The Mystery of Adventure Island (12 page)

Everyone reacted instantly. After pushing the craft
furth
er out into the water, they climbed on. Sarah went first while Will, after giving it one last shove, joined them.

“Hey! Come back here!” Kenneth shouted as he stood at the edge of the water.

The children
didn’t
answer as they used their hands to paddle
furth
er out into the water. The waves slammed against the nearby rocks, and it took all their hard work to avoid them. It was slow progress and, just as they passed the rocks, an extra big wave hit them, crashing over the raft. Everyone was soaked.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” Amy said as she brushed her long, brown hair away from her eyes.

Joe glanced back towards the beach and saw
the beady-eyed man had been joined by Marvin, the bald
man. He turned to the others. “We can’t turn back now. If we did, the men would certainly catch us.”

“We have to get to the mainland. Once there we’ll be safe,” Will
said
.

As another big wave soaked them, Sarah shivered. “I’m scared.”

Amy hugged her. “I’m right here. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“But I’m not as good a swimmer as you are,” Sarah replied.

“We aren’t sinking yet,” Joe said. “But if we do, I’ll be right by your side, as will Amy.
Oka
y?”

As Sarah nodded, Joe glanced back at the beach to see how much progress they had made. They had travelled some distance but, unfortunately, they were drifting alongside the coast and not away from it. “As long as we don’t go over any...” He paused as he heard a scraping noise. He shouted out. “We’ve hit a rock!”

Before anyone could reply, the raft broke apart. As it split in half, the children tipped into the water, disappearing from view.

Chapter 16:
We’re
Drowning!

 

Breaking the surface, Joe glanced around. He spotted Will, but none of his sisters. Worried, he took a
brea
th and dived underneath the water. He saw a shape to the left of him. Kicking as fast as he could, he swam over and found that it was Amy. He helped her to the surface. “Where’s Sarah?”

Amy whipped her head around, searching for her younger sister. “I don’t know.”

Joe turned to Will who was holding onto the part of the raft that was still floating. “We have to find Sarah.”

Both boys disappeared underneath the waves. Joe
didn’t
see anything at first in the murky water, but then he caught sight of something. Swimming closer, he saw that it was Sarah. She was thrashing her arms about.

Kicking his feet, he swam closer and grabbed her. He kicked upwards. As he did so, he felt hands grab him. Together, they shot up to the surface. Within a minute, Joe was feeling like his old self again.

However, it took Sarah a few more minutes before she gave a slight grin. “I wouldn’t want to go through that again. I thought I was going to drown. A bit of wood from the raft must have hit me. For a few moments, I felt really strange.”

Joe smiled as he gave Sarah’s arm a squeeze. “You know I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.” He looked towards the rocky beach and saw that they had been drifting closer to it. Kenneth was still standing on the rocks, watching them.

“I saw the bald man race off a short while ago,” Will said. “If I had to guess, I would say they saw us break apart and rushed to get their boat.” He looked along the coast and saw a rowboat appear around the bend of the island.

Amy followed his gaze and saw the craft as well. “We’d better call it quits. We can’t go on now that we only have a piece of the raft left.”

Will nodded. “Let’s head for the shore.”

Hanging onto the wood, they kicked towards the beach. As they did so, Joe suddenly saw something. They had been drifting along the side of the island and were now next to some cliffs. “Hey! Why don’t we hide in that cave over
there.
”

“Let’s just go back,” Amy said.

“Don’t you want to stop the men?” Joe asked.

“Yes, but not if we—” Amy replied.

“Yes or no?”
Joe interrupted.

Amy hesitated.
But
, as she saw the rowboat getting closer, she nodded. “What do we do?”

“Pretend to drown and then swim to the cave. Will can go first and you girls can follow him to make sure you don’t get lost,” Joe answered.

“Only if Sarah says yes,” Amy said.

Sarah hesitated and looked at her sister. “Okay, but stay close to me.”

Will agreed to the plan and, a moment later, yelled out.
“Help!”

“We’re drowning!” Joe shouted. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the bald man in the rowboat react.

Will disappeared under the water, then Sarah, then Amy. Joe yelled out once more before also diving down. Before he knew it, they were inside the cave. Luckily, it
wasn’t
high tide, so only half of the cave was flooded.

As the children relaxed, they could hear the men yell out.
Peering through the entrance of the cave, Will saw the man from the rowboat jump into the water.
“They’re searching for us.”

“They can search all they want out there,” Joe said as he leaned against the rocks. It
wasn’t
the most comfortable place to rest, but the swimming had tired him out and anything felt good right about now.

The situation stayed the same for the next few minutes, but then it changed as Sarah noticed that the men were coming towards them.
“Oh, no!
We’ll be discovered.”

“If we move to the back of the cave, we might be able to find a hiding place,” Will said. “But hurry! They’re almost here.”

After getting to their feet, the children stepped over the rocks as they went deeper into the cave. The cave itself
wasn’t
that large, mostly thin and narrow, so they hadn’t gone far before they had to stop.

Leaning against the cave wall, Will listened to the men talking near the entrance.

“Let’s see if they’re in the cave,” Marvin said.

“But I saw them drown,” Kenneth said, “so they can’t be in here.”

“And I keep on telling you,” Marvin yelled, “I didn’t see any bodies. This is the only cave along this part of the shoreline so let’s search it.”

“But we don’t have any torches,” Kenneth complained.

“We’ll use our eyes,” Marvin said. “It’s not that dark in here.”

As the men walked forward, their eyes scanning the walls, Will looked back at the others. “Can you squeeze behind that rock?”

Joe saw the rock that Will meant and investigated. Straight away, he saw that there was a pile of rubble all around it.

Frowning, he glanced up and saw that there seemed to be some sort of
hole,
and that was where the rock had fallen from. Peering closer, he
couldn’t
see an end to the hole, so he whispered to the others. “Look what I’ve found.”

The others came closer and saw the hole. Will looked back at the men who were now halfway through the cave. They probably had twenty seconds or so
before
they would be discovered.

“Into the hole,” Will
whispered
. “It’s our only chance.” He scrambled past Joe and crawled into the hole.

Joe waited for the girls to climb in before he did. Looking back, he saw that the men were almost on him and so, without waiting for Amy
to fully disappear
from view, he climbed in.

In his haste to hurry, Joe squeezed up against the side of the hole and tried to get even with his sister, but he regretted this as soon as the rocks started to fall.

Chapter 17: A Way Out

 

The landslide only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like minutes. Scrambling forward, Amy and Joe bumped into the others who had stopped.

Hearing the rocks fall behind
them,
Will moved forward a bit more and realised that the tunnel was now wider and taller. “You can stand up over here.”

“I can’t see,” Sarah whimpered.

“I’ll put out my hand,” Will
said
.

Soon, they were all standing in the darkness and touching each other. “That rock fall caused us to lose the light,” Joe stated.

“We might be able to move the rock fall,” Amy said. “After all, it only went for a few seconds.”
She moved back along the tunnel and had just reached the spot when the roof rumbled and caved in again.
This time, it was louder than before and went on for longer.

“Amy!” Joe called out as he scrambled towards the sound. He
couldn’t
see anything so he had to use his hands to feel around. He felt something soft and pulled his sister out of harms way.

“Thanks,” Amy said. “That was too close.”

The two walked back to the others. “There’s no way we can get out that end,” Joe said.

“Well, the tunnel seems to keep on going at this end, so let’s stop talking and walk,” Will
suggested
. “We don’t know how much air we have in this tunnel. The sooner we get out of here the better.”

“It’s just like the tunnel underneath
Bracknesh
Castle
,” Amy said.

“Except this one is bigger.” Joe stretched his hands out wide and found that, while it wasn’t the width of his arms, it was still quite big. “I’ll lead the way. We can hold hands to keep together.”

It was slow going as they felt their way along the tunnel. Joe soon realised that this
wasn’t
an ordinary tunnel and, as it widened and got taller, an idea sprung into his mind. “Let’s stop for a moment.”

“Why?” Amy asked.

“I just thought of where this tunnel could lead,” Joe replied.

“Where?”
Will questioned.

 
“To the mine,” Joe stated.

“Why do you say that?” Amy asked.

“Well, I don’t see why smugglers would create this tunnel, and it seems too big and tall for a natural tunnel,” Joe replied.

“That does make sense,” Will
said
. “The mine is quite close by.”

“And we didn’t explore all the tunnels,” Amy said.

“So, now that we think we know where the tunnel leads, what do we do?” Sarah asked.

“Continue,” Joe said. “It’s all we can do.”

With renewed hope, the children resumed walking. They had lost track of time down in the darkness and so, when Joe came to a halt some time later, they
didn’t
know how long they had been walking.

“What’s up?” Will asked.

“We’ve come to another tunnel,” Joe said. “I’ve been feeling around and I can’t touch any rock, so that’s why I’m assuming this one has joined with another tunnel.”

“Which way do we go?” Sarah said.

Will thought about what direction they had been travelling in. “I would say that the mine entrance is closer to the right than the left. So if we have an option to go right, I say we take it.”

Joe walked into
the middle, or at least where he thought the middle was
. Everyone spread out and ascertained where the walls were.

Deciding that they may as well follow Will’s suggestion, they headed right. This tunnel seemed much straighter than the other one and this confirmed that they were probably in the mine.

They were all feeling the cold from their wet clothes and the cold tunnel
didn’t
help. Even Will, who prided himself on being tough, was starting to get
really cold
. He
didn’t
know how the girls were taking it, but he hoped that they would soon be out of the tunnel and sitting beside a roaring fire. Imagining the fire already, Will
continued on
.

Suddenly, Joe called out. “I think I see light up ahead.”

The others looked over his shoulder and saw a glimmer of light. Eager to see where it was coming from, they hurried forward. The light grew brighter and they saw that it was the entrance to the mine.

They rushed forward, all eager to be the first one out into the sunlight. Reaching an intersection, Joe stopped. “Hey, that’s the tunnel we went down.”

Will nodded. “Yes. And at the time we wondered where this one went.”

“Well, now we know.” Joe hurried forward and was soon climbing up the metal ladder. As the others scrambled up after him, he stepped onto the grass. The sun shone down on him, instantly making him feel a whole lot warmer. He lay down on the grass. “Phew, it’s good to be out in the open again.”

The others joined him as they soaked up the warmth of the sun. “I couldn’t agree more,” Amy said.

“Especially since our clothes are wet,” Sarah pointed out. “I’m
nev
er going into that mine again.”

“Well, there’s no need to go down it again,” Will said. “Now that the men think that we’ve drowned, they won’t bother trying to hide what they are up to.”

“But first we have to get dry,” Amy said. “If I stay in these clothes any longer, I’ll feel that they are part of my body.”

“What about the smoke? Won’t the men see it and wonder where it’s coming from?” Joe questioned.

“As long as the wood is dry and we don’t create too much smoke, we’ll be fine.” Will looked up at the sun. “I don’t know what time it is since my watch was damaged in the water, but it
will getting dark soon, so let’s
get going.”

They stood up and walked to the spot where they had camped the first night. After picking up the wood that they had put there the previous night, they made their way to the beach.

The boys soon had a small fire going and they realised that, in order for them to dry their clothes, they would have to make a bigger fire.

“It’s the only way,” Joe said. “We could wait till the men leave—”

“Why would the men leave?” Sarah interrupted.

“If they’re thieves, they have to steal from time to time, right? So, they would have to leave this island to do it,” Joe said. “They probably sneak away in their boat to the mainland, steal something, and bring it back here. It’s almost the perfect setup.”

Amy frowned.
“Almost?”

“Yes. They didn’t expect us to camp here and put a stop to their plan,” Joe said.

“But we haven’t stopped them. We don’t even know much about them,” Amy argued.

“I know, but we will.” Joe frowned as he saw a bunch of smoke blowing up from the fire. “Hey, who put that damp branch on?”

No one answered. Joe reached forward and tried to take the branch out but it was already half alight. There was nothing he could do about it, so he let it burn, hoping that the men
wouldn’t
spot the smoke.

Chapter 18: The Big Search

 

As time passed, the clothes began to get dry. The children, all worn out from their swim in the water and the trek in the tunnel, lay down beside the fire and had soon dozed off to sleep.

Waking up some time later, Joe realised that it was quite late. The glow from the setting sun was just visible above the horizon. He estimated that they had half an hour or so before darkness arrived.

He woke the others and, together, decided what to do. While Amy and Sarah went back to get the torches and some tinned food, the boys would stir up the fire. Their clothes were mostly dry, but their shoes were still damp and they
didn’t
want to be walking in shoes that were still wet.

Once the girls arrived back, the children placed all the damp stuff closest to the
fire which
was roaring once more.

As darkness spread across the island, Joe turned to Will. “We need to have another look in the cabin where the men sleep.”

“But that woman didn’t find the paintings there,” Sarah said.

“I know the paintings won’t be there, but it’s the best place to start the search,” Joe replied.

“But we can only do that if the men leave the island tonight,” Amy said. “I know we talked about this before, but they wouldn’t leave every night, so why would they go tonight?”

“They might not,” Joe admitted, “but then again, they might. They seemed very anxious to get us off the island as soon as possible, and that might
ind
icate that someone might be coming to pick up the paintings. And, before that happened, they would probably want to steal another painting.”

“That makes sense,” Will
agreed
, “but the only way we’ll know is if we keep an eye on the inlet near the cabin. If anyone is going to be leaving the island, it will be from that point. But I can’t see them leaving for a while, so let’s eat some food first.”

After a quick meal, they smothered the fire with sand, picked up everything that was lying around, and moved off.

~

It seemed as though several hours had passed before a bobbing light could be seen, but it could have been more or it could have been less as Joe had no way of knowing. He woke the others who were dozing on the grass above the beach.

They peered through the bushes as they watched the man with a ponytail and glasses walk along the beach and disappear from view.

“I wonder where he’s going,” Will muttered.

“Hopefully, he’s going to get the boat,” Joe said. “They must have one hidden somewhere.”

“But we’ve searched along the shoreline,” Amy muttered.

“Well, we’ll soon see,”
Joe
said.

Everyone fell silent. Inside five minutes, a moving light
could be seen
near the wood as if someone was walking towards the beach. Since the wind was blowing in their direction, they were able to hear talking.

“It’s two men,” Joe said. “Now, if the first one appears with a boat…” He paused as he saw a light in the water. He picked up the binoculars and looked through them.

“What can you see?” Sarah asked.

“It’s a rowboat,” Joe replied. “It has to be the man who we saw just before.
He’s
just beached the craft and the men are now climbing on board. Now they’re pushing off.”

Will took the binoculars from Joe and gazed through them. “It will take some time to get to the mainland and back again, not to mention how long it will take to steal a painting, if that’s what they’re doing.”

Joe nodded. “We’ll have quite a few hours, but we don’t know how long it will take to find the paintings, and we’ll have to move slower in the darkness, so let’s get going.”

“Hadn’t we better wait a few more minutes until the men disappear from sight?” Amy asked. “If they were to see a flash of light, they would head straight back.”

“Good thinking.” Will looked back towards the mainland and waited for the rowboat to disappear from view.

~

As Amy followed Joe into the cabin and looked around, she could see that there were just the basics. Some sleeping bags, some tinned food, a lamp, some matches, and a couple of rucksacks.

Joe and Will searched through the rucksacks while the girls went through the other stuff.

“There can’t be any paintings here, or that woman would have found them,” Amy said as she stood up and surveyed the cabin.

“Well, it was worth a try.” Joe pulled out a scruffy bird book from one of the rucksacks. “This is probably where they got the information about the Dodo from.”

“But what about the paintings?”
Sarah said. “There’s nothing here.”

“I didn’t think the paintings would be here,” Joe admitted, “but I did think we might have been able to find something that would give us a clue to where they were.”