Free The Time Hunters and the Box of Eternity by Carl Ashmore

some say a Great White tore him limb from
limb, others say something terrible happened when he returned to Mary Island.
None of it ’ s proven though. All I knows is that from 22 nd November
1718, he was never seen or heard of again. He just disappeared from the seas… ’

Chapter 10

 
    Israel Hands

 
 
 
    A hush descended as everyone took time to consider this.   Then Uncle Percy asked a question. ‘ You mentioned a Mary
Island? ’
    ‘ Aye, ’ Reg replied simply. ‘ Mary Island was
Blackbeard ’ s base, his headquarters. ’
    Uncle Percy ’ s brow furrowed. ‘ I know there are thousands of islands in the Caribbean, but I ’ ve not heard of that
one. ’
    ‘ Well, you wouldn ’ t, ’ Reg replied simply. ‘ It doesn ’ t exist, at least not
on any official charter or map. It ’ s the name Blackbeard gave it, named it after his fourteenth wife,
Mary Ormond. ’
    ‘ Fourteenth? ’ Becky gasped.
    Reg grinned sourly. ‘ He liked the ladies, did Teach. Anyway, Mary Island was where he
stored his plunder, his treasure, in caves deep underground, piled so high it
reached the heavens, so they say. ’
    Joe ’ s eyes glittered. ‘ And it ’ s never been found? ’
    Reg gave a sharp shake of his head. ‘ No one ’ s ever known where to look. As I said before,
no one knew which island was Mary Island. However, if legend is to be believed
there were two markers, each crafted by Israel Hands, Blackbeard ’ s sail master, showing
the location of Mary Island. He was also supposed to have left instructions as
to where on the island the treasure could be found, but if these markers
exist, they ’ ve never been found either. ’
    ‘ Israel Hands? ’ Uncle Percy said. ‘ As in the character in
Robert Louis Stevenson ’ s Treasure Island? ’
    ‘ The very same. But
Hands was real enough, all right, and one of the few that Blackbeard trusted.
Never met him myself, but from what I hear he was an interesting fella - tough,
merciless, but also principled, educated, a musician, and an excellent painter.
I ’ ve never
looked into it myself ‘ cause I ’ ve never had a mind to. ’ Reg ’ s face hardened as his gaze shifted slowly to the portrait of his
wife. ‘ But
if this Pandora ’ s Box is one of Blackbeard ’ s treasure chests, then you might want to see
if those markers are real or not … ’
    *
    To Becky ’ s surprise, the food at the Magpie Inn tasted every bit as good as Uncle
Percy said it would, and by the time it came to leave, the top button on her
jeans threatened to pop off. As she left the pub feeling twice as wide as she ’ d entered, she watched
Joe who was hopping around like an excitable puppy.
    ‘ This is brilliant! ’ Joe said. ‘ I mean, not one, but
two treasure maps. ’
    ‘ Markers, Joe, not
maps, ’ Uncle Percy clarified.
    ‘ Still, it ’ s great fun, ’ Joe shrugged. ‘ I ’ m thinking we go back
in time, find Israel Hands and get Will to hit him until he tells us where the
treasure is. We don ’ t even need the markers then. ’
    Uncle Percy shot Joe a disapproving look. You do know, Joe, that
violence is invariably the worst way of solving a problem. ’
    ‘ But Will is really
good at it. ’
    ‘ That ’ s the sort of thing
Emerson Drake would do, surely you wouldn ’ t want us to embrace the same moral compass as
him, would you? ’
    ‘ No, ’ Joe replied
truthfully. ‘ So what are we going to do? ’
    ‘ Oh, I do agree we hit
something, ’ Uncle Percy replied. ‘ We hit the books... ’
    Bright sunlight poked through broken cloud as Becky settled herself
onto the Silver Ghost ’ s backseat. Without thinking, she rolled Reg ’ s ring around on her
finger and felt a sadness well inside. The ring had belonged to a well-loved
woman, a wife, a daughter, perhaps even a mother, but it was a woman who no
longer existed, a woman who could no longer enjoy the ring ’ s beauty as she could.
And then a vision crept into her head, of Uncle Percy and