Captain Goldsash's Treasure

Captain Goldsash’s Treasure

“Finally! We’re there!” exclaimed Riley after their long journey.

You see, the three adventurers were off to explore an island they had discovered while fishing. Just as they had spotted the island, they saw an eagle emerge from a dive in the water, so it seemed fitting to call it Eagle Island. Then and there they decided to explore it, but first they needed to get there. They spent weeks making and perfecting a raft to sail out onto the island. Finally it was done and they had completed their journey.

“I’m exhausted,” Jared sighed.

“That was longer than I’d expected,” stated Shale, who was not one to complain.

“Well we can rest later… Let’s explore!” Riley shouted as she dashed down the beach.

“There she goes again,” Jared sighed, trudging after her.

“Wait up!” shouted Shale, catching up with Jared.

After close to an hour of exploring and finding nothing but dirty shells and sand, the three collapsed on the beach. They were close to giving up the exploration and going home. There was just nothing worthwhile seeing on this island. Just as Jared had flopped down dejectedly on the beach, Riley yelled,
“Hey, what’s that?”

The two boys rose and squinted towards where she was pointing and noticed another island.

“Great, now we have another island to search,” Jared whined, sitting down again.

“Come on, it will be fun,” encouraged Riley.

“I guess… All right. Let’s go,” Jared said as he picked himself off of the sand.

“Ready the mast!” shouted Shale as he ran down the beach to their raft.

The three climbed on their raft and pushed off Eagle Island, heading out to the next island in view.

Shale stood in the back of the raft, steering the rudder as his jet-black hair whipped across his tan face. Riley stood shouting directions to Shale in the front of the boat, her blue eyes sparkling with the waves.

The scene seemed so peaceful, yet something was wrong.
“Hey, um, guys? What exactly is that?” Jared shivered as he pointed towards the horizon.
“That’s just a storm. It’s too far away to hurt us. We’ll already be on the island by then,” assured Riley.

But Riley was wrong. Not long after she said this, the winds started to pick up. The three kids had to huddle together to keep from falling off the raft. Soon, everything was dark. It was a nightmare. Thunder crashed around them and waves kept smashing onto the raft. The rain was soaking their clothes through until they just gave up, laid down, and squeezed together tightly as if they were boxes packed in a warehouse.

It felt like hours before the storm passed. When the rain finally let up, they had no idea whatsoever where they were. All they could see was ocean everywhere. They talked about what to do for over half an hour, but none of them seemed to have any ideas. Finally, they decided they would just have to wait until they sighted some land. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be too long.

After two hours on the vast, blue sea one of the kids shouted, “What’s that to starboard?”
“Looks like some rocks,” suggested Riley.
“That’s no rock,” exclaimed Shale. “Those are dolphins!” Slowly, the dolphins started to draw closer.
“They’re coming towards us!”, shouted Jared.
“Guys, I’ve got a plan. Just do what I say,” said Riley.
“Oh no!” The boys groaned together, “Not one of those plans again. Remember that time when Riley told us to climb up the chimney and . . .. “,Jared started.
“It won’t be like that. I know this will work,” interrupted Riley. “Now, you two just do what I do.”

The three sat there waiting for the dolphins as they drew ever closer. “Okay guys. Get ready. Here they come!”, shouted Riley. The dolphins were 100 yards off and leaping into the air playfully. They kept swimming on and on until they were right alongside the boat. Riley shouted, “Now!”, and jumped onto one of the dolphin’s backs. The two boys followed and each landed on a smooth, slippery surface with a thud. They just barely were able to grasp onto their backs without tumbling over their sides into the water.

They spent about a half an hour riding in the midst of the playful dolphin pod. The dolphins seemed to enjoy having passengers and would even jump out of the water with gusto. After one hour of this horse ride in the sea, Riley yelled out, “Land! Thank goodness!” Just off to the right a ways was, by the looks of it, a small island in the middle of nowhere. Well it was better than nothing.

The dolphins started to veer more to the right, probably after a school of fish closer to the island shore. After a few more minutes they were as close as they ever would get to that island, so Riley shouted, “Jump!” They each splashed into the water after sliding off of their dolphin. They swam the 50 yards to shore and flopped onto the sandy beach.
“Wow, what a day,” sighed Jared.
“Yeah, let’s not try that again,” suggested Shale.
“Well, right now we’ve got to worry about our situation. We lost our day pack with our snacks over the side of the raft. Fortunately, I was thinking before and still have some matches and two candy bars in my survival kit. One sec.” And Riley pulled out a small box from her back pocket. “Now”, she said, “let’s make a fire and warm up!”

The three went out into the clump of trees in the middle of the small island and gathered some wood for a fire. It was the kind of island you would think of in a movie. A bunch of tropical trees surrounded on all sides by white, sandy beaches. After gathering enough fire wood for the night, the three kids trooped back to the edge of the trees and built a small fire, just enough to warm them. Then, they split the two candy bars into three pieces and chowed down. The candy bars were gone in about 30 seconds. Without any more words, they fell instantly asleep on the sandy beach. . . .

“Come, on! Let’s explore! Wake up! Wake up!” yelled Riley. The boys groaned and sat up groggily.
“Oh fine, as long as I get some food,” moaned Jared clutching his stomach. “Some food would be nice,” agreed Shale.
“Let’s go look around for a bite to eat then,” said Riley running off into the trees. They followed, looking for any signs of something to get into their stomachs. After about ten minutes of bad luck, Riley shouted, “Hey, what’s this?” pointing to an old grandfather tree.

Etched in the bark seemed to be a map of the island. The center of trees, the lagoon on one side and then the circular shape of the island. The odd part was that there was a red X drawn on the lagoon. “Treasure!” They all three yelled at once and ran out of the trees to the edge of the beach.
“This must be the lagoon,” Shale said, acknowledging the inlet in the island.
“Let’s search!,” shouted Riley, forgetting all about her hunger.

They spent over an hour wading in the lagoon poking the sand with sticks to find the treasure chest, or something of the type. After an hour of poking, Shale shouted out, “I think I found it!!” He was kneeling in water digging away at something under the sand. The two others came to help him. They dug under a couple of inches and found a rustic metallic surface. They dug all around the chest until they could pull it out. They dragged it up on the shore and sat down next to the beautifully engraved iron. They were exhausted.

“Wow, I wonder what’s in this hunk of metal,” wondered Jared.
“It’s not a hunk of metal,” scolded Riley. “It’s a treasure chest and probably buried here by Captain Goldsash, the long wanted pirate.”
Just then as Shale and Jared gave her questioning looks, they heard sirens off in the distance.
“It’s him!” screamed Riley. “He knows we found his treasure. Run!”
“Who?” asked Shale.
“Captain Goldsash, duh! Now run!” and with that Riley sprinted off into the underbrush on the edge of the sandy beach.

“I don’t know what she’s talking about, but I guess we should follow,” Shale decided, running off to join Riley, as Jared followed. As it turns out, it was actually not the long lost pirate Captain Goldsash, but the coast guard looking for the three kids after their disappearance.
“What a relief,” sighed Jared. “It wasn’t really Captain Goldsash,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
“Ohhh be quiet. It could have been,” Riley said defensively.

“Well, you kids must have had a big adventure. Tell me the whole story,” said the burly coastguard man with the deep voice. They recounted their whole story for the coastguard and lived to tell the tale for many, many more years…..

Epilogue

After school one day Riley got a call from a woman with a British accent named Mrs. Lincoln. She was from the Antiquities Museum of Wellstown. The museum had figured out that the old key, discovered years ago at the harbor of Portsmouth, fit into the lock of the chest they had discovered on their island. “We discovered in the chest antiques stolen from this museum decades ago and you kids get to keep 10% of the profit”.
“Wow, thanks, Mrs. Lincoln!”
“No, thank you for returning these antiques back to our museum.” With that, Riley said goodbye and ran off to tell her two friends the good news.