The Mystery of Adventure Island (7 page)

Joe smiled. “We will. Bye.” He turned and walked away, the others following close behind.

As soon as the children had reached the top of the hill, they stopped and, hiding behind a bush, peered through the leaves.

As Joe saw the men leave the trees and head in the direction of the beach, he glanced at the others. “It worked. They’re going back to the cabin.”

“They’ll probably change back into their other clothes right away,” Amy said.

Will nodded. “Yes, now that they think that we’re going home.”

“But we’re not,” Joe stated. “And all because of the Grey Wagtail.”

“It was a good thing we had two birds in mind,” Sarah said.

“Yes. They surprised me with the Dodo, so it was either a lucky guess or they do know some stuff, but they did what I thought they would when the Grey Wagtail was mentioned.” Joe chuckled. “If only they knew that it was grey and yellow.”

“There’s still a chance that they are telling the truth,” Amy said. “After all, not every birdwatcher could possibly know every type of bird.”

“Well, no, but there are too many things that are not making sense,” Joe said. “I suggest we explore the island from end to end. We could uncover something that will explain why the men are here.”

“Shall we search the middle of the island or the shoreline first?” Will asked.

“Shoreline.
We can go back to camp, have a quick meal, and then search.” Joe walked towards the wood, which would take them back to the campsite.

~

The children strolled along the beach where the caves were and stayed on the edge of the
wood
as the shoreline became more jagged and dangerous looking.

Waves pounded the area and, as they rounded a corner, everyone stopped as they caught sight of a lighthouse. Sitting at the end of a row of rocks that jutted out to sea, it looked as though it would be a hair-raising experience to get to the building.

“I wonder why we didn’t see this from the hill,” Amy said.

“We were too distracted with the church. Anyway, it
doesn’t
look as though it’s still operating. It probably closed down when they built the new one on
Lighthouse
Island
,” Will said. “It was probably built more than a hundred years ago anyway, so I’m not sure what condition it would be in now.”

They were silent for a moment as they watched a wave
brea
k over the rocks in the middle. Joe looked at his watch. “If we came here when it was low tide, we would be able to hop over the rocks.”

“But if it’s deserted, I don’t see much point,” Amy said as she gazed out at the towering structure. “Hey, I wonder if we could call for help using the lamp.” After taking the binoculars from Will, she put them to her eyes and looked at the lamp room.

“What can you see?” Sarah asked.

“Some of the windows are cracked in parts, and the lamp also looks to be cracked, so I would be very surprised if it still worked.” Amy let the binoculars hang around her neck. “We can’t cross now even if we wanted to, so let’s move on.”

Leaving the noise of the crashing waves behind them, the children walked along the shoreline where there were fewer rocks and the water was much calmer.

After seeing nothing of interest, they decided to explore inland for a bit and, while they were walking past some trees, Joe caught sight of some birds on the ground.

They flew upwards and Joe followed them with his eyes up into the trees. He paused as something caught his eye. “Hey, look up there.”

The others looked up and saw that high above, in the branches of a massive oak tree, was a tree house.

 
“Golly,” Amy said. “Is that the tree house that Quigley made?”

Will shook his head. “I doubt it. The wood would have rotted away by now.”

Sarah stared at the tree trunk. “Look, there are pieces of wood attached to the tree.”

“That must be how you get up to it.” Will walked forward and started climbing. The others watched on as he went past the first three pieces of wood. As he stepped onto the fourth one, it broke away from the tree.

Chapter 10: A Stranger
In
Need

 

The others looked on anxiously as Will steadied himself. “Are you all right?” Amy said.

Will nodded. “But I’d better come down now.”

“It’s a pity that happened.” Joe looked up at the tree house. “That would have been a good place to hide from the men.”

From what Joe could see, some of the timber had rotted away and, as he walked around the tree, he saw that there were only a few planks of wood remaining on three of the four sides. It was quite a distance up.

“We could have been like the Swiss Family Robinson,” Amy said. “You
know,
the ones that got shipwrecked and built a tree house on an island.”

“But they got attacked by pirates,” Will pointed out.

“Well, we have the men,” Amy said.

“I guess so, but why would we need to defend ourselves from them?” Will said. “Anyway, let’s keep on moving.”

They resumed walking, but stopped a moment later as they caught sight of some old planks next to some bushes.

Bending down, Joe picked one up. “I wonder what these are doing
here?
”

“The person who made the tree house probably left them there,” Amy said.

“That’s a possibility,” Joe said. “They probably brought some planks to the island and these are the ones that were left over.”

They continued walking. Apart from a few rabbits and birds, they
didn’t
encounter anything of interest before arriving back at the inlet into which they had sailed into on the Lazy Lucy
.

Stopping for a rest, the children sat down on the cliff. They had only been there for about two minutes when they caught sight of a craft as it came into view from around the rocks on the side closest to the mainland.

Sarah stood up. “Hey, what’s that?”

Will, who was now carrying the binoculars, peered through them. “It’s a rowboat. I can see one person in it.”

“Why would a person come to this island alone?” Joe wondered.

“Perhaps he’s connected with the men?” Amy said.

“I say we keep out of sight until we know the answer,” Will said.

As the others agreed, all four of them moved back a bit into the bushes and lay down on their stomachs. Gazing out towards the boat, they waited for it to come ashore.

“I wonder if he knows the way through the rocks,” Amy said.

“We’ll soon see,” Joe said. “If he does, I reckon he’s been to this island before.”

“He could be like us,” Will
said
.

“Yes, but to do what we did with just one person is a bit trickier, though it is a smaller boat. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Joe said.

The craft had no trouble making it through the rocks and
was soon beached
on the sand. The person climbed out and gazed around.

Peering through the binoculars, Amy saw with surprise that it
wasn’t
a man but a youngish looking woman. After grabbing a rucksack from the rowboat, she walked up the path.

Studying her more closely, Amy saw that she was wearing khaki shorts and t-shirt. A pair of binoculars hung around her neck. “Do we follow her?”

“Yes,” Joe replied. “We need to see if she’s a local, tourist, or a crook.”

“She doesn’t look like a crook,” Sarah said. “She looks nice.”

“I agree,” Amy said, “but I guess we had better be sure.”

The four children waited until she had passed them and was far enough in front before they followed her. She headed straight for the hill and, as she walked past the stream and into some trees, the children lost sight of her.

Will, who was in the lead, raced forward. As he came to the stream and looked around, he frowned. “She’s disappeared.”

“But she was right here,” Amy said. “She must have walked faster.”

Following Amy, the others raced up the slope. As they arrived at the top, they all looked around. The mysterious woman
couldn’t
be seen.

“Where did she go?” Joe grabbed the binoculars from Will and peered through them as he scanned the surrounding area. No movement
could be seen
.

Suddenly, they all heard a noise behind them. Turning around, Joe saw the woman standing at the base of an oak tree.

She walked up to them. “Playing cowboys and Indians are we?” she said in an amused voice.

Amy frowned. “What?”

The woman smiled, her bright blue eyes shining as looked at each of them in turn. “You were following me.”

“We weren’t,” Will
lied
. “We—”

“Have you by any chance seen three men about?” the woman asked.

“Ah, maybe.
Why do you ask?” Joe said.

The woman reached into her pocket and took out a
badge which
she held out for the others to see. It was official looking, just
like
a police officer would have. There was a name on it. It
read:
Nancy Allen.

The woman smiled. “I’m Detective Allen and, as you might have guessed, I’m a police officer. I’m trying to find three men—”

“We’ve seen three men,” Sarah interrupted.

Nancy
looked at her.
“Really?
Here, on this island?”

Sarah nodded. “They say they are birdwatchers, but they’re bad people.”

“Really?”
Nancy
turned to Joe. “Is that true?”

Joe explained how they had met the men earlier. Once he had done so, he looked curiously at the woman. “Why did you come here?”

“I heard a rumour that the men were here,”
Nancy
said. “Now, would you be able to describe the men so I can see if they are the three that I’m trying to find?” As Will did so, the woman nodded. “Yes, it’s them. Do you know where they are staying?”

“There’s a cabin in the woods on the far side of the island,” Amy said.

“Okay. Well, I’m trying to find something that the men have stolen, so—”
Nancy
said.

“What?” Sarah interrupted.

The woman hesitated. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this—”

“We’ll keep it a secret,” Joe interrupted.

“Well, those men are wanted for stealing paintings,”
Nancy
said.

“Paintings?”
Will questioned.

“Yes,”
Nancy
said. “They’ve stolen them from museums. Do you have any idea of where they could be?”

The children shook their heads. “We haven’t seen much,”
Joe
said, “we assumed they were not up to any good, but I didn’t realise that they had stolen paintings.”

“It’s very important that they be found, so can you help me locate them?”
Nancy
said.

“Why don’t you arrest them now?” Will said. “If they’re thieves—”

“I need the paintings as proof, so I want to make sure that they are with the men before I arrest them.” The woman gazed around at the island before looking at her watch. “It’s such a big island, so I need your help. The paintings have to be somewhere close by. Once I find them, I can contact headquarters.”

“Golly, another mystery,” Amy said.

The woman frowned.
“Another mystery?
What do you mean?”