Treasure Trouble Read Online Free

real pirates, so prove it!” After that, he disappeared down the galley stairs.
    I looked at my friends.
    Then I looked at all the sails and ropes and everything else that needed to be manned. Most of the night crew that came above deck were already snoring at their posts!
    “Mateys, this is going to be hard work,” I said.
    “Aye!” Vicky agreed. “Even harder than rowing!”
    “Or digging,” Aaron added.
    “Or eating that gruesome gruel,” Inna said.
    “It’s going to be impossible!” Gary exclaimed.
    “But the ship needs us,” I said. “It’s our duty to try our best!”
    “Aye aye!” everyone agreed.
    We didn’t waste another second. We each ran to a different post and tried our best to keep the
Sea Rat
on course.

Chapter 7
Sailing in Circles!
    “I said hoist the sail, not
moist
the sail!” Vicky shouted at Aaron. She was furious! Instead of raising the sail to make the ship go faster, Aaron had soaked it with a bucket of water.
    “Yo-ho-ho! What’s the big deal?” Aaron asked.
    Vicky made her hands into fists. “Wet sails make the ship go slower—that’s what the big deal is!” she roared. “Everyone knows that!”
    “Arrr! Who says we need to go faster?” Aaron shouted back.
    “Aye! We don’t even know where we’re heading,” Gary said.
    My friends stopped doing their jobs andstared at him. I kept manning the steering wheel and tried to keep the ship straight.
    “What do you mean?” Inna asked Gary. “You’re the one with the map! You’re supposed to plot our course!”

    “Aye,” Gary admitted. “But when I went into Captain Stinky Beard’s quarters, I wasn’t sure which map to take. And since he’s sick, too, I couldn’t ask him.”
    “Arrr! There are a lot of maps in there,” I said, trying to stick up for Gary.
    “Aye, but it’s always the one on top!” Inna shouted.
    I reached under my pirate hat and scratched my head. “That makes sense,” I said. Inna sure was one clever pirate kid. “Maybe we should have asked you to get the map,” I said.
    “AYE! Then my dress wouldn’t have gotten all ruined from these slimy ropes,”Inna said. She’d been working with Vicky to man the ropes. There were ropes tangled all around her. They’d made her dress all muddy and yucky.
    “I’m sorry,” Gary said.
    Inna reached over and pulled his hat down over his ears and bopped him on the head. “There! Now you’re sorry.”
    I waved my hand up in the air to get everyone’s attention. “Mateys, now’s not the time for fighting,” I said.
    Gary wiggled his pirate hat over his ears again. “Aye. Fighting hurts my head.”
    “It was your head that got us in this mess in the first place,” Aaron said.
    “Aye! We don’t even know if we’re using the right map,” Vicky said.
    “Arrr! You didn’t let me finish,” Gary said. “I found the right map eventually.”
    “Then why did you say we didn’t know where we were heading?” Aaron asked.
    “Because,” Gary explained, “when I came back on deck, the wind blew the map out of my hands. Now I don’t know whichway is up and which way is down.”
    Inna reached over to grab his hat again, but Gary stepped away just in time.
    I took the map from Gary and looked at it. Then I turned it upside down and looked at again. I wasn’t the best at reading maps. It looked the same both ways.
    “Blimey! Give me that,” Inna said. She took the map out of my hands. She was the best map reader out of all of us. “It goes this way,” she said. “Now, where is the
Sea Rat
?” she asked Gary.
    Gary shrugged. “I think here,” he said, pointing to a spot on the map that looked like smooth sailing.

    I wiped my forehead. “That’s good news,” I said.
    “Aye,” Vicky agreed.
    “Aye,” Gary said. “But we might also behere!” Then he pointed to a spot on the map that wasn’t smooth sailing.
    “Avast!” Inna shouted. “If we’re there, we’re sailing right into Serpent’s Whirlpool!”
    “Sink me!” I