The Mystery of Smugglers Cove (The Mystery Series, Book 1) (7 page)

“I’m doing the best I can,” Sarah puffed. She followed her brother into one of the many bedrooms.

“Get under the bed,” Joe whispered. He climbed inside a wooden closet, leaving the door partly open.

Moments later, Rocky entered the room. He trod quietly on the carpet as he made his way around the room. He bent down to look underneath the bed. Joe rushed out of the closet and hit the man with the broom. Grabbing his head in pain, Rocky tumbled to the floor.

Joe dropped the broom and waited for Sarah to get out from underneath the bed. They raced downstairs.

“Will? Amy?” Joe called out quietly.

“We’re here,” Will said, peeking out from around a corner.

“Have you found a way out?” Joe asked.

“I might have,” Will said. “One of the rooms I passed looked as though the window might have been broken.”

“Let’s check it out then,” Joe said. He glanced anxiously up the stairs.

There was still no sign of Rocky, but they needed to hurry up and get out of the manor before he recovered. They ran in the direction of the room.

The children entered the messy room. Running to the window, Joe found what he was looking for. The windowpane had previously been hit with a rock and the window was smashed.

Joe grabbed the handle and pushed. The window swung outwards. He thrust his legs over the side and dropped down onto the grass. Glancing around to make sure no one was in sight, he beckoned to the others to follow him. First Amy, then Sarah, and finally Will appeared.

“What’s your plan?” Will asked.

“Make for the ladder,” Joe said. “Hopefully, once we climb it and get off the property, the man will give up.”

They made for the wall where they had left the ladder. They had managed to travel a quarter of the way before Joe heard a noise. He glanced back and saw that Rocky was sprinting straight for them.

“Split up!” Joe shouted. The others did as he suggested and ran in different directions.

Rocky followed Joe, gaining on him every second. But, in his haste, he failed to look where he was going and tripped over a tree root. He hit the ground hard.

At the sound of the thud, Joe headed towards the nearby oak trees in the hope that he could hide amongst the branches. Moments later, he reached the trees and started climbing up one of them.

Rocky closed on where Joe had been moments earlier and slowed down. He looked around in confusion.

Joe peeked out from his hiding place and watched as Rocky started climbing one of the nearby trees. Despite the situation, he grinned at how long it took the crook to climb the tree. He clearly hadn’t climbed many trees in his life before, and this was especially evident when, not finding him at that tree, he tried to climb down again. He paused halfway, fear on his face.

Sensing his chance to escape, Joe began climbing down his tree. He glanced towards Rocky as the crook tumbled down and fell, twisting his ankle.

Joe grinned and raced away. He paused for a moment to glance back a few moments later and was glad to see the crook limping slowly back towards the manor.

The children hurried to the ladder. They were soon on the other side of the wall and, after hiding the ladder in the bushes, headed back to Will’s house.

Promising Will that they would meet up again the following day, the three children hurried to Rose Cottage.

They were almost there when the heavens opened up and it began to rain. They ran down the dirt road, flung open the front gate, and raced down the path.

Their mother opened the door as they were kicking off their muddy shoes.

Soon, they had dried themselves off and were tucking into freshly made scones.

“Just as well you were close to home,” their mother remarked as she passed the jam across the table.

“Yes,” Amy replied. “We would have been drenched if we had been any farther away.”

“I think the wet weather has set in for today,” Joe said, looking out of the window. It was still raining quite heavily, and there were a lot of dark clouds scattered across the sky.

Deciding to paint some pictures, they got the brushes and paint out and began painting. After cleaning up, they played some games before it was time to eat.

After a lovely meal, the children decided to have an early night. This was partly because Joe wanted to go exploring the following night and he didn’t want to be tired. Even though the girls were not sure if they were going to go, they decided to go to bed as well.

~

The following morning, the children went shopping with their mother. Arriving back shortly after
midday
, they had just entered the house when the phone rang.

Their mother answered it. After listening and nodding her head for a few minutes, she hung up.

“Who was that?” Joe asked.

“It was Grandma. She’s hurt her back and can’t get around by herself. She wants me to go and stay with her for a few days and help her, but I don’t really want to leave you three alone.”

“We’ll be fine,” Joe said. “Go and help Grandma.”

“If only there was someone to keep an eye on you,” his mother answered.

“What about Will’s father? I’m sure he would agree to that,” Amy suggested. “Besides, what could possibly happen to us in two or three days?”

“Well, okay,” their mother said. “I’ll ring up Mr Spencer and see if he can look in on you each day.” She picked up the telephone and dialled. She was soon talking to him. She nodded a few times, then smiled and said goodbye. She looked at the others. “He’s busy working on his novel, but he’ll check up on you from time to time.”

“Can Will come over and stay tonight?” Joe asked.

“I suppose so, as long as his father agrees,” his mother replied.

“Thanks,” Joe said. He hugged his mother.

“Are you leaving now?” Sarah asked.

Their mother looked at her watch. “If I hurry, I should be able to catch the two o’ clock bus.” She went upstairs, packed her bag, and then left, waving to the children as she hurried down the garden path.

~

The children went over to Will’s to see if he wanted to stay the night. He did, and after his father agreed, Will quickly packed a rucksack.

The children then headed down to the beach to see if there was a place near the caves where they could hide and not be seen by the crooks. They knew that the boat was going to be coming at
midnight
, so tonight was the night to explore.

After splashing playfully in the knee-high water, they headed to the rocks near the caves and began to search for a good hiding place.

They hadn’t been searching for too long when Will, who was climbing part of the rock face, suddenly yelled out. As the others hurried over, he pointed to what he had seen.

It was the cave window! The one that they had peered from the other day. After climbing the last few feet to the window, Joe looked in. He couldn’t see much, as it was dark inside, but there was enough light to see that it was the same cave.

Ten feet to the right of the window was a small alcove that appeared to have been made by the wind and the rain over the years. It would suit their purpose nicely. By being near the window, they would be able to see, and possibly hear, the men if they came into the cave. They would also be able to see the boat come in.

Everyone agreed that it was the perfect location, and so they left the caves and made a sandcastle. After that, they decided to have some running races on the sand. It was a happy group of children that made their way back to Rose Cottage in the late afternoon.

~

At
midnight
, Joe and Will grabbed their torches, binoculars, and a few snacks before leaving the house. Fortunately, there was a full moon, so they didn’t need to use their torches.

As they walked along the sandy beach, Joe thought things over. According to the conversation that he had overheard, the boat would be coming a week from tonight. That would be the ideal time to launch a raid. If the police raided the manor too soon, there would be the danger of someone getting away and alerting the crooks on board the boat.

It was nearly
midnight
when the two of them reached the rocks and climbed up to the cave. Joe turned the torch on for a few moments. Even with the moonlight, it was tricky to climb the rocks in the darkness. As they passed the hole in the cave, Joe looked in but couldn’t see anything. That could only mean that the boat hadn’t arrived yet. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let’s have a
midnight
snack while we’re waiting,” Joe said. He pulled two bars out of his pocket and, after handing one to Will, started munching on the other. He stared out into the darkness as he ate. Without the binoculars, he could make out the beach, but beyond that it was a sea of black.

Finishing off the snack, Joe took hold of the binoculars and did a thorough search of their surroundings. Other than the gentle lapping of the waves, he heard nothing.

Suddenly, Will tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. “I think I just saw something.”

Joe looked through the binoculars. “You’re right, there’s a dinghy approaching.” He watched as the small craft reached the beach.

The binoculars were so powerful, and the men so close, that he was able to see every move they made. After dragging the craft up the beach, the men threw the oars into the dinghy. This done, two of them began to walk towards the cliffs below.

Joe lowered the binoculars and whispered, “It will be interesting to see which cave they enter to get to the tunnel.” He put the binoculars up to his eyes again and searched the beach for the men. They were nowhere to be found. He checked to see if the guard was still there. Thankfully, he hadn’t disappeared from view.

“I can’t find them,” Joe muttered. Not getting a response, he turned his head to see what Will was doing and got a shock. Will wasn’t there!

Surprised and scared, Joe hurriedly looked around. Where could he be? He had been with him a minute ago. Careful not to trip over anything, he made his way slowly back to the cave window. Light was streaming through the hole. He glanced down the way that they had come earlier, in case the group of men had returned to the beach.

That’s when he saw it. Halfway down the path, a dark shape lay against the rocks. He knew that whatever it was, it couldn’t have been there when they had come up earlier. He raised the binoculars to his eyes.

He stiffened. He saw that the dark shape was a person lying face down. From the clothes he wore, Joe realised that the motionless figure was Will.

Joe scrambled down the rocks, taking care not to slip, and in a few moments he was beside his friend. He let out a gasp of relief as Will slowly turned around and put a finger to his lips, motioning for him to be quiet.

Wondering what was going on, but realising that he wasn’t going to get an answer, Joe stayed still.

A minute later, Will stood up. “Let’s get back to the alcove,” he whispered.

Joe nodded and followed Will as he climbed up the rocks once more. They passed the cave and sat down.

Will gulped down some lemonade before he spoke. “Did you wonder where I was?”

“Of course. One moment you were there, and the next moment you were gone.”

“Well, while you were looking through the binoculars I thought I heard a noise coming from the cave. You were busy, so I thought I’d check it out by myself. I saw that the cave was still in darkness but, just as I was about to return, I heard a faint noise coming from the beach.”

Will paused as he took another sip of his lemonade. “I was scrambling down to investigate and had nearly got to the bottom when my foot slipped on some loose rocks. I tumbled down. I wasn’t sure if anyone had heard me, so I lay still for a moment or two. It was lucky that I did that, because the next thing I heard was two men talking. They were discussing whether they should go and investigate. Luckily, they didn’t. And then you arrived a minute or two after that.”