The Treasure Hunters Read Online Free PDF

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Ruby that Eden said anything at all as she glowered at the brunette.
    “Don’t forget,” Merridie continued,
poking her in the chest with a finger. “ You brought us here, Ruby. Is this another one of your grand schemes you’ve
concocted?”
    “I said I’d go!” Eden yelled.
    Her voice cut through the tension
between her and Merridie and they turned to look at her in surprise.
    “What?” Merridie sputtered.
    “Well, if this is a democratic choice,
then I vote we go,” Eden said.
    “We’re lovely British servants
now,” Merridie snapped. “Remember? We’ve followed Ruby this far and it didn’t
turn out to be the best thing for us, now, did it? Family love and all that shit!”
    But Eden stared solemnly at
Merridie, who glared at Ruby.
    “Merrie,” Eden said, grabbing her
attention. “You already said you hated it here and you hated being poor. So do I . It’s not the money so much as the freedom we used to
have. I saw a woman on the docks in New York, right before we boarded the ship.
She was dressed how we used to dress, looked how we used to look. And then we
came here and we’re all miserable and we’re fighting. I vote to go, Merri . What have we got to lose?”
    Merridie crossed her arms and
pursed her lips as she turned away.
    “Our lives” she muttered.
    “We won’t go without you,” Ruby
stated.
    Merridie was silent and Ruby gave
her the space she needed. She knew she was thinking things over, weighing
everything. It was a new position for her to be in. It was a new position for
all of them.
    When she finally turned back, her
eyes were narrowed.  
    “Do you have a plan?” she asked. “A sensible plan?”
    Ruby nodded. “But we have to leave right
now.”
    “Why?” Eden asked.
    “Two men tried to steal this map
tonight. Only I stole it from them. When they discover it gone it’s not going
to be hard to figure out who was there. They’ll come after it…after me.”
    “Let me see the map,” Merridie
said. Ruby moved aside so Merridie could get closer. “It seems to be written in
a code of some type. I’ll have to study it more.”
    “These are the Sweeny Islands off
of Africa,” Ruby said, pointing.
    “We need a boat,” Eden stated.
    “Start packing now. We leave in an
hour.”
     
     

 
    Chapter Five
     
    They dressed in black, deciding to
go with trousers to free up their movements. It hadn’t been hard to procure the
clothing. Eden had simply snuck into the laundry room and taken the uniforms of
the male servants. Even in the dead of night, hackneys still ran, so they
hailed one. Time crawled at a snail’s pace, and Ruby kept glancing behind her,
expecting to see the men from the warehouse following them. Only when they
finally stood in front of the ship registry office did she breathe a sigh of
relief they’d not been caught. Yet.
    “Didn’t I say a sensible plan?”
Merridie whispered angrily.
    “ Shh !”
Ruby said, holding a finger up to her lips.
    Eden knelt by the door and in a few
seconds it swung open.
    “One day you will tell me how to do
that,” Merridie said, slightly in awe.
    Eden simply smiled angelically. It
was hard to believe such an innocent face knew how to pick pockets and break
into locked offices.
    Ruby lit a lantern and headed right
to the log books. Merridie kept watch from the door and Eden wandered around,
looking at the all the nautical stuff strewn about. Ruby searched each book
until she found what she was looking for and flipped it open.
    “Here, I found one,” she said. “The Paradise , located in berth number eleven.”
    A sound from outside had Ruby
hastily blowing out the candle and the three of them waited, poised in fright
as footsteps could clearly be heard coming closer. If they were discovered now,
all was lost. They’d be arrested. The map would be confiscated. And more than
likely, Katherine would throw them out . Oh
god, no . Ruby held her breath and prayed, even though she didn’t really
consider