Page 36 (1/2)

Mo looked first at hiie She did her best to look unafraid, so that he would think there was no need to worry about her – after all, she had always been a better liar than he was But this tireat as the fear she saw in his own eyes

Perhaps all this is just a story too, thought Meggie desperately And any moment someone will close the book because it’s so horrible and scary, and Mo and I will be back at hoht, as if that would h her lashes Basta was still standing behind her, and Flatnose was rubbing his squashed nostrils and turning his dog-like gaze on Capricorn

‘Very well,’ said Mo wearily into the silence ‘I’ll read aloud to you But Meggie and Elinor can’t stay in here’

Meggie knew exactly what he was thinking He was thinking of her ht disappear this time

‘Nonsense Of course they stay here’ Capricorn’s voice was no longer careless ‘And you’d better get started before the book there in your hand falls to dust’

Mo closed his eyes for a moment ‘Very well, but tell Basta to put his knife away,’ he said hoarsely ‘If he hurts a hair of Meggie or Elinor’s heads I proue out of a book to infect you and your men’

Cockerell looked at Mo in alarm, and a shadow passed over even Basta’s face, but Capricorn just laughed

‘Let ious disease,’ he said ‘And it doesn’t stop short at little girls So neverNow At once And I want to hear so out of that book first!’

He pointed to the book that Mo had just laid aside

Treasure Island

18

Treasure Island

Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey, and the rest of these gentle asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, fro back but the bearings of the island … I take up o back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn, and the brown old sea under our roof

Robert Louis Stevenson,