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prey.”
    She turned her attention from the ring back to the sweating captain. The captain saw her beautiful blue eyes crinkle at the edges, but he could tell that her smile never really touched their icy depths.
    â€œPeople who live in Australia have to be very careful where they step, my dear captain. For if they should agitate the web of this very aggressive spider . . .” She paused to bare her teeth in a wolfish smile. “They tend to find themselves in a right bit of trouble. And oftentimes, it’s much more than they can handle . . . if you get my meaning.”
    The captain licked his lips and nodded.
    â€œMy pretty ring here contains enough venom from that particular spider to kill a small elephant. So, if you please, I’d like to avoid using it on you and would humbly suggest that we embark for London immediately.”
    It was all the captain could do to keep from running as he strode from the room, heading directly to the quarters of his sleeping helmsman.

6
THE JOURNAL
    G riffin pulled his thin legs up to his chin, trying to get comfortable in the chair by his uncle’s hospital bed. The blanket that the nurse had provided him didn’t bring much comfort, for he was much too anxious about his uncle’s grave condition to sleep.
    Griffin stared at his uncle’s scruffy face, noting his receding hairline and his familiar bushy eyebrows. The moonlight illuminated his features, making them look even paler than they already were. Worry gnawed at Griffin’s insides, and no matter how hard he tried, he found that he was having difficulty trusting that everything would turn out okay.
    Please, God, let him wake up soon . It had been two days since the accident, and the doctors were growing more and more concerned.
    He and his father were taking shifts by his uncle’s bedside. Griffin was very thankful that he’d met his father at the tavern and had found out that both of his parents were okay and had not been kidnapped after all! His dad had been surprised to see the man he’d heard so much about from Griffin’s mother, and had made sure that Rupert was given the best care that the hospital could supply.
    After the joyful reunion with his parents, Griffin was relieved to find out that the sinister telegram must have been a hoax or a mistake. But the more he thought about it, the more Griffin realized he still wasn’t sure about it. Something about the telegram hinted at a scheme, possibly something that Moriarty was behind.
    Feeling worried, Griffin bit at his thumbnail while studying the bedside table next to his sleeping uncle. His eyes fell on his uncle’s worn, brown derby. The lumpy hat sat next to Rupert’s house key and his favorite leather notebook. It made Griffin feel a renewed sense of sadness as he stared at the familiar items. What if his uncle never woke up and used them again?
    It was such a terrible thought that Griffin tried to push it from his mind, attempting to distract himself by counting things in the hospital room. Unfortunately for him, he had already counted the tiny flowers on the curtains (one thousand two hundred and twenty-three), the speckled tiles on the floor (eighty-six), and the tiniest stains near the baseboards (twelve) three times already and couldn’t find many other things of interest in the room to count and ease his restless mind.
    On an impulse, he reached over and took his uncle’s notebook from the bedside table. Rupert had always been touchy about anyone looking inside of it, but Griffin was so desperate to relieve the long hours of waiting, he couldn’t help himself. He hoped that under the circumstances, his uncle would have understood. Perhaps he would even find something written there that might be helpful to his uncle.
    It was hard to see at first what was inscribed on the pages, for the distinctive brown ink his uncle used to write with was only slightly darker than the ivory paper. But as he