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asked. “Shouldn’t they know?”
    Uncle Gord put his hands on my shoulders. He looked right into my eyes. “You know that business has not been great this year. What’s going happen if people hearabout this? They’ll think we don’t run safe dives. They might not buy equipment from us.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œNo buts. I think I know why someone would have done this,” he said. “I’m going to tell you another secret. It’s the real reason why I take the dive boat out on Friday and Saturday nights.”
    I asked Uncle Gord a simple question. “Does any of this have anything to do with a sunken pirate ship and a ton of gold?”

chapter nine
    Uncle Gord’s square jaw fell. For a second, with his eyes bugged out and his jaw open wide, he looked like a fish just pulled from water.
    â€œHow did you know about that?” he said.
    â€œI don’t think it’s much of a secret,” I said. “This is a small town.”
    â€œTell me what you know. Tell me
how
you know.”
    I shrugged. “I heard the rumor two weeks ago. When I was with Judd. We were at the dock, putting gas in the dive boat. One of the guys there asked me if it was true you were looking for a pirate ship.”
    â€œAnd?” Uncle Gord seemed worried.
    â€œI told the guy I didn’t know. Which was true. But I’ve been wondering. Along with a lot of other people in town. Everyone knows you go out every week with those three lawyers from Miami. No one believes that you are just a spear-fishing guide.”
    They had hired Uncle Gord every weekend since the beginning of May. Each Friday and Saturday night, Uncle Gord left at sunset with the three of them and didn’t return until dawn.
    â€œSpear fishing is what we’ve wanted people to believe,” Uncle Gord finally said. “But once you heard the rumors, why didn’t you ask me about it?”
    â€œIt isn’t my business,” I said. “I figured you’d tell me if you ever wanted to.”
    Uncle Gord let out a deep breath. “I was afraid of this. That’s why I don’t like whathappened to the valve on your scuba tank. If our secret is out, maybe someone wants to stop us.”
    â€œWill you tell me about it now?” I asked. “Is it really true what people are saying?”
    He looked around, as if he were afraid someone might be listening. But there were no customers in the front or the back of the shop.
    Sherri wasn’t there either. I knew her schedule. She didn’t work until the afternoon.
    â€œLet’s go down to the coffee shop,” Uncle Gord said. “I’ll tell you what I can.”

chapter ten
    We walked. Thelma’s Diner was just down the road from the dive shop. It was late afternoon, and the sun was still strong and hot. When we got inside, Thelma came over to our table.
    â€œWhat will it be, boys?” She had five kids and ran the diner by herself. She always looked tired.
    â€œSame as always,” Uncle Gord said. “A couple of iced teas. A couple of orders of fries.”
    â€œSure.” She wiped our table with a rag. A minute later she brought the iced tea. When she left, she went into the kitchen. There was no one else in the diner. Uncle Gord and I could talk and not worry that someone would hear.
    â€œI’m waiting,” I said.
    Uncle Gord drank half his glass of iced tea before he spoke. “I’ll make the story as short as I can. It started in the spring when the three lawyers came down here from Miami. They told me a story of their own.”
    I added sugar to my iced tea and stirred as I listened.
    â€œA few years ago, some guy was scuba diving a couple of miles from here. He found some gold coins in water about thirty feet deep. They looked very old and valuable. He hired the law firm to find out more about the coins.”
    â€œWhy a law firm?” I asked.
    â€œBecause lawyers have