Blackbeard's Loot

Some secrets are buried for a reason. In the summer of 1967, four friends
in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, found one anyway.

Jake, Tommy, Ben, and Will are just trying to have a summer. Then old
Captain Eli Mercer tells them a story about treasure landed up Dead Mans
Creek, and the boys follow it to a giant live oak with a broken limb — and
a weathered shack hidden in the brush beyond it.

Inside the shack is a locked dark-wood box, carved with three letters:
E.T.B.

Nobody knows whats inside it. Nobody is supposed to know the box exists
at all. The four friends swear to keep it secret — and then they open it.

What they find isnt gold. Its stranger than gold: a rolled cloth, a
skeleton key, and a photograph that matches the cloth line for line. And
the more they learn, the clearer it gets — their history teacher,
Mr. Whitaker, knows more than hes telling. Hes hunting the same
treasure. And now the boys are in a race with him.

Meanwhile, far from the marsh, Wills older brother David is missing in
Vietnam, and the whole town is holding its breath. The summer is running
out. School is coming. And the hunt is only just beginning.

Blackbeards Loot: Book One is the start of one long treasure hunt