The Mystery of Adventure Island (3 page)

With the binoculars around his neck, Joe sat at the stern of the boat. Every now and
then
he would let his hand drag in the water to cool himself off.

Seeing the billowing sail, Joe marvelled at how such a simple thing could propel the sailboat at the speed that they were going. At this rate, they were sure to reach
Windswept
Island
before
midday
.

And
ind
eed they did. “Land ahoy!” Joe called out, grinning, a short time later. He stared at
Windswept
Island
. It
didn’t
look particularly interesting since it was flat, but he didn’t care. As long as there were birds,
he’d
be happy.

Will
steered
the Lazy Lucy towards the island. As they got closer, they saw some large sea birds flying over the rocks. Nearer to the inlet, the smiles on the children’s faces dropped as they heard music.

“Where’s the music coming from?” Amy asked.

Will steered the boat into the inlet and came into sight of a group of campers tenting in the sheltered area. Several people were jumping up and down as they danced to loud music.

“Looks like somebody beat us to it,” Will muttered, annoyed.

“They must have a gramophone,” Sarah said.

Joe peered through the binoculars. “Sarah’s right.”

Will looked at the faces of the others and saw how disappointed they looked. “I’m sorry.”

“Can we camp somewhere else?” Amy asked.

“Well,” Will
answered
, “this island is quite small, so that’s the only place to camp.”

Joe glanced wistfully at the birds flying overhead. “What a shame.”

“So what do we do?” Sarah said.

“Well, let’s see where we are.” Will went into the cabin and returned a moment later with a map. He laid it out and pointed. “We’re here. If you want, we could go back to
Lighthouse
Island
.”

“What about this island here?” Joe asked as he pointed to another island further up the coast.

Will looked closer and saw that the name of it was
Rocky
Island
.

“Would that be
Adventure
Island
?” Amy said.

Will shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think this other place would be the one that Quigley was talking about.” He pointed to an island a couple of miles past Rocky. “This one is closest to
Seacrest
, which is where Quigley used to live, so I think that would probably be the so-called
Adventure
Island
.”

Amy glanced at her watch. “If this wind keeps up, we could make
Rocky
Island
by late afternoon, right?”

Will
studied
the distances between
Windswept
Island
and Smugglers Cove and
Windswept
Island
and
Rocky
Island
. “
Rocky
Island
is about double the distance from Smugglers as Windswept is, but if we have the same weather conditions as we had earlier, we should get there by late afternoon.”

“Let’s get some food in our stomachs before we head off,” Joe said.

Will
looked
at the girls. “So, are we all in agreement?”

Sarah grinned.
“Aye, aye, Captain.”

Amy smiled “Whatever you say, Captain.”

“Okay, here we
come
Rocky
Island
!” Will yelled, thrusting his hand into the air.

~

Before long, the Lazy Lucy was once more whipping along the coast. The sail billowed out fully and the boat bobbed up and down on the water as it sped along.
But then
the wind died down and there was nothing that they could do about it. They took the sail down and rowed, but progress was slow.

Thankfully, the wind picked up and, after raising the sail, the Lazy Lucy sped along the water. As late afternoon
came to a close
, land came into view.

Will, who was now resting while Joe steered, was the first to spot it.
“
Rocky
Island
dead ahead!”
He walked over and took the tiller from Joe. “
Rocky
Island
probably got that name because of all the rocks, so we’d better go slowly and keep a sharp look out for anything that could damage the boat.”

Everyone was
silent
as the craft got closer to the island. Soon, they were within sight of the rocks. The waves frothed and surged as the water crashed against them, sending spray high into the air.

“We should take down the sail,” Will
said
. “I think it’s best if we row from this point on. We want to have control of the direction we are going in. If the Lazy Lucy hits one of the rocks—”

“I’m on it, Captain,” Joe said as he walked over to dismantle the sail.

With Sarah watching for rocks on one side and Amy on the other, Will and Joe took the oars and started rowing.

Whenever the boat got too close to one of the rocks, the watcher would yell out and
Will
would adjust the direction. It was slow going, and the boys had to row for roughly ten minutes before they found a way through the rocks.

As the Lazy Lucy entered the small inlet and headed towards the sandy beach, Amy shared a glance with the others. “That was tight.”

“How about we drop the anchor next to those flat rocks?” Will said. “That will save us wading through the water.”

“Good thinking,” Joe replied.

They brought the boat alongside the rocks. Will slung the anchor overboard and climbed out, gazing around as he did so. The tall cliffs made it impossible to see much of the island.

“We should have time to explore before it gets dark,” Amy said.

“Yes, but we should set up camp first.” Will glanced around at the surrounding area. “Why don’t you girls look around and see if there’s a suitable place to camp? We boys can get the tents and stuff out of the boat and onto the beach.”

The two girls jumped down onto the rocks and made their way across to the beach while the boys started unloading the gear. They had just finished doing so when the girls came rushing back.

“Did you find a spot?” Joe asked.

Sarah nodded.
“A good one.”

“There’s a sheltered spot in front of a wooded area,” Amy said. “The grass seems nice and soft and, if we aim the tents the right way, we’ll have the morning sun waking us up.”

“Sounds good,”
Will
said. “Let’s get going.” After picking up their stuff, they walked along the sand and headed up the hillside.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the grassy area. Everyone went straight to work and, before long, two small tents were set up beside a wood of pines and birches. After they had grabbed some firewood, they decided to explore.

They walked alongside the wood as they headed towards a hill that seemed to be in the middle of the island. With the pines on one side and thick gorse bushes on the other, it was a lovely walk.

Sarah was thrilled when she saw a couple of wild rabbits dart across the grass.
“Oh, what sweet little darlings!”

As they reached the hill and started walking up it, they caught sight of a stream. Upon further inspection, they saw that the water was coming out of some rocks.

“This will provide us with fresh water, to drink or wash the dishes,” Will said.

“I wonder what else we’ll find,” Joe said as he raced up the hill.

The others followed him and, before long, they were at the rocky top. There were a few trees as well as stunted gorse
bushes which
was due to the rocky terrain.

Amy gazed around. “You can see the whole island from here.” Unlike most small islands, there was quite a large wooded area. There were also grassy areas, especially near the rocky shoreline.

Soon, all eyes were on one spot.
For some reason, there was a square in the middle of the wood that was devoid of trees.
And
, in the middle of this square was some sort of ruin.

The children
couldn’t
see what it was from so far away, so they decided to go and have a look. They hurried down the hill, through the wood and into the clearing.

They stopped when they saw the ruin. Amy looked at the boys. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Joe walked forward. “It couldn’t be.”

The others followed and soon they were so close to the ruined building that there was no doubt about it.

It was a church. Inscribed on a piece of wood that was half rotted away was a sign. It
read:
The Church of Jeremiah Jones.

Chapter 5: A Ghostly Encounter

 

Amy gasped. “Golly! So this is
Adventure
Island
.”

“Oh, no!
If the church is real, then the curse is real,” Sarah said.

Will shook his head. “No. A church is one thing, a ghost another.”

“I want to go home,” Sarah muttered.

Joe glanced up at the sky. “Even if we wanted to go home, it would be too late. Besides, who really believes in ghosts?” He and Will laughed and, a few moments later, the girls joined in.

Joe walked into the ruined building and saw that the years had taken their toll on the structure. Weeds and bushes were climbing through windows and holes in the walls.

“This sure has been here a while,” Will said.

“I wonder why they don’t do something about this
place?
” Amy muttered.

“Who would want to live on this island anyway?” Joe questioned. “Besides, the government probably owns the island now.”

They left the church and glanced around at their surroundings.
There were a few other ruined buildings that looked in as bad a shape as the church,
and Joe assumed that they would have been the houses that the religious leader was building. The only other building that was worth exploring was located beside the church. It was large place, almost as big as the church.

“It looks like a warehouse,” Sarah said.

They went inside and saw that most of it was still intact. The sides were made of stone while an upper level was rotting away as it was made of timber. In places, they could even see the sky above.

“This must have been a storehouse of some kind,” Will said. “After all, if these people were going to be living here, they wouldn’t want to be going back and forth to the mainland all the time to get food. And, with the walls being stone, the food would stay cool.”

Leaving the storehouse, the children walked out into the open. “I wonder why Quigley liked this island so much,” Sarah said.

“Maybe there are some caves. There must be something to explore,” Will replied. “After all, Quigley did say that he came here several times and loved it.”

Amy looked up at the sky. “We’d better get back to camp. I don’t want to be here when darkness falls.”

“Me neither,” Sarah replied as she followed her sister towards the campsite.

On the way back, the girls collected some heather to put under their sleeping bags while the boys gathered some dry sticks to use as firewood.