The Mystery of Adventure Island (5 page)

“The man might still be watching us,” Will said, “so we have to pretend we’re leaving the island.”

“And then what?” Amy asked.

“We’ll row around the island until we find another place to hide the boat,” Will said. “Then, after we have set up camp somewhere else, we’ll see if we can find out what’s going on.”

The children packed up their stuff and headed down the path to the beach. After they had put everything on board, they set off.

Will and Joe took the oars while the girls kept a lookout. They
didn’t
want to hoist the sail since they would be going close to dangerous rocks and, if the sail was up, the boat would only go the way of the wind, and thus might smash against the rocks.

There were a few tense moments as the boys rowed out of the inlet, but soon they were out on calm water.

Will stopped rowing for a moment and scanned the horizon as the Lazy Lucy bobbed
to and fro
on the water. “We’ll head left. There should be fewer rocks on the side closest to the mainland, but keep your eyes open.”

“For rocks or the ghost?”
Joe asked.

“For both,” Will
replied
grimly. He steered the Lazy Lucy towards the mainland. “Most likely, the person is camped on the other side of the island where we haven’t been yet. So we shouldn’t go too far.”

“What about here?” Sarah asked as she pointed towards the shore.

Will looked over and saw a small section of sand and, next to it, a half-flooded cave. An idea crept into his mind. “Yes, that might work.”

“What do you mean?” Joe asked.

Will glanced at his watch. “
It’s
high tide now, and that cave looks deep enough to sail into.”

“But if it’s high tide now, what happens at low tide?” Amy questioned.

“Well, the Lazy Lucy would be beached on the sand.
But
that will be okay. We just need to keep her out of view of anyone on this island.” Will peered towards the sharp rocks that bordered the cave. “It’s going to be tight, but I think we can just squeeze in there.”

Amy moved up to the front of the boat. “I’ll be the lookout out front.”

There was a ring of rocks around the cave, with only one opening. It was going to be touch and go.
And
they had to be fast. Any slowdown on speed and the boat would drift to the left or right, which would put it on course for the rocks.

The four children shouted out to one another as the Lazy Lucy headed towards the frothing waters.

“All clear this side!” Sarah shouted.

“You’re fine to go straight ahead,” Amy yelled.

“Let’s do it.” Will pulled as hard as he could on the oars.

The Lazy Lucy surged forward as it bobbed up and down on the waves, getting closer and closer to the opening. Closer, closer, and closer, and then they were through.

“Yes!” Sarah yelled, happy. She turned to Will and smiled.

Suddenly, the boat groaned, and the sound of breaking of wood filled the air. Sarah glanced down and saw that a rock had torn a small hole in the side of the boat.

“Oh no!”
Sarah shouted. “There’s a hole in the boat! We’re all going to drown!”

Chapter 7: The Disappearing Man

 

Joe stared as water started pouring in the Lazy Lucy.
“Blow!
What are we going to do?”

“Just hold on and pray that we don’t hit anything else,” Will yelled. Along with Joe, he rowed towards the cave and, a few moments later, the sailboat
was successfully hidden
from the outside.

This was one problem solved, but they still had another problem to deal with, which
was the water
still pouring into the boat.

Will hurried into the cabin and glanced around for something with which to bail out the water that was already filling the bottom of the small room. It would soon reach the tins of food that
were tucked
inside the little cupboard. This
wasn’t
so much of a problem since they were waterproof, but not so for the tents, books, and clothes that were just above the food.

Will grabbed two plastic bowls and hurried back. He handed them to the girls. “Get to work.” He turned to Joe. “Come with me.”

As the girls set to work getting as much of the water out as possible, the boys removed everything from the cabin and put it on the roof. The water slowly rose higher and higher. Soon, all of the children’s shoes were soaking wet.

As Will finished removing everything from the cabin, he realised that the boat was no longer sinking. He quickly grabbed one of the poles from the tent and poked it into the water beside the boat.

He grinned as the pole struck bottom roughly two feet down. “Hey! The sand’s just below us.” He looked over at the girls who were still furiously tossing the water out. “You can stop now.”

“What? Why?” Amy asked.

“The water will keep on coming in until the level in the boat is at the same level in the cave. And we’ve moved all the stuff out of harms way, so come and join us.” Will walked over to the cabin and climbed up onto the roof.

The others quickly followed and, for the next minute or two, they watched the water slowly rise. As Will had predicted, once the water had risen to the same level as in the cave, it stopped flowing in.

“So, what do we do now?” Sarah asked.

“Well, we can wait for the water to go down, or we can jump in now and dry ourselves out by the beach,” Will
said
.

“How deep did you say it was?” Amy questioned.

“Well, it was two feet at one point, but it could be deeper or shallower somewhere else.” Will looked down at the foaming water. “I’ll test it.” After rolling up his trousers, he climbed down into the boat.

Climbing over the side, he lowered himself into the water. He smiled as the water went only as far as his knees.
“Looks good here.
I’ll see how it is getting to the sand.”

The others watched as Will slowly walked through the water and saw that it gradually became shallower. Within half a minute, he was on the dry sand. He turned and walked back through the water. “Deepest part is the start. Just walk where I walked. There’s no telling what will happen to you if you stray offline, so stay straight.”

Following Will’s advice, the others waded into the water. Before long, and without any trouble, all four of them were sitting on the hot sand. However, the tents and other essentials had to be collected and so, leaving their shoes to dry in the sun, they headed back into the water.

Forming a chain, they were able
to quickly get
all of their stuff off the Lazy Lucy. After having a short rest, they lugged the tents across the beach and up the rugged terrain.

“We need to be close to the boat,” Will said, “but not too close. We can’t afford to be seen from the water, so I suggest we get as close to the wood as possible.”

They walked a bit farther on until they reached the wood and, seeing a patch of grass, dropped the tents there.

Joe glanced around and saw that the wood blocked the view at one end, and thick gorse bushes blocked the view from the beach. “This should suit us nicely.”

“Let’s hurry and set up camp,” Amy said. “I want to see if there’s something more to your theory than just a cigarette butt.”

It
didn’t
take as long to set up camp as it had yesterday and, after a quick snack, they headed towards the church. They kept close to the wood at all times and stopped when they were in view of the ruin.

Will
looked
through the binoculars but, to his disappointment, didn’t see any movement. “I vote we stay in the shelter of the bushes and head for the other end of the island.”

Since it seemed pointless staying where they were,
the others agreed with Will and moved off. It took less than ten minutes to reach the far beach, and, in the shelter of thick bushes, the children lay down and gazed down the small incline at the sand below.

Joe took the binoculars and spent a full minute surveying the area.
There was still no sign of anyone and not even a sign that anyone had been there in recent times.
There was no boat, no tent, not even a campfire.

Sarah stood up. “This is no mystery. How can there be one when there isn’t anyone or anything of interest on this island?”

Joe watched as Sarah started walking down the small hill and towards the beach. “I guess she’s right.” He stood up as well. “Why are we all creeping about?”

“Look!” Amy called out. She pointed to the far end of the beach where a person had just come into view.

“Gosh, they’ll see Sarah.” Will jumped up and rushed after the eight year old.

Joe and Amy watched in horrified silence as the man walked down the beach, heading directly towards Sarah who, by now, had just reached the sand.
Luckily
though, there was a rocky cliff that protruded out and thus stopped the man from seeing the girl.

With bated breath
, Joe gazed through the binoculars as Will caught up with Sarah. The two of them turned and raced back to the grassy area. They had just flung themselves behind some gorse bushes when the man walked around the cliff and headed towards them.

“What’s going on?” Amy asked, fearful.

“The man must have seen them. He’s going straight… no, he’s turned around now and…. he’s disappeared!” Joe whipped the binoculars away from his face and gazed down at the beach. He was right. The man had literally disappeared.

Half a minute later, Will and Sarah rejoined the others. The boy turned to Joe. “What did you see?”

“You were just in time,” Joe said. “I thought the man had seen you, but then he disappeared.”

Will frowned. “What do you mean?”

“He just disappeared,”
Joe
replied. “He was walking along next to the cliff and—”

“Goodness, the cave!” Sarah whispered.

“What cave?” Amy asked.

Sarah explained. “Just before Will spoke to me, I saw a cave.”

Joe looked at Will. “Did you see it?”

Will shook his head. “No, but I wasn’t looking. I was only concerned with Sarah.”

“Remember the caves at Smuggles Cove?” Joe said. “What if there are similar caves on this island?”

“Caves would be an ideal hiding place for someone who didn’t want to be seen,” Amy said. She glanced at Will. “Are there many caves or tunnels that you know of in the area?”

Will nodded. “This part of the coast was a big deal to smugglers a few hundred years ago. It was a perfect distance from
France
, so smugglers spent many a day building tunnels. There are even rumours that Smugglers Cove was built on top of a network of tunnels.”

“You mean the ones we found?” Sarah asked.

Will shook his head. “No. According to some of the stories, what we found only amounts to a fraction of what there is. So, yes, it’s certainly possible that there are caves on this island.”

Joe quickly stood up. “Let’s explore them. If there’s something going on, I’m sure there must be something in those tunnels.” He scanned the beach. No one
could be seen
. “We’ll walk in single file. We know there is at least one person around, so stay alert.”

“What happens if we’re seen?” Amy said.

Joe looked over at Will. “What do you think is best?”

We’ll pretend we’re four children out sailing,” Will said. “Whatever they’re up to, as long as they believe us, we’ll be all right.”

Chapter 8: Into
The
Caves

 

The children walked down the hill going as quietly as they could. Stepping onto the soft sand, they saw that Sarah had been right.

A cave lay just to the right of them. Waiting for a moment to make sure that no one was about, the children entered.