“It’s not good to be missing an ear,” Josh said. “I’m fond of them both.”
Devereaux followed the rocky shoreline until he came to a small patch of sand in a protected cove. He nosed the boat in as far as he could, and when he started to churn sand he raised the engines.
“Take a line and pull us in,” he said to Josh. “Secure the line to the tree at the edge of the shore. We’re at dead-low tide. The boat will be floating when we return.”
Josh grabbed the line and jumped into the knee-high water. He pulled the boat in as far as it would go, waded out of the water, and walked to the tree. When he got to the tree he looked back at us and put his hand to his ear. No doubt thinking he didn’t want to lose it. He dropped the rope and ran off into the woods.
“Oops,” I said.
Devereaux fired off two shots, but Josh continued to crash through the brush, so I assumed he wasn’t hit…or at least not badly.
“This isn’t going well,” I said. “Why don’t I give you the diamond, and you can find the treasure all by yourself?”
Devereaux hung a beat-up knapsack on his shoulder and pointed the gun at me. “Because that might not work. It’s not clear if the diamond will glow for an ordinary person. Wade in to the beach and tie up the boat. I’ll be right behind you, and I’ll shoot you if you decide to follow him.”
I tied the boat to the tree and set off on a path that led into the woods. I came to a fork in the path, Devereaux pulled a folded map of the island out of the knapsack, studied it for a moment, and told me to go left. I was still dripping wet and my shoes leaked water with every step. I looked at the chosen route and cringed. The rock-strewn trail wound uphill to a granite ledge.
“What’s the finder telling you?” Devereaux asked.
“It’s not telling me anything. It’s a little warm but that’s all.”
“Keep moving,” Devereaux said.
I was struggling to follow a narrow dirt path that was littered with rocks and sporadically overgrown with tangled vines. Thorny shrubs and stunted evergreens hugged the trail, obscuring the view. I could hear Devereaux laboring behind me. I reached the granite ledge, and the evergreens gave way enough for me to see the surf crashing onto the rocks far below me. The cove where we tied the boat was no longer in sight. I looked at the diamond and sucked in some air. The diamond was glowing. The light in the gemstone was very faint, but definitely there.
Devereaux saw it, too.
“I knew it!” he said. “It’s going to lead us to the treasure.”
His voice was hoarse and his face was red from the exertion of the climb. His eyes were glazed, his pupils narrow pinpoints of insanity.
“Do you have the coin on you?” I asked him.
“Of course.”
“Is it in anything…like a lead box?”
“It’s in my pocket.”
“It’s occurred to me that it might be affecting your behavior,” I said. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but you’re a little nutso. You’re not really yourself. Maybe you should sit and rest. Catch your breath.”
“No time for that. Ammon could be following us.”
I didn’t think he had to worry about Ammon as much as he had to worry about Diesel and Wulf. I was confident that they were on the hunt, looking for me.
Now that I was on the granite ledge there was no path to follow. It was all rock with patches of scrub forest. I chose a direction at random and the diamond stopped glowing. I backtracked and went off in another direction, and the light returned. We were climbing over boulders and bushwhacking through brambles. I had scratches on my arms where I’d caught thorns, and my jeans were torn at the knee from skidding down a rockslide. From time to time I’d turn and check on Devereaux, hoping he’d fall behind enough for me to escape. So far he was keeping up, trudging along with the gun in his hand, his eyes bright with crazed excitement. I had to stop and backtrack again twice when the diamond went dim, but for twenty minutes now the glow had been getting steadily stronger.
I approached what at first looked like a dead end, but turned out to be a narrow canyon made by two slabs of granite. The distance between the slabs was three feet at best, and the walls were thirty to forty feet high. I stepped into the slot, looked up at the ribbon of blue sky far above me, and felt a rush of panic burn in my chest.
“I can’t go in there,” I said to Devereaux. “It’s too narrow. We’ll get trapped.”
“There’s plenty of room. What does the diamond say?”
I had the diamond in my pocket, so he couldn’t see it, but the stupid thing was glowing through the denim.
“There has to be an easier way to get to the treasure,” I said. “We should go back and try a different route.”
“We’re not going back. We’re following the diamond. Give it to me. Hand it over.”
I gave him the diamond, and it went cold. No glow. No heat. Nothing.