"No! don't go in the cave Rosie," instructed Bill, "we'll hide close by and watch just in case it's not your dad's group who get here first. We don't want to get trapped in the cave do we? Come on into these bushes over here, quick. I think I heard something."

Sandy melted into the bushes as Bill and the young lass sneaked quietly away. Hardly daring to breath they sat and watched as they too heard someone moving towards them. The sounds of someone moving through the undergrowth came closer and closer, until into the clearing stepped Corky.

Rosie leaped up and set off at the run to her dad as Melissa broke cover and stood next to Corky. Rosie skidded to a halt, her mouth and eyes wide open in total amazement.

"Who's this?" queried the bemused girl, pointing a finger at Melissa. "Miss Friday?" and dissolved into fits of giggles. "Dad you must be Robinson Crusoe," she laughed almost hysterically, happy to see her dad again. Then she noticed the bruises on his face and the cuts and blood on Nigel's face and hands.

"The swines, what have they done to you?" and she tried to attend to both of them at the same time.

"Hey! hey! take it easy, I'm not hurt. It'll take more than those creeps to hurt me and Nigel got his cuts from crawling through the tunnel in the dark to your cave, after he left you to find Bill and Sandy."

"Come on let's get inside for a council of war," cajoled Sandy leading the way into the cave, "all the explanations can come later. Let's see if we can block it up from inside."

With the two powerful torches that Bill and Sandy had, the trip to the cave was a doddle. Bill brought out a huge bar of chocolate and passed pieces around as he said, "Well there's lots of something down in the wreck," and he went on to tell them about their find.

"But it's still down there," wailed Rosie, "and your diving gear is hidden close by. What if THEY find it and go diving themselves?" She spat the word THEY as if it was poison.

"If they do find the diving gear and it IS well hidden so they shouldn't, they won't be able to use it because I have these," said Sandy holding two pressure valves in the air.

"You crafty old sod, oops! sorry Melissa, you crafty old rogue, I might have known that you would have thought of something!" exclaimed Corky. "Once a Marine always a Marine. What with your craftiness Sandy and your observation Nigel and YOUR persuasiveness Rosie, those crooks don't stand a chance, they might as well give themselves up now. Joking apart though," continued Corky, "we've come here to get that treasure and I'm not leaving without it."

"Me neither," chorused his daughter.

Putting his arm around her, he continued, "If we can get to our dinghy we can get off the island, onto the Gal and we can sail away and come back with the police. They can't get off because the Witch Queen is wrecked, but they do have a radio on board and they could radio for help. They still don't really know about the treasure but if they find our diving gear they must guess that there is something in the cove and not anywhere else. They could then radio their cronies to come out here with some more diving gear and more men. They could easily find the treasure on their first dive. So, we can either risk it and go for help, or try to tackle them on our own. There's four of us and four of them. I know they've got guns and knives but we as the hunters, will have the advantage of surprise. What's it to be?"

Before anyone could answer Rosie piped up, "There's not four of us but seven, I mean six, we can't count Melissa 'cos she's a lady."

The men laughed and Melissa smiled at her suggestion and Corky went on, "Thanks Rosie, but you and Nigel are too young to get involved in this and you're right Melissa IS a lady. Anyway Sandy here is still well versed in fighting, Bill is as tough as old boots, Brian's no slouch when it comes to the rough stuff and me, I want revenge 'cos no one hi jacks me off my own boat."

Looking a bit crestfallen, Rosie argued, "But what can we do? We ARE part of this team."

"You, young lady, together with Nigel and Melissa will row out to the Gal and if need be you can sail her back to Montego Bay."

"But dad, they've got our charts."

"Not all of them they haven't. Just before we left, as a surprise for you, I got a brand new set which have on them the official position of this island and with the name you suggested written underneath. These are locked in your top drawer under your bunk. Even you wouldn't think of looking there for something 'cos you never look in your own drawers for anything, not even your clothes. If I'd have put them anywhere else, you'd have found them, but not in your own drawer you wouldn't."

"Dad your a crafty old sea dog and I love you for it. No wonder mum married you."

Astonished by this sudden admission Corky sat back and scratched his head and could only mutter, "Well bless my soul."

Melissa put her arm around Rosie and said, "Your dad's a smashing fellow and you must be very proud of him and he sure is proud of you, but he's right you know, we'd only get in the way."

"Sandy your the fighting expert or were, so you make the plans and lead the way," finished Corky.

"Right!" said Sandy, "First things first. We have got to get to the dinghy. Us four will go first and you follow a fair way behind. If we get ambushed, while we keep them busy, you sneak off to the dinghy and put to sea. It'll be hard work but the current will take you out and then it's only a few miles round the coast to your dad's boat. Once you get a mile or two out to sea there's no surface current, so you should be O.K. Are you game?" he addressed Rosie in particular, looking her straight in the eye.

"But Sandy," she argued, "I don't know where the dinghy is. I didn't see it on the beach. Where've you hidden it and won't it be too heavy for us to drag it all that way to the water?"

"Rosie!" replied Sandy smiling at her, "When you were pulling on our life lines, you were stood right next to the dinghy. It was under that pile of drift wood and branches. Didn't you notice it? Right let's get going!"

They filed out into the bright afternoon sunshine and set off for Shingle Cove.

Sat in the camp in the middle of the island, the men off the Witch Queen made their plans to catch Rosie and her friends.

"There's only the north shore to search now so let's get moving, they've got to be there!

From a hiding place in the thicket, thin yellow eyes hurled silent hate at the immaculate captain and his henchmen.

Rosie stumbled over a dead log and crashed into Nigel and pitched headlong to the ground. As she lay there winded with Nigel and Melissa crouched alongside, they heard shouts and a gun shot ahead of them and then silence.

"They've been caught," whispered Nigel as the only sounds they heard was the captain giving orders. "Stay very still and keep very quiet," he commanded.

For a few moments the trio lay pressed into the undergrowth and listened for signs of pursuit.

"Ha! the missing crew members. You should have known better than to try and escape from me," they heard the captain say. "I'll teach you and that brat of yours to wreck my ship. In the meantime we'll use yours. Now for the last time, where have you hidden the boat you came ashore in and where did you land? No more tricks and games I've run out of patience with you. ANSWER!"

The silence was heavy.

"Very well then, you want to do it the hard way do you? Let's see which one of you will volunteer to jump off the cliff. Now march! First we'll deal with you then we'll attend to the two kids."

The sounds of movement quickly vanished and Nigel and the two others stood up. Rosie was pale with fright and anger. "They're going to push one of them off the cliff," she sobbed, "we've got to do something."

A rustle of leaves behind them made them turn round and for the first time they saw Wong Chong Chow standing there brandishing a large meat cleaver.

"Cookie," exclaimed Melissa "How did you get here?"

The Chinaman grinned and said," Herro Missy, I come to kirr captin. Him velly bad ferrow. I kirr him with scah on face too. Him hit me evely time he see me. Me no likee any of ship clew. Arr velly bad. Me shourd be in Chinah not with bad men."

"Cookie," continued Melissa, "they've got guns and knives and they'll kill you long before you get close. No we've got to think of some sort of plan to rescue the others. And we have to be quick."

"Who's this?" queried Rosie pointing a finger at the Chinaman.

"This is Cookie off the Witch Queen. He's called Wong Chong Chow and like me, he too was kidnapped by those crooks." explained Melissa.

"Hello Cookie." said Rosie and walked over to him her hand outstretched. "My name's Rosie and this is Nigel. Are you on our side?"

"Yes Miss Losie." agreed Wong, "Me want to get away flom pig captin."

"Good!" Now there's one more of us." retorted Nigel. "We'll soon have those crooks sorted out now."

"We need to get either side of them and cause a distraction so that dad and the others can fight back," suggested Rosie.

"That's it!" exclaimed Nigel, "that's what we'll do. Me and Wong here will skirt round to the far side and you and Melissa hide on this side. When I whistle, start the diversion."

"But how?" queried Melissa, "it'll have to be something loud to make them all turn round. They all look like trained killers to me so it won't be easy to distract them."

"Yes it will," whispered Rosie with real menace in her voice "I'll use this." She produced the flare that she had found.

The group split up and Nigel and Wong eased their way down past the crooks and their captives gathered on the cliff top. Silently Melissa and Rosie approached the other flank.

With guns pointing at their backs Corky and his friends were forced to walk towards the cliff top.

"STOP!" shouted the captain. "That's close enough."

The four men stood just five yards from the edge.

"Turn round!" ordered the crook's leader.

"Now then, who's going to be first to walk backwards just a few paces? Or is one of you going to tell me where your boat is?"

The four captors stood silently and looked at each other.

"If we can stall them for just another minute or so, there might be just enough time for the others to get to the dinghy and put to sea." thought Corky. Aloud he said, "There is no boat, Bill and Sandy swam ashore onto the rocks from where we anchored."

"You're lying Corky," spat the captain, "the currents are too strong round some of these islands, no one could get ashore."

"That's where your wrong. Yes! the currents are strong, but only when a bit of a sea is running and haven't you noticed, it's been like a mill pond for the last couple of days."

"Hmmm!" mused the crook, "you just might be right, but I don't trust you. Did any of you see the dinghy on that fishing boat?" he queried to his men.

Scarface and the other two shook their heads in silence, then scarface added, "It was dark and we didn't stay on board all that long. It could still be aboard."

"No matter," observed the captain, "we've still got our own boat and we can get it over the reef and go round to that leaky tub any time we want."

Dropping his voice, he hissed menacingly, "Now! where IS the treasure? Or does one of you want to learn how to fly?" he added with an evil laugh.

Once again the four captives looked at each other and Sandy stepped forward. "If we tell you, you won't let us go anyway, so you might as well shoot us now and be done with. You won't find it without us and you won't find it with our help because we're not talking. Not for any reason. So get knotted." Sandy stepped back with the others and gave them a knowing look.

"It seems to me that for the time being we have a stalemate, so the only thing to do is to find those brats and find them we will!" claimed the captain. "Now............"

Before he could continue, to his right, Nigel and Cookie started shouting and throwing stones. The Chinaman's meat cleaver arced through the air and hit scarface on the side of the head and he fell like a stone. At the same time Rosie pulled the pin on the distress flare as she pointed it at the crooks.

Whoooosh! The flaming flare hurtled forward and exploded with a bang at their feet.

Startled from two directions at the same time the captors took their eyes of Sandy and Co.

With scarface still lying unconscious, the four pals weighed in. With one mighty blow Sandy dropped the captain to his knees, grabbed his gun and fired two shots in the air.

Sandy wrapped a brawny arm around the captain's neck, dragged him to his feet and shouted, "The next bullet goes straight through his head," as he firmly placed the automatic against the captain's temple. "Now you two! Drop your guns AND knives," he commanded.

"Do as he says," wailed the captain with fear and terror in his eyes and voice, "DO AS HE SAYS!"

The two crooks did as they were order and scarface stirred for a moment and fell back to the ground.

"Bill, Corky, Brian, get their weapons," ordered Sandy. "Now you two, get your mate and bring him over here and lie face down on the deck. You too captain!" he added giving him a push towards his crew.

The two youngsters, the Chinaman and Melissa came out from the trees and surveyed the victorious group.

"Crooks have no chance against a team like us," observed Rosie, "no chance at all, and you," she said turning to the no longer immaculate captain, in a voice so full of venom and hate that it made even Sandy wince, "you are going to gaol for a very long time and so are your men." She continued, "If I had a gun I'd shoot you now." Satisfied with her comments, she ran over to her dad and holding his hand she said, "They'll not get our treasure now will they dad? And they will go to gaol won't they?"

Suddenly she was no longer a vengeful person as she clutched her dad tightly and sobbed tears of hate, fright and thankfulness that her dad was safe and hadn't been thrown over the cliff.

Melissa came over, took her from her dad and led her away into the trees while the tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably. After a few minutes a red eyed, but composed girl joined the others in time to hear Sandy say, "On your feet and pick your mate up. Head that way," he added pointing towards the cave entrance.

Once at the pile of rocks which blocked most of the entrance to the tunnel Sandy turned to Nigel and instructed, "Go and get that rope that you used to climb down the cliff and bring it back. This cave will make a perfect prison for these four while we attend to our original task."

As Nigel returned with the rope, the four men still pointing the guns at the crooks, stood on guard.

"In there!" ordered Sandy pointing towards the cave tunnel, "there's no other way out unless you fancy a twenty foot drop onto some rocks. So get moving NOW!"

Sullenly they and the now conscious scarface entered the tunnel.

"You can't leave us in here," wailed the captain.

"Oh yes we can and we will," answered Sandy, "at least until the police get here to take you away."

"But we'll starve and there's no water!"

"Tough! You don't deserve any anyway and if you're very hungry and thirsty you won't feel like trying to escape now, will you? NOW GET IN THERE!"

As an afterthought Sandy added to the crooks, "If anyone is foolish enough to poke a nose out of that tunnel, they get a bullet straight between the eyes. GOT THAT!"

"Where does this tunnel lead to? Surely you're not going to leave us in that cramped space are you?"

"It leads to a cave and the cave is half way down the cliff and it's too far to jump so get yourselves moving. NOW!"

"Corky, Brian, Bill, everybody start piling rocks up against the entrance to block it off, especially that big one over there. Get that one in the hole first."