The Little Jane Silver 2-Book Bundle. Adira Rotstein

      She put her small hand through the brass hoop of the key ring. Wearing the tangle of keys like a bracelet, she scampered off below decks.

      Little Jane went down to their cabin in the stern of the ship and unlocked the door. Her father’s pipe took some finding. Shots continued to go off overhead as she searched. She finally discovered the elusive object languishing in the corner by the rubbish bin where it must’ve landed after taking a tumble off the desk.

      Walking through the narrow passage midships Little Jane noticed she was not alone below decks. Just down the narrow hall she thought she spied Ned Ronk, going about some business, completely unaware of her presence. She watched as he locked the door to the powder room, the chamber where the guns and gunpowder were stored, before climbing up the ladder to the main deck.

      She could think of no good reason for the boatswain to be down there when he was supposed to be topside watching the shooting practice.

      What sinister purpose can he be up to? she wondered. As soon as her nemesis was safely out of the hold, Little Jane went to the powder room to see.

      The door was locked as always. She tried a few of the keys from the bunch her father gave her, and was unsurprised to see them fail. There must’ve been forty keys or more on that ring. Not to mention that the locks on the Pieces were often rusty. Even with the right key, Little Jane failed to open them more often than not.