Read Online Pyro Watson and the Hidden Treasure by Nette Hilton - Free Book Online Page A

work on the crow’s nest. And that meant he would have already drawn it and they both knew that Pyro was the best at drawing masts and crow’s nests and rigging and stuff.
    It’d be just like Geezer to do that!
    Probably.

    San Simeon didn’t look up from his log. He was fixing up spelling mistakes and writing it in big letters so the crew would get it right.
    But … and it was a biggy … someone, Simeon was sure, was spilling his guts to the enemy.
    Someone was selling them out.
    Someone was trying to be the new leader and would, surely, lead them into danger.

‘Hidey-hodey!’
    Pyro nearly jumped out of his skin as Mr Stig swung around the corner of the camper and in under the awning. ‘Guess what?’
    There should be a rule about people creeping up on other people when they aren’t ready.
    Auntie Mor didn’t scare all that easily and she simply yawned and stretched herself before tying her dressing-gown around her and clumping down the steps. ‘I give up,’ she said without even trying.
    â€˜How about this!’ Mr Stig waved his newspaper around. It was open to a page that had lots of coloured pictures. It was collapsing in the middle a bit so it was impossible to see exactly what they were supposed to be looking at. ‘I reckon we need to go and look at some proper ships and some proper maps and have a proper nosh-up at a proper restaurant that used to be a ferry!’
    Pyro would have put his postcards away but Auntie Mor had already scooped them up and put them in her shopping bag.
    â€˜And where is all this exciting stuff going to happen?’ she asked. ‘I don’t recall seeing any ships or ferries in the main street of town last time I looked.’
    â€˜Sydney!’ Mr Stig opened the newspaper and spread it across the table. ‘Down at Darling Harbour. The Maritime Museum is there and so is the ferry and so is the Endeavour . It’s not an actual pirate ship but we can pretend. So, what d’you reckon? We can chuck everything into the camper and drive it to the station. It’ll be all right down there and they’ll keep our possie here, I already checked …’ He looked at Mor who had opened her mouth to say And what about our spot here? ‘… And then a train all the way up the mountains to the top and off to Sydney!’
    Auntie Mor stretched again. She stretched so far that Pyro half expected her to sag in the middle like the old elastics that the girls used to play jumping games with at school. ‘It’s a long way to Sydney,’ she said.
    â€˜Not too far.’
    But far enough, Pyro was sure, to be too far away to be back here in time for after school and hide-out building.
    Min would arrive and they wouldn’t be here. He might even think they’d gone forever and not come back.
    Pyro didn’t even know his last name.
    It was going to be perfect building that hide-out and it would have taken all the time up to when he was going home.
    â€˜How about it?’ Auntie Mor was saying. ‘It’ll be a great chance to have a look at some of those old maps with dragons and things on them. I’ve never been to the Maritime Museum! What d’you say, Pyro?’
    They were doing it for him. He could feel it and tried to look really happy. ‘Great. It’ll be great!’
    Auntie Mor looked at Mr Stig and they both then looked at Pyro. ‘So how come you look about as happy as the man who lost a sixpence and found a penny?’

    Now Mr Stig looked back at Mor. ‘What?’
    â€˜Forget it,’ she said. ‘So, Pyro, what’s making you so gloomy? Come on, spark out of it!’
    Pyro took a deep breath. Sometimes when adults asked what was wrong, he’d found, they didn’t really want to know. They just wanted you to get over it but this time, he felt, it just might be that they could do something. Like maybe go tomorrow.
    â€˜Could we go