Read Fair Wind to Widdershins for Free Online Page B

mumbled Trundle.
    “If we had a rope and a grappling hook, we might be able to scale the walls,” said Jack.
    “The rope back on the Thief in the Night isn’t long enough,” said Esmeralda. “And we don’t have a grappling hook.”
    “I once heard of a fellow who escaped from prison by tunneling right under the walls,” Jack offered. “He did it with a spoon and a fork. He was a steam mole, by the name of Edwin Tilthammer. Got locked up for counterfeiting gold sunders. The tunnel took him—oh!” Jack frowned. “I’ll shut up now.”
    Trundle looked sideways at him. “The tunnel took him…?”
    “Two and a half years,” muttered Jack. “Sorry. Not helpful.” He gave a plucky smile. “I could cheer us up by singing an old chain-gang ditty I picked up in Wetwhistle one time.”
    “Not if I sit on your head, you couldn’t,” growled Esmeralda. She looked at Trundle. “How could you have just handed the crown and the key over to him like that?”
    “I didn’t hand them over,” Trundle protested. “He took them.”
    “He wouldn’t have took them from me!”
    “Well, if you’re so clever—”
    “Chaps, chaps!” interrupted Jack. “Arguing won’t get us anywhere.” He stood up. “Positive action is what’s required now, and lots of it.”
    He looked down at the gloomy hedgehogs for a few moments, then turned on his heel and went striding along the wall. Whistling gaily to himself, he vanished around a corner.
    Trundle glanced at Esmeralda. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You trusted me with the crown and the key, and I totally let you down.”
    “Oh, it wasn’t your fault,” said Esmeralda. “Who knew that was going to happen?”
    There was a short silence before Trundle spoke again. “And I’m sorry that your aunty turned out to be such a … such a…”
    “Pig-dog-rat-fink-skunk-monster from Boweldeeps?” Esmeralda finished. “Yes, so am I.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe that she’s in cahoots with Grizzletusk.” She looked at Trundle. “I don’t even want to think about what would happen if those pirates ever got their hands on the Six Crowns.”
    “ ‘What would happen?” Trundle asked. “Didn’t I just tell you I don’t want to think about it?”
    “Yes, but … well, I know the rhyme—‘ if power ye seek ,’ and all that. But exactly what kind of power do the crowns have? What would happen if they were all gathered together?”
    “No one knows,” Esmeralda replied. “That’s what’s so scary. The last time the Six Crowns were all in one place, the whole world blew up! Aunt Millie seems to think Grizzletusk will just meekly hand the crowns over to her if she pays him enough—but I seriously doubt it. I think he’ll keep the crowns for himself.” She gave him a bleak look. “Would you want a source of power like that to fall into the hands of pirates ?”
    “No, not much,” Trundle said miserably.
    Just then, Jack came pattering back, grinning from ear to ear. “Come with me,” he said. “I’ve got a plan.”
    They got up and followed him to the corner of the wall. At the point where the wall turned, it began a steep climb up the natural rock of the cone-shaped island. Walls and battlements and towers climbed up and up above them across a cracked rock face studded with gnarled and twisted trees and barbed with thorny bushes. Jack pointed up through the branches of a straggly hawthorn. “See that scaffolding?” he said. Trundle saw it—a construction of wooden beams and planks and poles pressing up against the walls about sixty feet above their heads.

    “That’s our way in,” said Jack. “Up the scaffolding and over the walls. What do you say?”
    “I say, ‘Well done, Jack,’” said Esmeralda.
    And so they began the long, steep climb up to the scaffolding. Jack went first, scouting out the easiest route and helping them when they got stuck.
    It was hard going, and Trundle was soon puffing and blowing as he heaved himself up the