to the eastern beach. You climb over sand dunes and pass a ramshackle old hut before finally reaching the cave.

  DANGER! KEEP OUT!

  UNSTABLE AREA!

  The sign is bolted to the rock beside the cave. Perhaps you shouldn’t go in? But then you notice footprints that lead into the cave. Someone has been here recently.

  If you decide to enter, go here.

  Maybe it’s too dangerous? The mayor’s collection of pirate stuff could be just as interesting. To return to the collection, go here.

  You keep digging. It’s not long before your shovel strikes something hard.

  You uncover a rusty metal box. Inside is a map of the local area. It’s torn around the edges and stained a yellowy brown colour. It looks really old and smells funny. It shows the town and the cove, and the beach to the east of the cove. A cave is marked on the map in the eastern cliff face. There is a red X inside the cave. Could this be a map to One-Eyed William’s treasure?

  If you want to look for the treasure, go here.

  If you think the map might be a trick, take it to the museum and show it to the curator. Go here.

  You look around. The tide is out and there is a vast area of sand enclosed by the huge arc of a high cliff, which tapers off to the west.

  You look at the path you walked down. It leads back up to the top of the cliff, where you could explore through the trees.

  Or you could walk along the bottom of the cliff face, searching for caves.

  If you decide to walk back up the path to the trees, go here.

  If you want to look for caves, go here.

  You run back to get the shovel.

  Out of breath, you pass the shovel to Professor Wagner. He chips away at the side of the hole, widening the passage.

  The two of you crawl through, into a small, damp cave. Tucked into a corner is a wooden chest. Your eyes light up and your heart thumps with excitement.

  The professor opens the chest.

  But there’s no diary! Or treasure! It’s full of old bottles. Now what?

  Go here.

  You stand back as Professor Wagner squeezes himself into the hole in the rock face. He doesn’t get very far before he gets stuck. You watch him squirm and thrash his legs about. Then you hear a muffled voice.

  ‘Help! My jacket is caught!’

  You grab onto his legs and pull. But he won’t budge.

  You run to get your parents. Your mum and dad each grab a leg and pull. The professor rockets out of the hole with the sound of tearing tweed.

  A loud rumbling noise erupts from the cliff face and then a cloud of dust shoots out from the hole, followed by a cascade of rocks … blocking the entrance.

  Poor Professor Wagner drops to his knees and starts digging at the rocks. It’s a hopeless task. He’ll never get through. And the diary will probably never be found.

  You head back out to the beach and to your parents.

  The following morning, Professor Wagner’s picture is on the front page of the local newspaper. Not only did he find One-Eyed William’s diary, but also the treasure. These discoveries will ensure that the town of Seabreeze will become a tourist attraction and so the professor is hailed as a hero. The town’s museum, which will display the treasure, will be renamed in his honour.

  ‘Imagine what it would be like, finding all that treasure,’ says your dad.

  ‘We should go to the museum again,’ says your mum. ‘Now that’s something worth seeing.’

  Perhaps you should have gone with Professor
Wagner after all?

  You decide to enter the cave. There is plenty of light at first. But as you go further in, things get dark and gloomy.

  You finally reach a small cavern. There are boulders and rocks piled up around the edges, as if there have been cave-ins in the past. In the centre of the cavern, atop a flat rock, is a gaudy-looking jewel-encrusted treasure chest. A lantern hangs above it, lighting the area.

  You open the chest.

  As the lid creaks open, spiders jump out at you.

  You scream and fall back onto the ground, thrashing your arms around wildly.

  But then you realise the spiders aren’t moving. They’re just lying on the ground where they landed. You reach out and tentatively poke one of them. It’s made of rubber. Someone’s idea of a joke. On the inside of the chest lid are the words:

  SURPRISE!

  From Jack, Jill and Polly

  You get to your feet and take out your phone. Using the torch app, you do a thorough search of the cavern … but find nothing.

  You’re about ready to give up, when your eye catches movement on the wall. You shine your phone towards it and see a real spider. It scuttles along and nestles into a web in the top corner at the very back of the cavern. You notice something on the wall beneath the web. A drawing?

  Quickly, you grab the fake treasure chest, bring it to the back of the cavern and stand on it. You use one of the rubber spiders to brush away the real spider and its web. There, on the rock, is a skull-and-crossbones symbol, just like on the map. You reach out to touch it. The rock moves beneath your fingers. You press it. It pushes into the wall.

  The cavern is filled with an ominous rumbling. A portion of the ceiling falls away and crashes to the ground … and a section of the back wall crumbles to dust.

  Heart thumping, you jump down from the chest and shine your phone at the hole. There’s a tunnel leading further into the rock. Should you go in?

  If you decide to ignore your fear and enter the tunnel, go here.

  But maybe it would be wiser to get the mayor to come with you? Go here.

  The mayor’s pirate archive is very large indeed.

  You open up a box at random and start sifting through. It’s full of newspaper clippings. You stop to look a little closer at one of the articles. You recognise the person in the picture – it’s the guy staying at the guesthouse. It says that his name is William Wagner the Fifth and that he’s a descendent of One-Eyed William. It also says that he’s a historian, that he’s writing a book about the famous pirate and that he is planning to search for William’s diary in Seabreeze.

  You decide you should tell him about the mayor’s archive of pirate information.

  You go to look for him and find him lurking about the trees at the top of the cove.

  ‘Oh yes,’ says Professor Wagner, holding onto the lapels of his jacket. ‘I know all about the mayor’s archive. But there’s nothing there that I don’t already know.’

  You’re disappointed that you couldn’t help him.

  ‘Oh, but you can,’ he says. ‘Would you like to help me search for the diary?’

  You agree to help.

  Go here.

  In your rush to leave, you trip over and fall across the flat stone in the centre of the cavern. You feel it shift beneath you. There’s a loud clanking sound as it sinks partway into the ground, and then a distant rumble.

  You dust yourself off and run as fast as you can, all the way to the town hall. The mayor excitedly waddles back to the cave with you. But when you get there … You discover that there has been a cave-in, blocking the entrance. The mayor sadly waddles off, leaving you standing on the beach.

  You try moving the rocks, but it’s hard work and you don’t get far. You find a battered old gold coin. It spurs you on, and you spend the rest of your holiday trying to dig your way into the cave. But you barely get two metres in before it’s time to go home.

  This has been the worst holiday ever!

  You follow the map to the beach that’s east of the cove. You climb over lots of sand dunes and pass a rundown old shack. Finally, you reach the cave. A sign is bolted to the rock:

  DANGER! KEEP OUT!

  UNSTABLE AREA

  Perhaps you shouldn’t go in? But then you notice footprints are leading inside. Someone has been in the cave before you.

  If you decide to ignore the danger and enter, go here.

  If you choose to abandon the search and take the map to the museum, go here.

  You walk down the track to Dead Man’s Cove. Your parents have set up a beach umbrella and are relaxing under it. They see you and wave. They’ve probably brought food with them, and you are feeling a little hungry. But you’d also like to explore the cliffs that surround the cove.

  If you let your stomach make the decision, go here.

  If you let your sense of adventure make the decision, go here.

  Your parents have brought food with them, as well as your bathers. You have a quick snack and then go for a swim.

  You splash about in the shallows for a while before becoming bored. As you swim out into deeper water, you see a glint of gold on the ocean floor. You take a deep breath and dive down.

  It’s a gold coin!

  You reach out towards it but, before your fingers can grasp the coin, searing pain shoots through your legs. You thrash about and turn to see an enormous jellyfish, its tendrils waving about in the water.

  You try to swim up and away from it … but collide with another jellyfish. Its deadly tentacles wrap themselves around you. Your body spasms as the jellyfish stings you – again and again. You gasp for air, but your lungs fill with seawater.

  Consciousness begins to slip away …

  You take the map to the curator at the museum.

  She snatches the map out of your hands and peers at it through her thick glasses. She sniffs at it, her nostrils flaring. Then she turns the map over and licks it.

  ‘Tea!’ she snaps, raising one eyebrow. It makes her look demented.

  You take a step away from her.

  ‘This paper has been stained with tea to make it appear older than it is,’ she explains. ‘Earl Grey, to be precise. It’s still quite fresh. So, I’d say this map is no more than a couple of days old.’ She flings the map back at you. ‘The local brats do like to have fun with the tourists. Now, go away!’

  You are disappointed that the map is a fake. But you decide to keep it as a souvenir.

  You spend the rest of the holidays swimming at the cove and relaxing … and avoiding the local kids.

  You are on the cliff above the cove, walking along the path through the trees.

  Suddenly you hear voices. Then you hear the sound of people tramping through the undergrowth. You conceal yourself behind a tree and watch.

  Three kids make their way out of the undergrowth. One of them spots you. She whispers to her friends. They laugh loudly and run off down the path.

  You take a look at the undergrowth from which they emerged. There’s a little track concealed by the bushes. Your curiosity has been aroused and you decide to follow the track.

  It leads you to a small clearing. There’s a hole in the ground and a couple of shovels.

  What’s been going on here? Were the kids digging for pirate treasure? Did they find anything?

  You start digging.

  Go here.

  You walk along the bottom of the cliff, where the sand meets the craggy rock wall. A dip in the sand against the cliff catches your eye. You look closer. You can just see the top of a hole in the rock. You get down on your knees and dig away the sand, revealing a narrow tunnel. Even though it’s small, you reckon you’d probably be able to squeeze through. It’s not far from the water’s edge on the east side of the cove, so it must flood during high tide. You look at the water nervously.

  If you think you’re brave enough to enter the tunnel, go here.

  If you decide it’s not worth the risk, go here.

  You continue around the c
ove but find nothing. Now what do you do? You’re feeling a bit hungry, but you’re still keen to explore. You could go up the path to the trees above the cove? Or you could go back to join your parents?

  If your rumbling stomach convinces you to have a snack with your parents, go here.

  But if you decide to ignore your hunger and follow the path up to the trees, go here.

  You squeeze into the darkness of the tunnel and crawl along. But you quickly hit a dead end. You try to back out but you get stuck, your clothes snagging on the sides of the tunnel. You start to panic and reach out to the dead end. Placing your hands against the rock, you push yourself backwards.

  The rock in front of you shifts. You push harder and it falls away, just as your clothing comes free. Behind you is the safety of the cove and your parents. In front of you is the dark unknown.

  If you choose to face your fear and continue forward, go here.

  If you decide to back out while you still can and continue exploring the cove, go here.

  You follow Professor Wagner up the dark stairs. At the top you continue along the passage.