Hunt for the Panther 3 (9781101610923) (8 page)

With a sigh of relief, Scarlet and her father turned back to Daniel and Josephine, who seemed too preoccupied with Josephine’s weak constitution to have noticed the awkward exchange.

“Well,” Scarlet said. “Shall we go home?”

“Let’s.” Her father offered her his arm, motioning for a man lugging Daniel’s and Josephine’s trunks to follow.

“Scarlet,” Uncle Daniel said as they walked, “your father tells me you attend a fine little boarding school here in the tropics. You and Josephine will have to swap notes. She just started finishing school back home. In fact, before we left, she received an award for being the cleanest and tidiest girl in her year.”

“You don’t say,” Scarlet replied, trying her best to sound impressed. She’d never heard of finishing school before, but if they handed out awards for cleanliness, she wouldn’t last a week. She looked down at the stain on
her skirt and wondered if Josephine had noticed it.

“You’ll have such a pleasant time, you two,” Daniel went on. “Josephine has all kinds of interests. Crochet, knitting, embroidery…”

“Isn’t that nice?” Scarlet’s father commented, tightening his grip on Scarlet’s arm to remind her of their agreement. “Scarlet enjoys those things, too.”

“Can’t get enough of them,” Scarlet agreed through clenched teeth.

And so began the longest three weeks of her entire life.

“No one has ever identified the bromeliad that cures androgenetic alopecia,” Uncle Finn called to Jem over his shoulder as they wove their way through the jungle, around huge clumps of ferns and over fallen logs, skirting trees with trunks so big that Jem’s, Thomas’s, and Uncle Finn’s arms together wouldn’t encircle them. Thomas was out front, trying to clear the way without disturbing too many plants. “So that means,” Uncle Finn continued, “it hasn’t yet been named.”

“Hmm.” Jem tried his best to sound interested. Bromeliads were to Uncle Finn what ships were to Tim and animals were to Ronagh. They weren’t for him, though. Try as he might, he couldn’t muster enthusiasm for any plants at all. The only reason why he was out with the explorers as they searched for samples was because he needed to find Sina and Kapu and didn’t want to walk through the jungle alone, lest a panther or a pirate leap out and attack him.

“So, what do you think?” Uncle Finn turned to face him.

“Sorry, what?” Jem ground to a stop.

Uncle Finn sighed. “The name! When I present this new specimen to the High Commission on Neotropical Plantlife, I’ll need to name it.”

“I know!” Thomas turned around. “How about
Henry? I’ve always liked the name Henry.”

Uncle Finn rolled his eyes to the treetops. “Its genus is
Bediotropicanus.
So it needs a Latin species name. Like
Bediotropicanus onicus,
the one that temporarily erases one’s memory.”

“Right,” said Jem. They’d fed that one to Lucas, Pete, and Captain Wallace after foiling their last attempt to find the treasure. “And…” He thought hard, trying to remember the other plant Uncle Finn had found.
“Bediotropicanus plumpicus!”

“The one that turns hair green,” Thomas said.

“Feathers too,” Jem added. The Lost Souls had used that one to hide the aras from the pirates. It was a good solution, and one they could use again if the pirates showed up. But if Lucas wanted to harm the Lost Souls, they’d need more than bromeliads to fend him off.

Jem sighed. This Deputy Captain role had become very complicated.

“Exactly,” said Uncle Finn. “I’ll need such a Latin name for this new species, too.”

“How ’bout
Bediotropicanus henry
?” Thomas suggested, stooping to watch a tiny snake slither by his boots.

Uncle Finn did not look impressed. “I was thinking,” he said testily, “about naming it after the scientist who’d discovered it.”

“Ah,” Thomas said to the snake. “Can’t be Henry, then.” He looked up at Uncle Finn. “Unless your name’s actually Henry?”

“So then,” Jem cut in before Uncle Finn could
explode, “
Bediotropicanus… finnaeus?”

Uncle Finn straightened and flicked his hair over his shoulder. “Precisely. What do you think?”

“Sounds good,” said Jem, although he wondered if it was entirely fair, when Thomas had played an important role in finding the plant as well. In fact, everyone on Island X owed Thomas heaps of thanks, since he’d defected from the
Dark Ranger
pirates to join the Lost Souls as an honorary member.

“That’s a nice name, too,” Thomas said, straightening and scratching his chest. “So, what’ll it be like, visitin’ the High Comm… Commis…”

“High Commission on Neotropical Plantlife.” Uncle Finn fell in line behind him again. “I’ve never appeared before this commission, but I’m sure it will be the experience of a lifetime. I’ll have to make a formal presentation and display all my specimens and—”

“Wait.” Jem stopped scanning the trees for feline forms as a thought occurred to him. “The High Commission on Neotropical Plantlife is back in the Old World.”

“Obviously,” Uncle Finn replied without looking back at his nephew.

“And you’ll be presenting there… when exactly?”

“As soon as possible.” Uncle Finn paused to examine a tiny purple bromeliad sprouting off a branch. He snapped off a leaf and tucked it in his bag of samples.

“Which means,” Jem concluded, “we’ll be going home.”

It wasn’t a complete surprise, really. When Uncle Finn had shown up at the King’s Cross School for Boys
to whisk Jem off on an adventure in the tropics, he’d promised to have him back in six months’ time. It had taken them two months to cross the Atlantic, and they’d been living on Island X for two months now. So if everything went according to plan, Jem had very little time left before he’d have to trade the Lost Souls for his schoolmates, and tree house construction for Master Davis’s long, droning lectures on prime numbers, Latin verbs, and character building. Back in the Old World, a rare adventure consisted of visiting his parents’ estate, where the wildest animals around were a grumpy pony and a fat tabby cat.

Jem glanced around again. On the one hand, returning to a life of lessons and rules sounded terribly dull. On the other hand, at least his parents’ tabby cat wouldn’t eat him for breakfast.

He shook his head, and a lecture Master Davis had once given came to mind.

“Boys,” the stuffy schoolmaster had declared, “the best way to overcome fear is to learn everything you can about whatever it is you’re scared of. Logic conquers all.”

That last bit didn’t really apply to Island X, but Jem decided he’d give it a go anyway. If he was going to be a good Deputy Captain, he had to get over this fear. “Uncle Finn,” he called, interrupting his uncle’s lecture on the many exciting ways to phrase a hypothesis. “About that panther.”

“Hmm?” Uncle Finn looked back over his shoulder. “What about it?”

Jem took a deep breath, wondering where to start.
“Well… what do panthers eat?”

“Meat,” Uncle Finn said without hesitation. “They’re carnivores.”

“Right.” Jem gulped. That hadn’t helped. “And… how do you know when they’re around?”

Uncle Finn paused to inspect a giant red bromeliad covered in tiny green ants. “You usually don’t,” he said. “Panthers are stealthy, almost completely silent. You don’t know they’re there until they’re on top of you.”

Jem’s knees buckled. He silently cursed Master Davis.

“What about tracks?” Thomas asked, holding some vines to the side so they could pass.

“About this big.” Uncle Finn held up his fist. “They have big round toe pads, but no claw marks. That’s because their claws are retractable. They only unsheathe them when they want to kill something.”

“Oh. Good,” Jem wheezed, remembering the track Monty had shown him earlier that day. It had fit Uncle Finn’s description perfectly. He looked around for a nice spot to lie down and pass out.

“I wonder if there are any other panthers on the island,” Thomas mused. “Must get lonely in that cave all by ’imself. Bet he’d like a friend.”

More than one panther? Jem had never thought about that. He wiped sweat off his forehead and looked behind him, this time spotting glimmering cat eyes in every bush. The jungle suddenly seemed darker. He scanned the treetops for a slice of sunlight.

All of a sudden, something came crashing through the bushes behind him. Jem whirled around just as the
beast threw itself on him, landing square on his chest.

“Argh!” He stumbled backward. “Help! Get it off me!” He tripped over a fallen log and fell smack on his rear end, wrestling with the beast still clinging to his shirt.

“Easy there, Jem.” Thomas leaned over and plucked the thing off him, holding up a small black monkey. The troublemaker shrieked with laughter. “It’s jus’ a little fella.”

Jem let his breath out in a whoosh. It was just a monkey. Not a panther. He climbed slowly to his feet, dusting the dirt off his trousers and ignoring Uncle Finn’s snicker. If he did have to return to the Old World, one thing he certainly wouldn’t miss was the monkeys.

Actually, he realized as he glared at the jabbering little creature, it wasn’t just any monkey. It was Kapu’s pet monkey. Which meant the Islanders couldn’t be far away. Which reminded him why he’d ventured out into the jungle in the first place.

Sure enough, a moment later, Sina and Kapu’s tiny tree house came into view, and the pair emerged from it, swinging down on sturdy vines to greet their visitors. The monkey slipped out of Thomas’s grasp and leaped onto Kapu’s shoulder.

“Hey!” Jem called.

Kapu danced over to meet him with a big gap-toothed smile.

“You lost a tooth!” Jem exclaimed. Since Kapu knew even less English than Sina, Jem tapped his own tooth for emphasis. Kapu smiled wider and nodded.

“Where are you going?” Jem asked, miming the question by marching on the spot and lifting his palms up in question.

Sina pointed at Jem.

“To camp? That’s great! Because I need your help.” Jem pointed to himself, then tapped his head. “I need you to show me how to put a door on a tree house.” He pointed up at their tree house, then mimed opening and shutting a door. Sina and Kapu had the most well-constructed house he’d ever seen. If anyone knew how to build a door, it was them.

Sina nodded, but she looked confused. She and Kapu had a short discussion, then turned back to Jem, mimed opening the door, and shrugged as if to say, “Why?”

“Well, to keep predators out,” Jem explained. “Like the panther.” He did his best imitation of a large bloodthirsty cat.

Sina looked amused. She said something to Kapu, who giggled.

Jem couldn’t say for sure, but he had a feeling it was something along the lines of, “A door won’t keep a panther out.” And that was probably true, but he had to do something to protect the crew. This was the best he could come up with.

Sina raised a finger, then drew herself up tall, assuming an ugly grimace. Then she pretended to unsheathe a cutlass and brandish it in the air.

“Ooh!” Thomas exclaimed. “Pirates! Right? I like this game!”

“Come on, Thomas.” Uncle Finn sighed, pulling his
assistant further into the jungle. “We’ll see you children later,” he called back to them.

“Oh, I see what you’re saying,” Jem said to Sina. “A door won’t keep the pirates out, right?”

Sina shrugged.

Jem sighed. “True. It’s… it’s just all I’ve got for now. The Lucas problem is a much, much bigger one. To be honest, I’m hoping Scarlet will be back by the time we have to face it, so we can all put our heads together.”

Sina studied him for a moment, then nodded. She hoisted her quiver of arrows and her bow up on her shoulder, then turned and headed for camp, motioning for the boys to fall in behind her.

They’d only been in the clearing for a minute or two when Smitty came running over, followed by Monty and Elmo.

“Fitz,” he said seriously. “We’ve got a problem.”

Jem froze. “What? What is it?
Who
is it?” Images of a Lost Soul getting carried away by a slobbering panther flashed through his mind. Or maybe Lucas had shown up already. What then? That would mean—

Smitty cleared his throat. “I have this… sickness.”

Jem stopped. “You… what?” Smitty looked perfectly healthy.