The Finders Keepers Rule. Jacqueline Greene

sinkholes in the swamp on Treasure Island. Just as she landed in one puddle, she spotted the fluted edges of a scallop shell peeking out. She reached down and picked it up. It was large, and unbroken.

      “Aha!” she cried. “I found one the tourists missed!” She rinsed the sand off the shell, revealing reddish coloring along its ridges. “Beverly will love this for her shell collection.”

      Maryellen held the shell out to Davy, and then bent to look for more. As the sun emerged from behind a small cloud, she spotted another round edge poking up from the wet sand. “This might be another good one,” she said, digging under it with her fingers.

      What she pulled from the sand didn’t look like any shell Maryellen had ever seen. It was white and bumpy like some shells, but perfectly circular, with a hole in the middle. She swished the object through the water to rinse off the sand, then scraped her fingernail over the white crusty spots stuck to it. “I think it’s a ring.”

      “Neato,” Davy said, coming over to inspect.

      Maryellen tried the ring on her pointer finger, but it was far too large. It even slipped easily off her thumb. “It’ll fall off if I wear it,” Maryellen said, but the words were only half out before she realized she had the perfect place to put the ring. She untied the shoelace around her neck and slid the end of the lace through the ring. It pinged against the bike key as she retied the lace.

      “It’s a good thing Mr. Buckley wasn’t sweeping his detector through the water,” Maryellen said, slipping the shoelace back over her head. “He would have found this first.” Then she remembered something. “Mr. Buckley said he turned in the wedding ring he found. I wonder if I should turn this in, too.”

      “I don’t know,” Davy said. He toweled off and slipped his T-shirt back on. “That thing looks like it’s been buried under the sand for ages. Whoever lost it must be long gone.”

      Maryellen nodded. The ring did look old, and she thought it would be nice to keep it. She shook out her wet hair and ran her fingers through the tangles. The cool breeze sent goose bumps racing up and down her arms, and she dried off as best she could. She slipped the old shirt over her wet bathing suit, trying to warm up.

      “The ring could have been lost by some tourist from—from—Vermont!” she said, trying to imagine a wintry location up north. “Or maybe someone lost it ages ago while they were on a fishing trip. Maybe it took years for it to wash up this close to shore.”

      “Let’s show it to Joan,” Davy suggested. “She might have an idea of what you should do with it.”

      They ambled over to Sandy’s Beach Hut. “Shhh,” Sandy said as they approached. “It’s a slow day for customers, so I’m letting Joan study.” He motioned to a nearby spot, where Joan sat cross-legged in the sand, her head bent over a book.

      Maryellen didn’t want to bother Joan, but she really did want to ask about what she’d found. She pulled the ring from under her collar and held it out to Sandy. “I found this in a sandbar just past the pier,” she said quietly. “Do you think anyone might still be looking for it?”

      Sandy looked closely at the ring. “That looks positively ancient. Maybe you’ve found some buried treasure.”

      Maryellen pictured a stash of pirate loot and felt goose bumps on her arms again, but this time it wasn’t because she was cold. She looked at Sandy doubtfully. “You don’t mean pirate treasure, like in Treasure Island?” Maryellen knew it was crazy even to imagine that, but it wasn’t easy to shake the idea.

      “Aaarrr,” Sandy growled, rolling his eyes and imitating Long John Silver, the peg-leg pirate character from the movie. He squinted at the ring, and then scraped at the top with his fingernail. “Lookee here, mateys. Methinks there might be something carved in the top.”

      Maryellen peered at the ring, but all she saw was the rough white coating that almost completely encrusted it. It looked nothing like the sparkling gold and jewels that young Jim Hawkins found at the end of the movie. “If this is what real treasure looks like, then I don’t know why anyone would waste time looking for it,” she declared.

      “Anyway,” Davy said, “who ever heard of pirate treasure buried at Daytona Beach?”

      “Not so fast,” Sandy said thoughtfully, in his own voice. He sat on the stool he kept behind the stand. “I’m something of a history buff. For years, I’ve been reading about the French and Spanish rulers who sent explorers to claim new territory around here. Hundreds of years ago, they scouted the seas up and down this coastline. Plenty of ships were lost just offshore.” He gestured out toward the horizon. “In fact, there’s a plaque up on the plaza to remember an entire fleet of French ships that went down in a storm right off the beach here.”

      Davy leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Did any of the sailors survive? Or were they eaten by sharks?”

      “Nearly all the sailors managed to swim to shore,” Sandy said, “which shows you how close they were. Now, I’m not saying this ring is from one of those ships, but who knows what might have been lost in these waters?”

      Maryellen looked at the ring with new interest. She arranged the shoelace under the collar of her shirt so the ring was on display. As she and Davy walked back to their bikes, she said, “That’s probably just a made-up story.” Then she hesitated. “Right? I mean, even if it’s true, it doesn’t have anything to do with this ring.”

      “That’s the problem with grown-ups,” Davy said. “You can’t always tell when they’re serious, and when they’re just pulling your leg.”

      “I know,” Maryellen agreed. Still, Sandy had sounded convincing.

      They walked their bikes toward the large open plaza, where a group of workers were busy setting up for the dance. Some were perched on ladders, adding lights around the opening of the band shell. Others were busy stringing rows of bulbs on the two towers at either side. As Maryellen tried to imagine how bright and festive everything would look when the party began and the plaza was filled with people and music, she heard someone calling her name. She turned toward the street and spotted Carolyn waving as she pedaled toward them on her bike.