Hunt for the Panther 3 (9781101610923) by Gerald (ILT) Rachelle; Guerlais Delaney

feet that obviously hadn’t touched firm ground in weeks. “You
scalawag
!”
    Lucas laughed, and the men echoed him.
    “You traitor!” Captain Wallace continued, staggering closer. “You think you can cross me? You think you can steal my men and my ship and get away with it?”
    Lucas folded his arms across his chest. “Looks like I did.”
    Captain Wallace looked like he could breathe fire. “You think you’ve got what it takes to take over the tropics? You? A mere…
child
!”
    “Blast!” Scarlet whispered.
Lucas
was the Rebel. “Bilge and blimey!”
    “Cousin!” Josephine gasped.
    Lucas narrowed his eyes at Captain Wallace. “Just watch me,
Wallace
.”
    Captain Wallace let out a strangled cry and stumbled forward, but two enormous pirates stepped out and blocked his way. A cloud of curses filled the air, and the pirates began to shift and surge.
    Scarlet shook herself out of her stupor and grabbed her cousin’s hand. “Come on,” she said, pulling Josephine away from the rowdy crowd. “We should go home.”
    “Well,” Josephine said as they walked back. “That was certainly… interesting.” She reached into a pocket and drew out her pink fan, fluttering it in front of her face.
    Scarlet took several deep breaths, trying to get the hurricane of thoughts in her head under control. Lucas had mutinied against Captain Wallace. And now he was bent on being the most powerful captain in the tropics. Part of her wanted to pull out her hair, while a larger part wanted to run back to the docks and pull out his.
    Did the crew know about this? With so many miles between them, who could say? But until she could be back with them, she had to do what she’d promised: find out more about the Rebel’s—Lucas’s—plan.
    Not to mention Captain Wallace’s plan for revenge.

“Hold it still,” Jem called, giving the nail a final whack with his hammer. “There!” He stepped back to admire his handiwork. “Not bad, right?”
    Kapu tested the door, swinging it back and forth. He nodded.
    “Come on, it’s good, isn’t it?” Jem tested the door himself. “It’ll keep out the panther.” He turned to the younger boy and bared his teeth—an expression that had become their sign for “panther.”
    Kapu looked at the door, then gave Jem a look that said, “If you say so.”
    Jem frowned. They’d been at this door for two hours and still had three more to install. “What’s wrong with it?”
    Kapu got down on all fours. Obviously pretending to be a panther, he skulked toward the door, gave it a sniff, then lowered his shoulder and shoved it, hard. The door swung right open, and Kapu turned to Jem with a look that said, “See?”
    Jem bit his lip. “All right, so we’ll put a lock on it. We’ll secure it.”
    Kapu raised his right hand and curled his fingers, as if showing off some sharp claws.
    “Oh.” Jem sighed. “You think he can tear right through it. I didn’t think of that.” He set his hammerdown on the tree house floor and folded his arms across his chest. “Well then, do you have any better ideas?” He tapped his head.
    Kapu rocked back on his feet and thought for a moment. Then he snapped his fingers.
    “You’ve got something? What?”
    Kapu got back on all fours, pretending once again to be the panther, skulking through the jungle. Then suddenly, he let out a howl and flipped onto his side.
    “What?” Jem cried. “What happened?”
    Kapu pointed to his foot, which he kept glued to the floor while flailing all his other limbs.
    “Oh! A trap!” Jem exclaimed, pausing to congratulate himself on how good he was getting at communicating with the Islanders.
    Kapu sprang to his feet, nodding.
    “Right. We can’t do that.” Jem shook his head. “Ronagh would slay us all.” He swiped his hand across his throat.
    Now Kapu’s shoulders sagged.
    “But good idea,” said Jem. “Got anything else?”
    They swung down to the jungle floor and surveyed the situation. Jem still couldn’t