The Secret of the Lonely Isles (8 page)

They were all quiet for a few moments, thinking of the two brothers separated by vast distances, and who would never see each other again.

‘Well,' said Ella, breaking the silence, ‘we know for certain that they got very close to Australia, perhaps only a few days' sail from here, and therefore not much further to the island, wherever that might be. So that narrows the possibilities down a little.'

She pulled the chart to her, tracing her finger along the outline of the coast, and began to list the likely destinations.

‘The Wessell Islands – they're remote, uninhabited as far as I know, although local Aboriginal people would surely visit them. Crocodile Islands – maybe not quite far enough off the mainland …' and she went on, ticking off a list of islands remote enough to be suitable.

‘Hey, that's my uncle's country!' said Zac at the mention of one island. ‘My uncle Victor. He's a sea ranger at Maningrida, just near there. That mob look after the coast and pick up old nets and stuff. Saving dugongs and dolphins. I went there last year. Really cool.'

Ella read out a few more names.

‘What was that one you said – the one before last?' asked Jem suddenly. Something had sounded in his brain, like a faraway bell. Ella looked up at him, and glanced back down at the chart.

‘The … ah … the Lonely Isles. I thought they were perhaps too far north …' Ella bent her head to study the chart more closely.

‘What do you think of this?' she said after a moment. The others crowded around the chart. Ella was pointing to a cluster of five tiny islands well to the north of Maningrida.

‘Are they the Lonely Isles?' asked Maddy. ‘They sure look lonely.'

‘But that's what Jack said in his letter, didn't he? “Their Lonely Hole.” Maybe he was talking about the island?' said Jem.

‘Maybe he was sending his brother a message. I would!' said Zac. ‘I bet that's what he was doing!'

Maddy looked more closely at the chart. ‘Look at that island, the biggest one, “Castor”. It's got a strait of water called “Hole in the Wall” between it and the next one, “Pollux”. Jack talked about “mice in their Lonely Hole” … Mice living in the Hole in the Wall!'

Tyler nodded. ‘Yeah! He was sending a message, in code, so no one else would know what he meant.'

Ella studied it for a few more moments, and said, ‘You know, I think you could be right. It's the best clue we've had so far. It's quite a long way off the coast though.'

Jem stared at the chart. ‘What does that mean? Where it says “uncharted waters”?'

‘There are some areas that haven't had full cartographic surveys yet. Places like this are well out of the shipping lanes. The surveyors will get around to it eventually.'

‘But how will we know where the rocks and reefs and stuff are?' asked Jem nervously. ‘That chart only
shows the outline of the islands, and nothing about what's in the water.'

‘Once we're close in to the islands we'll go slowly, and keep a good eye out.
Freya
's got a fairly shallow draft, so as long as we go steady it'll be fine. And I'll get a couple of you on the bow as lookouts. We'll approach it when the light is right, so we can see the bottom.'

Jem was quite sure that his thumping heart could be heard by everyone else.

They sailed into Port Essington the following morning. Tyler, Zac and Maddy were all for tearing off to the Lonely Isles immediately, but Ella had disagreed.

‘There won't be enough wind for the next two days to take us there, so we may as well go into Port Essington and have a look at the old settlement. I think you'll find it interesting.'

Jem was relieved they weren't continuing on to search for the island right away. Just the short sail
to this bay had him hanging over the rails again, white-faced and seasick.

Black Point was exactly that – a small but prominent ridge of very black stone poking out into the harbour a few kilometres from the entrance. The ranger station was tucked in behind it. While Ella chatted to the ranger on duty, Jem, Maddy, Zac and Tyler walked along the beach. Jem was feeling weak and giddy, and the sun felt unbearably bright.

A large motor cruiser was anchored nearby. It had toothy shark jaws painted either side of the bow, and the name
White Pointer
in flashy writing on the sides of the hull. They watched as a dinghy left it and headed into shore. A young man at the helm threw them a rope and they pulled him in while he raised the motor at the back.

‘Thanks, guys!' he called out, as he jammed a hat on his head, jumped over the side and waded through the shallow water to the beach. ‘On holidays, are ya?'

‘Sort of,' said Maddy.

‘Yeah, me too. Bit of work, bit of a break. You camping here?'

‘Nah, we just sailed here in a yacht,' said Zac.

‘Really?' said the young man.

‘Yeah. We're off the
Freya
, over there,' said Maddy
casually, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

The young man glanced across the water at it, and nodded. ‘Nice little boat. Where you headed?'

‘Along the coast for a bit. We're sailing with our aunty,' Maddy answered.

‘Well, she's not actually our aunty, she's our great-aunty really,' corrected Tyler. ‘She's a historian, and we're helping her with some research.'

‘True! That's interesting. What kind of research?'

‘Historical research,' said Tyler, frowning and trying to look very serious. ‘Some old settlement that's supposed to have been along here last century.'

‘Sounds like fun. Are you having any luck? Got any good leads?'

Jem had a prickly feeling on the back of his neck, and he rubbed at it, vaguely wondering if he was getting sunburnt. He felt ill, and the ground seemed to be moving, just like the deck of the yacht, so he sat on the sand, not in the mood for a conversation. He could see himself reflected in the mirror sunglasses the man was wearing. He looks like a humungous bug, he thought to himself. Something about him … The sun beat down on him mercilessly, and he closed his eyes. His head throbbed. He thought he was going to be sick again, when he heard Tyler saying:

‘… and we've got a heap of old letters and stuff,
and we think we've finally worked out where the gold statue is.'

The back of Jem's neck prickled uncomfortably, and he looked up at the young man. Why was he asking so many questions? The mirror sunglasses swam and flared in the sunlight.

‘Cool!' said the young man. ‘And where d'you reckon it might be? A long way from here, or …?' He looked encouragingly at Tyler, who was about to leap in and answer when Jem suddenly threw up all over the stranger's feet.

‘
Errk! Gross OUT!
' yelled Tyler, leaping out of the way.

The young man stepped gingerly back, and rinsed his feet in the sea. ‘You okay, mate?' he asked.

‘He's just seasick, that's all,' said Maddy. She handed Jem her water bottle. ‘Here comes Ella.'

‘Yeah, well, guess I'd better be going. Thanks again for the help. See you 'round.' The stranger waved goodbye, and hurried off up the beach.

‘Way to go, Jem,' said Tyler. ‘Did you have to actually
vomit
on him?'

Jem coughed a couple of times, drank some water and wiped a hand over his face. Something about the stranger bothered him, but he felt too ill to care.

Ella made her way across the sand towards them.

‘The ranger said that high tide down at Victoria
Settlement is at eleven-thirty tomorrow morning. We'll be able to get nice and close to the shore, and motor across in the dinghy then.' Maddy retrieved the anchor and they waited while Tyler and Zac pushed the dinghy out into the water.

‘He also said that someone was asking about me yesterday. He said he was an old friend, and wanted to know if we had arrived yet. The ranger thought he might have been with one of the bus tours. It's odd – I don't know anyone who would be coming out here.' She started the motor, and they puttered back towards the
Freya
.

‘Perhaps it was someone the Professor knows, and he told them to see if we'd got here okay?' suggested Maddy.

Ella huffed and shook her head. ‘I've sailed all the way around the world, and he worries that I might not make it to Port Essington!' Zac and Tyler laughed. Jem just wished his stomach would settle down, and that his neck would stop prickling.

Early next morning they sailed over to the white cliffs of Victoria Settlement, and anchored offshore waiting for the tide. Ella re-anchored a few times, so they could take turns at reading the depth sounder, and counting out the five-metre marks on the chain as it rattled over
the bow. ‘You're all learning very quickly,' she said, looking pleased. ‘You'll be expert sailors by the time we get back to Darwin!'

It was still a while before the tide was right, so to pass the time, Ella pulled out the carved box and the file of copied letters from the
Gryphon
. They read through them again and looked at the charts, searching for an island that might be a better match for the vague clues they could ferret out of the letters. At ten-thirty they set out in the dinghy, and dragged it up the beach above the high tide line, tying it to a tree with the anchor rope.

It was only a short walk to the first of the ruins of the Settlement.

‘These were the married quarters,' said Ella as they came upon a row of circular stone chimneys, all that was left of the houses.

‘Gee, they were small,' said Tyler, stepping out the perimeter markings.

‘Yes, they were,' said Ella. ‘And no electricity, or fans, or running water, and the women did all the cooking in these stone hearths.'

Jem gazed around at the chimneys. They looked lonely and out of place as they lined up facing the sea. He felt a bit sad, but he didn't know why.

They continued on, stopping to inspect the remains of the hospital, the bakery, the munitions store, and
the sergeants' mess, where they rested and pulled their water bottles from their packs. It was terribly hot, and the heavy, humid air was completely still.

‘Why'd they choose such a hot place to live?' asked Tyler, wiping sweat from his face.

‘Yeah,' said Maddy. ‘It must've been murder for the women, in those long dresses, cooking inside those tiny little houses.'

‘That's a good question,' said Ella, taking off her hat and running her fingers through her damp hair. ‘They were more concerned with security than with comfort. The Settlement was a garrison, meant to stop the French or the Dutch from taking possession of the north coast of Australia. I guess the British Admiralty wasn't too concerned about the temperature or the breezes. A pity. Fewer people might have died here.'

‘The Dutch and the French must have been smarter than the English,' said Tyler. ‘They didn't even try to live here.'

‘Perhaps,' smiled Ella. ‘But this settlement survived for eleven years. They were very determined.'

Zac looked around at the bush. ‘It's pretty hard country. I mean, you could catch fish'n' stuff, but they wouldn'ta known about any bush tucker they could've eaten.'

Maddy shrugged. ‘Can we go now? It's getting
really
hot.'

The return route took them past what must have been the loneliest cemetery in the world. Although many people had been buried here, only four or five graves were visible.

‘Look,' said Tyler, as he read the inscription on one with a black stone obelisk leaning awkwardly to one side. ‘This was a mother and baby … I wonder why they died?'

‘Mostly from malaria,' said Ella. ‘They didn't understand that the mosquitoes carried malaria. Poor things, so many of them died here …'

The other gravestones were for a captain, a doctor, and a priest. Jem stood in the shade feeling giddy and sick. He sat down on the ground as an overwhelming feeling of sadness and loss swept over him. Ella came over and sat beside him.

‘Are you all right, Jem?'

‘Yeah, just feel a bit sick, that's all.'

‘You're still feeling the motion of the boat. It's quite normal.'

He sighed, and squinted out into the bright light, looking around and wondering where the other graves must have been. He didn't feel normal. He felt strange and headachy.

‘It's really sad here!' he blurted out suddenly. Ella looked at him keenly and nodded.

‘You feel it too, don't you? All the people who died here, all the lives that stopped here, of people who never went home again. Yes it is a sad place. But it's a peaceful place.' She was quiet for a few moments, and then said, ‘I think you're very sensitive to certain things around you, Jem. It's why you get so seasick. The seasickness will stop, if you sail for long enough, but you'll still feel things. I know this, because I think you're like me.'

Jem wanted to ask her what she meant, but just then the others came up to them, and they set off back to the boat. As they drew near to the beach, they could hear the sound of a powerful engine, and through the trees saw a large white motor cruiser roaring away towards the north.

‘It looks like that boat we saw yesterday,' said Maddy.

‘What boat was that?' asked Ella.

‘It was anchored across from us at Black Point,' answered Tyler. ‘This bloke came ashore in a dinghy from it and we helped him tie up.'

They sailed back across the harbour and spent the rest of the day exploring and fishing from the dinghy or off the back of the yacht. Jem stayed ashore for as long
as he could, relishing the feel of solid ground beneath his feet. Gradually his head began to clear and the giddy feeling in his stomach wore off, and he went to work in the shallows with his cast net, while Tyler and Zac watched out for crocodiles. The rhythm of throwing the net and drawing it back in was soothing, and he felt almost himself again by the time he climbed back on board
Freya
with half a bucket of fresh whiting.

Ella turned the fish into deliciously crunchy pan-fried morsels which they ate with their fingers, watching the sun sink across the harbour.

‘Well,' said Ella after they'd cleared away the dishes, ‘let's go down into the saloon where the light is better, and have another look at the chart. We have to decide where we go next!'

While Tyler and Zac made some tea, Jem and Maddy sat down at the table. The carved box was in front of him, and Jem had the same strange compulsion to pick it up. Ella was still on deck, checking the anchor before coming below.

‘Ella, did you put the folder somewhere else?' asked Maddy, looking around the cabin.

‘No, I left it on the table this morning,' said Ella, as she climbed down into the saloon.

‘The box is here, but the folder's not.'

‘Perhaps I put it away again. I'll check …'

While Ella looked in her satchel for the manila folder, Jem picked up the box, and felt a tingling at the back of his neck. The wood was warm and smooth. He opened the lid. The box was empty.

‘Did we put those old papers in the folder too?' he asked, looking confused. ‘They're not here …'

‘No, I put them back in the box myself, before we went over to the Settlement. I left all of the material here on the table, I'm sure of it.' Ella looked very puzzled. She made a more thorough search, but the file was not there.