Ghost of a Chance

by Pam Harvey

  ‘Time for dinner,’ said E.D., spitting out a mouthful of unexpected sea water.

  ‘Good thinking for once.’ Angus walked out of the waves, shaking water off him like a wet dog.

  They began the trip back up to the guesthouse. The wind sprayed sand onto their wet legs and they stopped at a beach tap to wash it off.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ E.D. straightened and looked back along the sand.

  ‘What?’ Angus turned off the tap.

  A sound like a distant cry drifted towards them. ‘It came from the island,’ Gabby said, starting back along the sand.

  ‘I knew I’d seen someone there.’ E.D. ran ahead of her.

  ‘Is that a boat?’ Angus pointed. About two hundred metres from the beach, one of the hire boats bobbed towards the shoreline. It was empty. ‘I bet it’s come from the island. Someone might be stuck out there.’

  The cry came again, longer and higher pitched—fearful.

  ‘I can see someone now,’ said Gabby. ‘On the island.’

  There was a dark shadow on the sand across the water. It ran this way and that, waving frantically.

  ‘If we got that boat, we could go out and rescue whoever that is,’ said E.D.

  The drifting boat was now only a hundred metres from the shore. Angus turned to Gabby. ‘Reckon you could bring it in?’

  Gabby was already on her way, running and jumping into the water. The water pushed at her, making her work hard. At the same time, the boat was moving in faster and faster. She caught up with it and grabbed the dangling rope tied to its bow. Awkwardly, she towed the boat towards the boys, who’d come out to meet her. Angus clambered in and grabbed the oars while E.D. scrambled over the stern. Gabby kicked her legs and pulled herself in, taking an oar from Angus.

  It was a struggle to row the boat to the island. The further they went, the stronger the wind became. E.D. moved to sit in between Angus and Gabby, taking the ends of each oar and helping them row. The figure on the beach kept waving.

  ‘I know who that is,’ E.D. puffed as they came closer. ‘It’s that kid we pulled out of the grave. Donald.’

  ‘Daniel,’ corrected Gabby. ‘Didn’t he learn from the last time he was here?’

  Angus jumped out of the boat as it neared the shore and steered it into the sand. Daniel was standing a little distance away from him.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Angus asked.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Are you by yourself?’ E.D. splashed through the shallows. ‘Brave of you.’

  ‘It was easy to row this morning,’ Daniel said. ‘The bay was calm.’

  ‘What are you doing here?’ asked Gabby. ‘You told us to keep away. What’s going on?’

  ‘Kristy told you to stay off the island. I didn’t.’

  ‘We know about the treasure.’ E.D. folded his arms. ‘You don’t have any secrets from us.’

  Daniel looked surprised but then he shrugged. ‘I think a lot of people know. I came out this morning because there was another boat here. They were scuba diving. I don’t know whether they were looking for treasure—they didn’t look serious enough.’

  ‘Probably on holidays like us. Where are they now?’ E.D. climbed up the beach to the top of the rise and looked around.

  ‘They went around the cliffs.’

  Thunder rumbled, a low and dangerous sound. Gabby looked up at the black sky and shivered. Not a patch of blue was visible. Lightning zagged across the top of the island and more thunder sounded. The wind had whipped the sea into a frenzy of big angry waves.

  ‘I think we’d better head back now,’ she said. ‘This weather—’

  Her voice was smothered by the next thunderclap. It made her jump and she put her hands over her ears so she couldn’t hear what E.D. was saying; she could just see his lips moving. She took her hands away.

  ‘—getting battered! How are we ever going to get back?’

  ‘Look! There’s the other boat!’ Daniel pointed out to sea.

  A large black boat rocked on the waves. Gabby could see three people on board, two dressed in wet suits. They were busy on deck, tying things down, putting boxes into the cabin. Rain started and the wind howled. The black boat heaved up and down on the sea.

  ‘They’re next to Devil’s Wing. If they’re having trouble, we’ll never get back. Our small boat will never make it through those big waves now.’ Angus ran to the small hire boat and pulled it further out of reach of the waves. The distance to the mainland looked enormous—the gap filled by an angry, crashing sea.

  ‘Maybe they could take us back!’ E.D. ran to the top of the island and began waving his arms and yelling to the black boat. ‘Hey! Over here! Come and get us or we’ll be stranded.’

  It was hard to see through the pelting rain. One of the people on board seemed to pause and look towards the island but then went down into the cabin. Over the storm’s noise, E.D. heard the motor start. ‘Over here!’ he screamed.

  The black boat pulled slowly away through the smashing, swelling waves. It did a slow circle back towards the island.

  ‘It’s coming back,’ said Daniel.

  ‘No, it isn’t.’

  Angus was right. The boat bobbed for a moment at the edge of the island and then revved and drove away, crashing through the waves and leaving a trail of frothing water behind it. ‘They didn’t see us.’

  Thunder cracked again. Gabby squatted, hands over her ears. Angus knelt beside her. ‘We’ll be okay, Gab. We’ll just wait for this storm to be over and then we can go back.’

  ‘We could go over to the rocks,’ Daniel yelled. ‘There’s a bit of shelter there.’

  With their heads down against the wind, they followed Daniel, pushing through sodden bushes and squelching over streams until they reached a crop of tall, sandy rocks.

  ‘Under here.’ Daniel ducked down and crawled under an overhanging section. Angus let Gabby in first and then turned to E.D. ‘Hope these rocks don’t fall over.’

  E.D. shrugged. ‘Better than being struck by lightning.’ The boys crawled in after Gabby.

  The shelter was surprisingly large, big enough for all of them to sit up. The storm raged and water dripped continuously over the edge of the overhang but it felt safer than being outside. Gradually, Gabby stopped shivering.

  E.D. stretched and yawned. He looked across to Daniel, who sat with his knees up and his head on his arms. ‘So no one’s found the treasure, eh? Maybe it doesn’t want to be found. It’s meant to be bad luck.’

  Daniel slowly turned his head to look at E.D.

  ‘The map said—’ Daniel stopped suddenly and hid his head.

  ‘What map?’ Gabby leaned closer to him and poked him in the leg. ‘You guys have been doing a lot of snooping around. Angus saw you climb out of that window. What did you find?’

  Daniel didn’t answer. He lifted his head and looked at Gabby, then at Angus and finally at E.D., who looked pretty wild with his dark hair all over his face.

  ‘Kristy found a map in the basement at the cottage.’ Daniel looked down. ‘It was a map of the island and pretty boring.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ E.D. glared at Daniel.

  Outside, the rain came down harder and thunder crashed right on top of them. Gabby jumped. ‘I don’t like being here.’

  ‘Well, it’s not my first choice either,’ E.D. grumbled.

  It was too noisy to keep talking. Water began to run into their hollow, forming a puddle at Gabby’s feet. She kept moving them back miserably.

  The storm raged for hours. At one point, Gabby fell asleep, her head resting on Angus’s shoulder. Suddenly she woke up. ‘Angus! What time is it?’

  Angus pushed the light on his watch and studied it for a moment. ‘10.35 p.m.’

  ‘It’s so late! Why hasn’t anyone come looking for us?’

  ‘No one can do anything. It’s too dark and too stormy. We’ll just have to wait.’

  ‘Angus?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Did you hear that?’r />
  Angus strained to hear anything above the wind and rain. In a corner of the shelter, E.D. was asleep with his head on the wall. Daniel had curled up in the wet sand at the other end. A shout and a cry sounded outside. Or was it just the storm? The wind was so loud.

  ‘It’s so cold,’ Gabby said, shifting over to be closer to Angus. He put one arm around her, listening.

  There was another loud noise. Gabby started shivering again. E.D. woke with a start. ‘What the—’

  Suddenly, a whole lot of noises filled the air. The storm was at its peak and the wind and rain sounded like a crowd of people shouting outside. E.D. scrambled out of the shelter and stood staring into the dark night. There was nothing to see, just overwhelming noise. Angus came out and stood next to him. The storm surrounded them; the rain blasted down and lightning lit the area, revealing nothing but trees and shrubs.

  And then the storm calmed down, and the thunder drifted away. The air was filled with the sound of pouring rain and the sea churning angrily around the island. The boys waited for another five minutes to make sure there was nothing there before crawling into the hollow again, dripping wet and shivering.

  ‘What was it?’ whispered Gabby.

  ‘The storm,’ said Angus. ‘But it’s stopping.’

  The rest of the night was horrible. Gabby slept fitfully and E.D. dozed, but Angus sat upright all night, eyes staring outside. The rain started to ease, and finally, by the time dawn began to glow, it stopped. The dark clouds split and disappeared. Daniel woke up, looked at Angus and gave a weak smile.

  Angus shook Gabby and E.D. awake and they went outside. In the light, the island was just that: an area of rocks and bushes and trees, and the cemetery down the hill in front of them. Nothing moved; there was no noise. The sun began to warm them.

  In the distance, a boat started. E.D. climbed to the top of the rock outcrops and looked across to the mainland. ‘Excellent!’ he shouted. ‘The rescue boat.’

  As they made their way to the beach where the hire boat still sat, full of water and sand, Angus concentrated hard on the roar of the outboard motor coming towards them. After the night noises of the island, it was the only sound he wanted to hear.

  Chapter 11

  Tuesday, 21 December, morning

  ‘I thought she was never going to let us have breakfast,’ muttered E.D. after Mrs D had finally finished telling them off and gone to have a cup of tea.

  ‘I had to tell her you were missing,’ said Hannah crossly. ‘She organised the rescue boat.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad you did,’ said Gabby. ‘I was scared.’

  ‘So,’ said E.D., changing the subject. ‘We’ve got an island with graves and maybe treasure, a lighthouse we can’t get into, a bunch of thugs who are happy to leave a mate in a grave with a skeleton in it and a ghost who is keeping Ling up every night.’ E.D. took another mouthful of food, pleased with his summary.

  ‘Not just Ling,’ said Gabby.

  Ling looked up slowly from her almost full plate of food and stared out at the grey morning.

  ‘We are staying in the place where those orphans lived—Elizabeth, her brother and the other kid that drowned. And of course there would have been other orphans too.’ She paused. Even E.D.’s knife and fork had stopped moving. ‘The answer is here, right under our noses.’

  ‘The basement,’ Angus said. ‘That room where those kids came out from.’

  ‘I’m there.’ E.D. glanced at the still half-full plate in front of him. ‘As soon as I’ve finished breakfast.’

  While Hannah and Ling stayed outside, keeping a watch in case Mrs Dalrymple or anyone else suddenly appeared, Gabby, Angus and E.D. searched the old basement room. It was full of dusty furniture, crates, piles of books and magazines, fishing rods, worn and faded surfboards. Paintings were stacked against three of the walls and some moth-eaten curtains lay bundled up in the far corner. An old wooden dresser, its drawers flung open, was the only item that looked as if it had been touched for years.

  The three of them wandered aimlessly for a few minutes, not exactly sure what they were looking for.

  Finally Gabby retreated to the door. ‘This is useless.’ She covered her mouth and nose as E.D. flung aside an ancient-looking carpet.

  ‘Funny,’ E.D. said, bending down. Gabby and Angus watched him warily as he bounced gently on the balls of his feet. ‘This floorboard feels different.’

  ‘E.D.!’ Gabby cried, as she watched him suddenly slam his foot into the soft wood beneath him. The floorboard splintered.

  ‘Bad case of wood rot,’ E.D. muttered, shaking his head and peering into the gap. ‘Can’t see a thing.’

  ‘Well, of course you can’t, idiot.’ Gabby jumped back as the door suddenly swung open.

  ‘What’s going on?’ hissed Hannah. Ling walked straight past her and over to where E.D. was kneeling on the floor, his arm reaching into the dark cavity beneath the wooden floorboards.

  ‘To the left, E.D.’ she said, squatting down next to him.

  ‘I can’t quite…’ E.D. muttered, his fingers lightly brushing something lying in the dry dirt.

  ‘What is it?’ Angus asked, moving over to join them.

  ‘Hang on.’ E.D. grimaced, angling his arm further into the small gap he’d made. He stretched his fingers out and grasped the edge of the object.

  ‘Oh, it’s only a book,’ he groaned, pulling out a small, faded exercise book. ‘I’ll see if there’s anything else down here.’

  Ling took the book and opened it as E.D. grunted and groaned, his face wedged between the floorboards and his backside high in the air. The others gathered around Ling, watching the look of astonishment slowly cross her face. ‘It’s a diary.’ She closed it suddenly. ‘Let’s get out of here in case we get caught.’

  ‘E.D., we’re going,’ Angus called, and hurried out after the girls.

  ‘Yeah, leave me in the dust,’ grumbled E.D.

  Ling opened the diary and read to the others.

  September 23: I’m not going to tell anyone about my diary. Not even Elizabeth. I will show her my shells and rocks and I might even show her my special treasures. But not my diary. It isn’t the same here at the Cottage since Mrs Jamison died.

  September 29: I had to go to the island today. Normally Mr Jamison leaves me here to play in the garden or walk along the beach. Today it was sunny and he said the trip would be good for me. Even Elizabeth agreed. I shivered all the way over in the boat. I must have looked very sick when we finally arrived at the island because Mr Jamison said that I didn’t have to dig. I think Elizabeth and Thomas were cross. But Sebastian didn’t mind.

  October 12: Today I had my third trip to the island. It is called the Isle of Many. I asked Mr Jamison why it was called that but he pretended not to hear me. He cares for nothing but his treasure. He carries the map around all day and marks where the others have dug. He doesn’t even care about the lighthouse any more and he used to walk up there every day.

  October 14: Today I found a very special shell. It is one I have never seen before. I put it in my treasure box.

  October 22: Mr Jamison called for me today, but I hid in my secret place. He will never find me here. Elizabeth was sick and Thomas had run off in the morning. Mr Jamison was very angry. Angrier than the storm clouds that made the sky black and the sea choppy. He took Sebastian to the island on his own. I hope they return safely. Thomas returned just in time for lunch.

  December 8: I hid again when they went to the island. This place is very special. It’s just an old storage room and no one ever comes down here. Not even Elizabeth knows about it. I feel safe down here. I keep my diary in the floor.

  December 11: I spent nearly the whole day down at the jetty, watching and playing with the seals. There were 5 baby seals and 1 mother. One of the babies swam between my legs. His whiskers tickled. I was very quiet and very still. I wish I could feed them some fish.

  December 19: I watched the seals today from over the cliff tops on the Isle o
f Many. The water rushes in and out of the gorge and it looks very dangerous, but the seals don’t seem to mind and they swim and play in the strong currents. Last night Elizabeth saw me coming out of my secret room. I will leave my diary there but I’m going to take the rest of my treasure and bury it in the cliffs overlooking the gorge. The seals will watch over it for me. Mr Jamison is very excited. He doesn’t mind that I don’t dig like the others. And he said that I could still have some of the treasure. He’s very happy because he thinks that he is close to discovering the treasure. He had a lot to drink tonight and I heard him talking to some other men. He said that he won’t need the will any more if he’s got the treasure. I don’t know what he meant but I’m going to tell Elizabeth. She might know.

  December 22: Mr Jamison was yelling and shouting this morning. ’We need every pair of hands out there today! Even yours, Miracolo.’ But he couldn’t find me. ‘Where the hell is that girl?’ I heard Elizabeth answer something but she didn’t tell. I held my breath and closed my eyes, even though it’s pitch black where I was. He didn’t find me. Finally I heard the door slam and the sound of his mumblings slowly faded as he and the others headed down to his boat. Another day of digging. After lunch while I was playing on the beach I looked for the seals but they had disappeared. It was getting stormy.

  Something is wrong. I know it. They aren’t back yet. I am going to bed. I will pull the blanket tightly over my head to block out the streaks of lightning and booming thunder. When I wake up in the morning, the sun will be shining, a cool breeze blowing off the ocean, the seals will return and I will take Elizabeth, Sebastian and Thomas out to the rock pools and show them the pink starfish.

  ‘Is that it?’ Hannah asked. Ling turned the page. It was blank. She closed the book and looked at the name on the front.

  Miracolo

  ‘Unusual name,’ Hannah mumbled.