“Somebody lost a button,” said Jessie. “That’s sure. Let me see it.”
“It looks quite new,” she said. “It’s an American button, and it has four holes in it.”
“It looks like a shirt button,” said Mike. “Let’s save it.”
“Oh, yes, indeed,” said Grandfather. “It’s a clue.”
Lars cut the fish into four pieces. He turned the turtle shell upside down. He put the fish into it.
“I like my kettle,” said Mike happily.
“It’s a good old kettle,” said Benny. “Shall I put the water on the fish now, Lars?”
“Yes, it must cook for a while. Then the fish will be soft and we can cut it in smaller pieces, and take off the skin and take out the bones.”
“I like onions in my fish stew, Lars,” said Benny. “But of course we couldn’t bring any onions.”
“No?” said Lars laughing. He took some dried onions out of the box, and put them in the turtle shell. “I like onions, too,” he said.
Suddenly a strange voice said, “Hello, Peter!”
“Who in the world is that?” whispered Benny.
Lars shouted, “Come out of the trees!”
The palm tree moved a little in the wind. They saw nobody. But all at once a little purple bird hopped out on a branch. It put its head on one side and said again, “Hello, Peter!”
“Well, well! A bird!” said Mike. “A talking bird!”
“What is it, Lars?” asked Jessie.
“I don’t know,” said Lars.
“I know,” said Mr. Alden. “It’s a myna bird.”
“Oh, yes, it is, Grandfather!” said Henry. “Don’t you remember, Jessie, we saw them on T.V.?”
“So we did,” said Jessie. “There was a lady from a pet shop. She had two or three myna birds. She had taught them to say lots of things.”
They all looked at each other. The bird said again, “Hello, Peter!”
Mike said, “Somebody had to teach this bird, Ben. Did you think of that?”
“Yes, I did,” said Benny. “I think it must have been Peter.”
“Yes,” said Grandfather. “It must have been Peter, whoever he is.”
CHAPTER 8
Cooking and Swimming
Lars was making the stew now. In the new kettle were the four pieces of fish, spring water, onions and salt. They all lifted the kettle over the fire. The children watched as it began to boil. Violet shook up some dry milk with spring water. After a while Jessie took out the skin and bones. She put in the milk.
“How are we going to eat this?” asked Mike. “It is boiling hot.”
“I’ll tell you,” said Jessie. “We’ll set our shells in the sand. You fill them with stew, Lars. Then we won’t have to hold them.”
“Very good,” said Lars. “I have made a fine ladle.” The ladle was the tin cup tied on a long stick. Lars ladled out the stew.
“Don’t give Mike any fish,” said Benny. “He doesn’t like fish.”
“Well, I’ll give him some just the same,” said Lars. “He may get to like it.”
“Now about Peter,” said Benny. “Do you think Peter has been here, or is he here now?”
“Peter could be a name someone taught the bird to say,” said Mr. Alden. “Then somehow the bird came to the island.”
“It would be exciting if Peter were really here,” said Henry. “And is he a boy or a man?”
“Oh, he couldn’t be a boy,” said Benny. “He couldn’t live here all alone.”
“Why not, Ben?” asked Mike.
“Well, he would be too lonesome. And how would a boy get here all alone?”
“Oh, I hope it isn’t a cannibal, like those in Robinson Crusoe” said Violet. She looked up quickly.
“Oh, no, Miss Violet!” said Lars. “Don’t you be afraid. It couldn’t be a cannibal, because there aren’t any cannibals on these islands.”
Lars gave Mr. Alden a quick look. So Mr. Alden said quickly, “That’s right, my dear. Lars knows. And just taste this stew!”
There were no spoons yet, but they used the razor clam shells.
Benny said, “My, you have to work hard to get this stew into your mouth.”
“Makes it better,” said Henry. “I am going to drink mine when it is cooler. And now what shall we do about this Peter?”
“Just keep your eyes open,” said Lars.
“I kept mine open anyway,” said Benny. “Let’s catch the myna bird.”
“We can’t catch a bird,” said Henry. “But maybe he can say other things.” He whistled. The bird whistled.
“Now just hear that!” said Mike. He whistled. The bird whistled.
Mike got up and started for the tree. But the bird flew away at once. He was lost in the trees.
“Just one thing,” said Jessie, looking at her gentle sister. “If Peter is here now, he must speak English.”
“That’s right, Jessie,” said Mr. Alden. “A cannibal would not teach the myna bird to say things in English. And now let’s think about something else.”
“Well, I think I shall cook a breadfruit today,” said Lars. “We will open some canned meat and have a real dinner.”
“The stew is gone anyway,” said Mr. Alden. “I had five shellfuls. Thank you very much, Lars. I enjoyed it.”
Mike said, “I liked mine, too. The fish wasn’t too bad. But the stew and crackers were the best. Lars, do you remember you said you’d show us a place to swim?”
“I remember it well, Mr. Mike,” said Lars. “I will show you the place when we take a Walk.”
“Can you swim, Mike?” asked Benny in surprise.
“Well, I can swim a little,” said Mike. He was laughing at something. “I like to swim, and it’s so hot here.”
“It is always hot in the middle of the day,” said Lars. “We ought to rest, or else go into the woods. It is cool there.”
“I don’t want to rest,” said Jessie. “Do you, Violet? Let’s all go into the woods.”
Nobody wanted to rest. They wanted to see the island.
“Just wait a minute,” said Lars. “I will pick the breadfruit before we go.”
“Where is the breadfruit?” asked Benny.
“Right over your head,” said Lars. “I’ll try to climb the tree.”
Soon Lars came down with two large breadfruit. He climbed up again and came down with two more. He put the green fruit on the sand for them to look at.
“They look exactly like brains!” said Benny.
“Do they really, now?” said Lars laughing.
“How do you know what brains look like, Ben?” asked Mike.
“From pictures,” said Benny. “Brains go in and out in a curly pattern, but brains are not green.”
“I’ll bake them,” said Lars. “The fire is just right.”
“I wondered why you didn’t let the fire go out,” said Jessie. “You kept making it bigger and bigger.”
“Yes, we have to have a bed of hot coals for the breadfruit,” said Lars. “Now I’ll put banana leaves around them. Then we’ll cover them up in the fire and leave them until we get back. Then I’ll show you how to eat them.”
“Will they taste like bread?” asked Benny.
“Some people think so,” said Lars. “You have to get used to it.”
“Let’s go,” said Henry. “We all want to swim.”
“I want to see the place where there are no sharks,” said Mike.
“So do I,” said Mr. Alden. Everyone was surprised. Benny said, “Can you swim, Grandfather?”
“I think so,” said Mr. Alden with a laugh. “I may have forgotten how, but I’d like to try.”
“This is the way,” said Lars. “It is quite a long walk, but it is very pretty.”
They climbed over rocks this time. Once they came to a beautiful, white sandy beach. “Not here,” said Lars. “There are sharks here.”
“I haven’t seen one shark yet,” said Benny. “I’ve looked and looked for them in Blue Bay.”
“Blue Bay is full of them, just the same,” said Lars.
Violet said, “Isn’t it lucky that Lars knows where they are!”
The family walked along the beach.
“More rocks,” said Henry. “These are very big. Are you all right, Grandfather?”
“Yes, my boy,” said Mr. Alden. “But I hope we will get there soon.”
“We will,” said Lars. “Take my arm.”
Up they all went, jumping from one rock to another. Then Jessie said suddenly, “Oh, isn’t this beautiful!”
Everyone stopped to look. Here was a green bay. It was smaller than Blue Bay, and perfectly round. All around the edge were palm trees.
“Trees growing right in the water out there!” cried Benny. “Just in a perfect ring. How can they, Grandfather? What makes them?”
“Those trees are not growing in the water, Benny,” said Grandfather. “That is a reef. You will find a lot of land out there, but it is a beautiful sight.”
Lars said, “This is the place to swim. The water is not very deep here. See how green it is? Sharks cannot get in here. They can’t get across the reef because there is no opening.”
They all took off their shoes and walked into the clear water.
“Clothes and all!” shouted Mike. “Isn’t this fun! I wish my mother could see me now.”
“It’s lovely,” said Jessie. “It is cool, but not too cool.” She looked up just in time to see Mike. He put his hands in front of him and swam off like a fish!
“Mike Wood!” shouted Benny. “I didn’t know you could swim like that! I didn’t know you could swim at all.” Benny watched his friend. Sometimes Mike swam under water, and sometimes on top.
“Good work, Mike!” called Mr. Alden. And off he went, hand over hand, with his face in the water.
“Look at Grandfather!” cried Henry. “He and Mike are the best swimmers here.”
But then Lars went after them, and there were three fine swimmers. Henry was just swimming on his back when he happened to look on the other side of the reef. He looked again. He stopped swimming and stood up. There was an old boat. It was pulled high up on the sand.
“Come back!” shouted Henry.
It was funny to see everyone coming back so fast Mike said, “Everybody minds everybody!”
“Look at that boat, Lars,” said Henry pointing.
They all walked through the water to the reef. They looked across at the old boat.
“It is a lifeboat,” said Lars. “But it was not there when I came here three years ago. I’m sure of that.”
The boat was full of sand. One end was very deep in the sand, way out of sight. They all stood looking at the boat, when they heard a little noise in the tree above.
“It’s a whine!” cried Benny, looking up. “Someone is in trouble.”
The whine came again. But it was further away this time.
“It is just a little moan, now,” said Violet. Then it stopped.
“Maybe someone doesn’t want us to look at this old boat,” said Mike.
Henry said, “Maybe someone thinks we are going to take it away. I wonder what it was or who it was?”
“That I cannot tell you,” said Lars. “But this is a good boat. It must have a name. You all stay here, and I will walk across the reef and see.” He looked at both sides of the boat, and there was its name, Explorer II.
“Oh, I know!” cried Lars. “This is a lifeboat. It came from the ship Explorer II. The ship hit a reef and went down.”
“I remember that!” said Mr. Alden. “I read about it in the newspapers months ago. Some of the people were picked up by another ship and taken to San Francisco.”
“I suppose some people got into this lifeboat just as we got in ours,” said Benny.
After a while they all went back to the green bay. They swam around in the cool water. Then they came up on the beach and sat in the sun until they were dry. The sun made them feel very sleepy.
“Dry in no time,” said Mike. “That’s this hot sun for you!”
“Now we’d better sit up here under the trees,” said Lars. “The sun is too hot.”
They sat down under the palm trees. Soon Mike lay down with his head on his arm. Benny did the same. The rest laughed a little, but soon they were all stretched out on the beach, too. Soon the whole family was asleep on the sand—all but one. Lars was lying down. But he watched the water and the trees and the beach. He saw nothing.
Even Lars did not know that anyone was looking at them from the tree right over their heads.
CHAPTER 9
Bread
One by one the family woke up. They laughed at one another for going to sleep on the sand.
“We needed a nap in the middle of the day,” said Mr. Alden. “The sun is very hot.”
“I’d like to see how that breadfruit is getting along,” said Jessie.
“So would I,” said Mike. “It doesn’t look like bread at all.”
“No, only like big green brains,” said Benny.
Over the rocks they went. They walked along the sandy beach. “We ought to call this Shark Bay,” said Mike.
“Good,” said Lars. “That is just what it is. It is very dangerous.”
Everyone was looking at the water. All but Benny. He happened to look the other way. He looked at the woods. Something was moving in the woods. He looked again. A long vine was swinging. One end of the vine was up in a tall tree. The other end went up, too. It went out of sight in another tree.
“A swing!” shouted Benny. “Look at it.”
“Now what do you know!” said Henry. “A real swing.”
Lars walked through the bushes. He pulled on the swing. It did not come down.
“Here, let me sit in it,” cried Mike. He sat down on the big vine and pushed. The swing seemed to be very strong.
“I can go way up high, Ben!” cried Mike excitedly.
“Be careful, Mike,” said Grandfather. “Take it easy. That swing might break suddenly. We don’t want any broken legs here.”
Henry said, “Grandfather, a vine wouldn’t grow like that all by itself, would it?”
“It could grow like that,” said Mr. Alden, “but I don’t think it did. See, all the leaves are off. Someone took off all the leaves.”
“Oh, dear,” said Jessie. “We have a mystery, and it gets worse all the time.”
“I think it gets better all the time,” said Mike, swinging gently. “Someday we will find out who made this swing and who lives here.”
“We have plenty of time, and plenty of clues,” said Benny. “Let me have a swing, too, Mike.”
“No, you come another day and swing,” said Lars suddenly. “We must get back to that breadfruit.”
When Lars took the breadfruit out of the fire, they saw some soft, baked fruit, the shape of enormous eggs. He took them out one by one and put them on big leaves.
“Those leaves are as big as umbrellas,” said Jessie.
“Yes, people use them for umbrellas when it rains,” said Lars. “Now see there are seeds inside the breadfruit.” He took out about thirty seeds. Each was as big as a nut.
“Eat them,” said Lars. “The seeds are nutty and rich. Then you eat the soft part of the fruit with the razor clam shells.”
“We must make those spoons very soon,” said Henry. “We need spoons for everything.”
“I like this,” said Benny. He bit into a seed. “It does taste nutty.”
“I’ll open the canned meat,” said Henry. “Then we’ll have meat and bread together.”
He did so. With cold meat and hot breadfruit, the family enjoyed a full meal. They had bananas for dessert. They did not know that someone was watching them all the time.
The days went by very fast now. Every day brought more surprises. They made the two huts ready for rain, but it did not rain. Every day was beautiful. The Blue Bay was bluer than ever, and the green bay was greener.
One day they all went to the spring for water. Be
nny looked first at the white shell. It had been moved.
Benny said to himself, “That shell has been moved. It was right next to this white stone. Now it is over on the other side. I bet someone drinks here every day.”
But they never saw anyone. The myna bird did not come back. They dug the sand out of the Explorer II boat and washed it. They pulled it higher on the sand. It looked fine. But this time they did not hear any whine from the treetops.
Everyone had a fine spoon now. They had bowls too. They made a bowl from half a coconut shell. Jessie said, “I like coconut milk better than dry milk now. It is sweeter.”
“I like sugar cane the best,” said Mike. “That is the sweetest of all.”
“Sugar cane is our candy,” said Benny. “We can pick it any time we want to.”
And so the days went by. Nobody ever thought of the Sea Star, because they didn’t want it to come. They were having too good a time.
CHAPTER 10
Trapped
One day Henry said suddenly, “I don’t want a nap today.”
“I don’t either!” shouted Benny and Mike at the same time. “Let’s walk over into the woods. It is cool enough there.”
Mr. Alden laughed. He said, “I want a nap just the same.”
Lars was fixing a hole in the roof of the girls’ hut. “I think I’ll stay home and work on the roof,” he said. “You can explore if you want to. It is safe enough.”
Henry said, “I’d like to see the other side of the island.”
Lars nodded. He looked at Henry. “The best way to go is right behind the spring. When you get to the spring, you climb the rocks behind it. Then you go down the other side to the beach. There is nothing there but a beach.”
“Good,” said Henry. “Let’s go!”
All the children jumped up. Off they started. Lars stopped his work to watch them. He said, “Fine children, Mr. Alden.”
“Yes, they are,” said Mr. Alden. “Every one of them.”
Then Lars went back to his work. Mr. Alden went inside his hut to take a nap.
Very soon he came back to the door and looked up. He said, “I don’t like to have the children go off alone, Lars. You know there is someone on this island. Just keep an eye on them, will you? Don’t let them know.”
Blue Bay Mystery Page 4