Chapter 11

The Best Class

Chapter 11

Everyone pressed up behind _Zuri. _Patrick and _Alex also held torches. With the three torches together the scene was much brighter. There, stretched out in the sand were the white bones of a skeleton. They were somewhat scattered and only the rib bones were still together. Between the ribs was thrust a long cutlass, rusty with age. The blade, after coming out of the skeleton, was tuck deeply into the sand. The skull lay to one side and was half buried in the sandy floor.

“I’d say he had a problem,” said _Braxten. Nobody laughed at his joke.

“What should we do now?” whispered someone from the back of the group.

“We keep on going,” answered _Cheryl. “It doesn’t look like he’s going to bother us. Besides, I want that sword. If it’s not too rusty, it will come in handy for cutting wood.”

_Cheryl stepped forward and grasped the sword by it’s handle. It slid smoothly out of the sand and from between the bones. _Cheryl stepped back and held it closer to the lighted torch. The part of the blade that had been exposed was pitted and worn. Where it had been in the sand it was, while still rusty, in better shape.

“The end of it looks okay,” said _Alex. “But the part by the handle is pretty beat up.”

“It might still be strong enough to cut firewood. You’d better hang onto it and we’ll give it a try,” added _Bridger.

The children continued on into the cave, walking widely around the skeleton. A few feet further, they spotted some old bottles, half hidden by the sand.

“They’re empty,” said _Camron, picking one up. “I’ll bet they had pirate rum in them.”

“Be careful with those,” said _Bryan. “We might be able to use them to hold water.”

“It looks like the cave turns again,” said _Tanner. _He and _Asher had taken the lead. They stepped around the corner and stopped.

“Wow!” said _Asher. “We hit the jackpot!”

The rest of the children came around the corner and found that the cave widened out into a large room. Stacked against one wall were old boxes and barrels. By another wall were the broken remains of a table. Two of the legs had collapsed and the table lay on its side. In the sand beside it lay more bottles like those the chilfen had seen earlier and some metal plates. Beside the table were two chairs that were still standing. In the middle of the room lay a large, round cooking pot. Where it wasn’t rusty, it was black and had a handle looped over its top.

Another skeleton lay near the entrance. _Kaide picked up the skull and held it close to the light. A round hole was punched neatly through the forehead.

“It looks like this guy also had a problem,” said _Kaide.

“Oooh, put that down,” said one of the children.

_Kaide laughed and tossed it aside.

“Let’s see what’s in those boxes,” said _Zuri.

She didn’t have to speak twice. The children began to open the boxes. The wood was so old that it broke easily.

“Look at this,” shouted _Patrick. “Guns.”

In the box at her feet lay several old muskets. Protected by the box, the muskets had only a light coat of rust on the metal parts. _Remi and _Patrick each picked one up and began to look them over.

“Wow,”said Remi. “These are old. I wonder if they still shoot. We could really do something about that tiger then.”

“They won’t be much good without gunpowder,” observed _Cheryl. “I wish we had some.”

“Well, we don’t,” said _Braxton. “And we’d better get some new torches before these burn out.”

“Maybe we can start a fire in here,” suggested _Jocelyn. “There’s a cooking pot, so I’ll bet the pirates had one.”

As she spoke, Jocelyn moved the heavy cooking pot and discovered a circle of rocks partly buried in the floor.

“Now I’m sure they did. Look, here are some charred pieces of wood.”

Quickly, the children took some of the wood from the broken boxes and piled them in the middle of the cave. They set fire to them and they started easily. It was obvious however, that they would burn quickly. So _Patrick and _Talan took one torch and went back to the cave entrance to get more wood. The other children returned to their search. The greater light from the fire made it much easier to see. Somehow the smoke from the fire seemed to draw off somewhere through cracks in the cave’s ceiling.

The children found several boxes of muskets. Packed in each box was a long bayonet.

“I never heard of pirates having bayonets on their guns,” said _Alex.

“Maybe these were captured from a supply ship,” suggested _Camron. “Maybe the pirates stole them. It doesn’t look like they’ve been used much.”

“Now here’s what we need,” said _Bryan.

Everyone looked towards _Bryan. There in the flickering light from the fire he stood holding two axes.

“They were buried in the sand,” he explained. “They look like they are in pretty good condition.”

The children continued their search and found metal plates, cooking gear, forks, a few sharp knives, a few swords, some cannon balls, and some pulleys. The barrels had apparently held food, but the food had long ago rotted away. Also unusable from age were some old clothes, rope, and some books. All that was left of them were tatters. In one corner they found some small kegs filled with black powder. Suspecting that it might be gunpowder, they tossed a tiny amount into the fire. There was no sizzle or pop. If it was gun powder, it was no good.

When they had at last rummaged through all the boxes, _Bridger said, “We’ve been here quite awhile. I wonder what time it is.”

No one had on a watch, but they hurried out of the cave to find that it was nearly dark.

“Holy cow,” said Braxten. “I had no idea it was this late. Those at the raft are going to be really worried.”

“I guess I should have noticed it was getting late,” _Tanner said. “I’m getting really hungry. We haven’t had anything to eat since we ate those coconuts for lunch.”

Just then they heard the tiger’s roar coming from the jungle.

“Maybe we should spend the night here,” suggested _Alex. “That tiger won’t be able to get up the cliff using those steps and we could build a fire on the path. This looks like a pretty safe place to be.”

“That’s true,” said _Braxton. “But what about the kids at the raft. They must be really worried.”

“They might even come looking for us,” added _Braxten. “I don’t want them running into that tiger in the middle of the night.”

“Besides,” _Tanner said, rubbing his stomach, “we need to get some more coconuts or some more of that pig to eat. My tummy is not happy right now.”

Several of the children agreed with him.

“Then we’d better get started,” suggested _Cheryl. “But let’s take a few torches along too. That might make the tiger think twice about having us for dinner.”

“Everyone should take a sword or bayonet too,” added _Bryan. “They might be useful.”

Getting down the cliff in the dark was a slow job. The children had only come up the cliff once when there was lots of light. Going down in the dark was much harder. They were very careful and took their time. Handing down the torches and swords was also difficult. They ended up just tossing the stuff down. Some of the torches went out when they were tossed down, but they were easily relit by those that did not. By the time they had waded across the river, it was pitch black. With the small light of the torches to aid them, they began to follow the beach back towards the raft and the rest of their classmates.

There was only a light breeze and the only sounds they heard were the lapping of the small waves on the sand, the crunch branches under their feet, and the occasional call of a jungle bird. Suddenly, from the jungle they heard, again, the roar of the tiger. They drew closer together, clutched their weapons tighter, and walked faster.