Free Atticus Claw Goes Ashore by Jennifer Gray

said.
    Atticus felt cross. It was nice to see Callie laughing for a change but not when she was laughing at him! He wasn’t a baby. He was still a police cat sergeant. Or at least he was for the time being anyway. He wriggled free.
    The dinghy approached the beach. Mr Tucker switched off the engine. He jumped out with Michael and the two of them hauled the boat through the shallows and up on to the sand. The others clambered after them. Mrs Tucker put Atticus down. He could feel the sand sticking to his damp fur and clogging his paws. He glanced at the sky. The crimson rim of the sun was still visible on thehorizon, but it was setting rapidly. In another half an hour it would be dark.
    ‘It’s definitely the right place.’ Mr Tucker looked around. ‘This is where me and Frank camped before we set off on our voyage to find the caarrsket.’
    ‘Look!’ Michael pointed at a pile of driftwood. ‘Someone’s been collecting logs.’
    ‘That’ll be Fishhook,’ Mr Tucker said confidently.
    ‘Over here!’ Callie shouted. ‘Someone’s had a fire going.’ The sand was dark where it mingled with ash. A couple of charred logs lay half buried.
    ‘That’ll be Fishhook too,’ Mr Tucker said. ‘To attract passing ships. ’E’s definitely ’ere somewhere.’
    ‘I don’t want to burst your bubble, Herman, but the fire’s been kicked out.’ Mrs Tucker bent down and examined the remains. ‘And there are footprints all over the place. Someone else has been here, besides Fishhook.’
    Atticus padded over to take a look. Some of the footprints were huge. They had a round toe and a square heel, as if they had been made by an enormous pair of boots. Atticus shivered. He glanced at Mrs Tucker.
    ‘Captain Black Beard-Jumper’s,’ she confirmed.
    Callie’s eyes filled with tears. ‘That means Black Beard-Jumper’s got Fishhook Frank,’ she sniffed. ‘Now we’ll never find the mermaid.’
    Atticus knew what that meant. He nudged Callie’s hand to comfort her.
    She stroked him absently.
    ‘Never’s a big word, Callie Cheddar,’ Mrs Tucker said firmly. ‘Maybe Fishhook left a clue.’
    ‘He might have made a map!’ Michael suggested eagerly. ‘And hidden it from Captain Black Beard-Jumper in case one of his friends came to rescue him later.’
    ‘Come to think of it, there was a map!’ Mr Tucker gasped. ‘Fishhook staarrted it when we was on our voyage together to find the mermaid all them years ago. ’E never got to finish it that time cos I got me leg clipped off.’
    ‘But he would have finished it when he went back!’ Callie wasn’t crying any more. Her eyes were bright.
    A map!
Atticus felt his fur prickle with excitement. He began to purr.
    ‘Is there anywhere you can think of he’d hidesomething like that, Herman?’ Mrs Tucker asked her husband.
    ‘Aye.’ Mr Tucker nodded slowly. ‘There is. Follow me, everyone.’ He started towards the jungle.
    ‘It’s getting awfully dark, Herman,’ Mrs Tucker said doubtfully. ‘Do you think we should wait until the morning? Goodness knows what’s lurking in that forest.’
    Mr Tucker shook his head. ‘We’s already behind Black Beard-Jumper. We’s can’t wait. We’s got to find that map.’ He glanced at the children. ‘Kids, you follow behind me. Then you, Edna. Atticus, you take the rear. Watch out for snakes.’ He hobbled up the beach, dragging his wooden leg through the sand.
    Snakes! Atticus hated snakes. He wondered what he was supposed to do if he saw one. He scrambled along the sand behind Mrs Tucker.
    The party entered the jungle.
    It was even darker under the trees and much cooler. Atticus glanced up. The trees weren’t the sort you got in Littleton-on-Sea or even Monte Carlo. They were taller with great thick trunks and leaves as big as lily pads that shut out the sky. Strange brightly coloured flowers blossomedaround their bases. Vines twisted round the trunks and hung in thick ropes from the branches.
    The procession threaded its