by Paul Moxham
“Where are the paintings?” Nancy asked. Luke was silent.
“If you help us, the police will go easier on you,” Will stated.
“What do the police have to do with this?” Luke sneered.
“Everything,” Will answered. “We’re going to take the painting to the police with Nancy’s help.”
“Nancy? Who’s she?” Luke asked.
Will pointed to the woman. “She’s Nancy.”
Luke laughed. “If she promised you—”
“Where are the paintings?” Nancy interrupted.
The man hesitated and then pointed. “Up there.”
Nancy looked up at the roof. “In the attic?”
“Yes, but you’ll never get away with this, Julie,” Luke said.
“Stop calling me Julie!” Nancy yelled. “And put her hands behind your back.”
As Luke did what he was told, Nancy reached into her rucksack and pulled out some rope. She tied it around his wrists. “Now, how do you get up to the attic?”
“There’s a rope ladder in the back corner, right side,” Luke said. As Nancy hurried to the spot, he turned to the children. “She was part of our gang.”
“What?” Joe said.
“Julie split with us a year ago after grabbing the money that we had stolen in a bank heist. If…” Luke paused as Nancy came back with the rope.
“How do I get the rope up there?” the woman said.
“Throw it over the two nails that are in the planks just above where you found the rope,” Luke replied.
Nancy turned to the children. “Why don’t one of you stay here to guard our prisoner while the rest help me search?”
“I’ll stay,” Joe offered. He sat down as the others followed Nancy.
After Nancy threw the rope over the nails, she started to climb up. Will went next, then the girls.
As Will stepped on the wooden planks, they creaked. “Be careful,” he called out. “These have been here for a long time and might give way at any time.”
“Looks like some already have,” Amy pointed out as she looked across the floor at the gaping holes.
Nancy glanced around, trying to spot anything that looked like a good place to hide paintings. She spotted an old chest up against the far window. “That has to have the paintings in it.”
“I guess so.” Will looked around. Nothing else could be seen. “We’ll have to be careful, though. One wrong step and we could fall right down.”
Nancy looked towards Sarah. “Why don’t you go first?”
“What?” Amy muttered, turning towards the woman. “You’re not afraid, are you?”
Nancy laughed. “Of course not. But she is the smallest and lightest person here, so even if she did step on a rotten plank, she should have the best chance of surviving.”
“Should?” Amy repeated.
“Well, there’s no guarantee—” Nancy said.
“If you want the paintings, go and get them yourself,” Amy interrupted as she clutched her sister protectively. “My sister isn’t going to risk her life for some paintings.”
Sarah looked at Amy. “I’m not scared.”
Amy smiled as she raked her hand through her sister’s blonde hair. “I know you’re not scared. I just don’t want you to take a risk for nothing.”
“For nothing?” Nancy shouted. “Do you want to put these men in jail or not? If—”
“Shouting isn’t going to do you any good,” Will interrupted.
“I’m sorry,” Nancy said. “I didn’t mean to shout. I just want those paintings.”
“I think I’ve got a better idea,” Will said.
“You do?” Nancy said, a smile appearing on her face.
Will nodded as he went over to the rope ladder and pulled it up. “If Sarah takes hold of one end of this, we can hold the other. That way, if the plank does give way and she does fall, we can pull her back up.”
Nancy smiled. “A great idea.” She turned to Sarah. “Will you do it?”
Sarah nodded and she took the end of the ladder. She then took a deep breath and stepped onto the first plank. Silence. She stepped onto the next one. Silence.
The others waited with bated breath as Sarah slowly but surely got farther and farther away from them. As she did so, Will realised that, while the rope ladder was long, it would only go three-quarters of the way. He shuddered to think what could happen in the final section. But he didn’t say anything. He just kept his eyes glued on Sarah’s feet.
Suddenly, one of the planks creaked loudly. Sarah paused, but nothing happened. She moved onto the next one which also creaked. It creaked louder than the previous one and, before the others knew what was happening, the plank, along with the next one, broke in half!
Frightened, Sarah cried out as she fell down the hole. “Help!”
Chapter 12: Run!
Luckily, Sarah didn’t lose her grip on the rope ladder, which meant that instead of hitting the ground she was left dangling a foot below the hole.
Clinging tightly to the rope, Amy called out. “Are you all right, Sarah?”
“I’m fine, just pull me up,” Sarah shouted back.
Amy looked at the others. “We pull on three. One, two, three!”
With everyone pulling as hard as they could, Sarah was slowly lifted up through the hole. Once she was out, everyone kept on pulling as they tried to drag her back to them. Suddenly, Sarah yelled out. “Stop!”
“Why?” Will questioned, frowning.
Sarah gingerly stood up. “I’m going to continue on.”
“No, it’s too dangerous,” Amy said. “We’ll try another way.”
“There isn’t any other way,” Sarah shouted back.
“But you could have been seriously injured!” Will exclaimed.
“But I wasn’t. Just give me another chance. I know I can do it,” Sarah protested.
“Let her,” Nancy said. “It’s the only way.”
“But she’s my sister!” Amy yelled. “I should be the one doing that.”
“She’s more than halfway there,” Nancy said. “Let her continue.”
Amy looked at her sister. “Be extra careful this time, okay?”
Sarah nodded. The others watched as she stood there, trying to decide which way to go. She then moved, taking one step at a time. Soon, she had reached the end of the rope. Before the others could decide what to do, she suddenly dropped the rope and ran the rest of the way to the chest.
Two of the planks broke, but fortunately Sarah was a step ahead and she didn’t fall. The others breathed a sigh of relief as the girl reached the chest. “I’ll open it and see if the paintings are in here.”
The others waited in anticipation as Sarah opened up the lid and shuffled around in the chest.
“What can you see?” Amy asked.
Sarah pulled out something and showed it to the others. It was a white sheet.
Nancy frowned. “Is that all? No paintings?”
Sarah nodded. “A few odds and ends, but yes, that’s all.”
Nancy frowned as she gazed at the white sheet. “Why would that be in the chest?”
Will grinned. “Of course! I thought it came from up here.”
“What are you talking about?” Nancy asked.
“One of the men tried to scare us,” Will replied. “Tried to make us believe in ghosts so we would leave the island. I’m pretty sure they would have used that sheet when they tried to frighten us.”
Nancy laughed. “That’s just like them.”
“How do you know what these men are like?” Will said, puzzled.
Nancy hesitated. “Oh, I was just meaning that it sounds typical based on what I have read about these men.”
Will called out to Sarah. “Is there anything else in there?”
Sarah closed the lid. “No.”
Nancy glared down at Luke as she spotted him through the rotten planks. “He lied.”
“Well, it probably wasn’t the first time he did that,” Amy said.
>
“No, but it’ll be his last.” Nancy turned to Sarah. “Grab the rope.”
Sarah stepped forward. The return wasn’t as difficult as before since she knew where to stand, and she was soon back with them.
After taking the rope ladder, Nancy threw it down the side. Once in place, she climbed down. She strode over to Luke and slapped him on the face. “You lied.”
Luke smirked. “Took you long enough to discover that.”
Nancy paced back and forth as the others climbed down the rope and joined her. “You will tell me where the paintings are now.”
Luke sneered. “Or else what? Are you going to slap me again?”
Nancy laughed as she pulled out her pistol from where it had been tucked next to her waist. “I have more persuasive methods. If you—”
“Oh, no!” Will interrupted.
Nancy glanced at the boy who was standing by the window. “What’s up?”
“The others, they’re coming here,” Will muttered.
Nancy strode to the window and looked out. Marvin and Kenneth were roughly one hundred feet away and closing. “They can’t know we’re here. When they pass by—”
Luke suddenly cried out. “Help!”
“Why, you…” Nancy hurried over to the man and aimed her weapon at him. “Don’t force me to use this.” She looked at Joe. “Is there a back exit?”
“I don’t know,” Joe admitted.
Nancy hurried to the window and fired her pistol. The bullet whistled above the men’s heads and they tumbled to the ground before crawling to the nearest bush.
“What did you do that for?” Will asked. “We could have had a chance to slip by them, but now they know for certain that we’re here.”
“Now that they know we’re armed, they’ll think twice before entering,” Nancy snapped. “Besides, I’m not being captured by those men.”
“Why? Because they know you?” Joe questioned.
Nancy hesitated. “Okay, if you must know, I was one of them.”
Joe glanced at Jake. “So you were telling the truth.”
Nancy shook her head. “Only half the truth. I stole the bank money, but only after I heard that they were planning to get rid of me.”
“So you’re not a police officer?” Sarah asked.
Nancy shook her head. “No, but my father was.”
As she hurried away to look for a way out, the children crouched together as they decided what to do. “We can’t stay here,” Will stated.
“But we can’t go with her,” Amy argued.
“She’s not a threat to us,” Joe said. “She wants the paintings, not us.” He smiled as Nancy crashed through the back door. “Hey! she found a way out.”
Will stood up. “If we hurry, we can disappear before the men know we’re gone.” He raced towards the door.
Letting the girls race by him, Joe glanced back and saw the men near the entrance. As soon as they stepped through, they would see him. He raced after his sisters, hoping he could get through the door before they saw him.
A yell went out just he went through the back door and he knew that he had been spotted. He muttered to himself as he followed the others.
~
By the time the children arrived at the inlet, Nancy was rowing away.
“I suppose if she was lying about being a police officer, than we should have realised that she would be lying about taking us with her,” Joe said.
“It was worth a try,” Will said. “ Anyway, we should get back to the campsite before the men find us. Now that they know that we’re still on the island, they’ll be after us.”
The children set off for the campsite. As they neared the wood, Joe came to a halt as he saw the three men running towards them. “Blow!”
“Let’s hide in the wood,” Amy suggested.
“No. We can’t let the men find our campsite. We have to lead them away from that area.” Will turned towards the hill. “Let’s go to the tree house.”
“Good idea.” Joe sprinted towards the hill. As he reached it, he glanced back and saw that the men and were not far behind. He realised they would have a better chance of getting to the tree house if they split up. This would also mean that if the men caught up with them, not all of them would be captured.
So, as they neared the top of the hill, Joe glanced at the others. “We need to split up.”
Amy only took a moment to decide. “I’ll go with Sarah. And if you boys go alone, we’ll only have one man each on our tail.”
“Are you sure?” Joe asked.
“We’ll be fine,” Amy said. “Come on, Sarah.” The girls headed straight down the slope while Will went left and Joe went right.
Chapter 13: The Quarry
For some reason, the section of the hill that the girls were hurrying down had the most number of gorse bushes. And, because of their prickles, it made it necessary for the girls to slow down.
They hadn’t actually gone this way before, and Amy was wishing that she had chosen a different way. But there was nothing she could do about it now.
“Stop for a minute, I want to see if there’s anyone chasing us,” Amy whispered. She could hear twigs breaking to the left and right of her, but none behind her. Maybe there wasn’t anyone behind them. But then, what had happened to the third man?
“What do we do?” Sarah asked.
Amy was just about to answer when she heard twigs breaking as someone crashed through the bushes. “Run!” She turned and pushed through the bushes, not bothering whether or not she got scratched.
Hurrying down the slope, she was surprised to see the bushes suddenly disappear and found herself staring down a steep bed of grass that, eventually, turned into rocks.
Stopping, she was wondering what to do when Sarah bumped into her. The two girls fell and tumbled down the hillside, rolling over and over, getting faster with every second.
~
Will wasn’t afraid of getting lost as he knew where to hide. The last time they had walked past here, he had spotted an old tree with a hollow trunk.
He headed for the tree and hid inside. Careful to be as quiet as possible, he stood as still as a mouse. He heard the pounding of footsteps as his pursuer raced past.
As soon as the footsteps had faded away, Will emerged from the tree trunk and looked around to make sure no one had spotted him. Satisfied that no one had, he headed towards the tree house.
~
Joe was wishing that he had stayed on the path that he had been on. It would have led him to the tree house. But, with the man right behind him, or so it had seemed, he had turned right, hoping to lose him in the trees.
However, as he raced forward, he found himself out in the open. The sandy beach was in front of him and, apart from the wood that he had just come from, he couldn’t see anywhere to hide. Hearing someone closing in on him, Joe raced along the sand. Seeing some rocks up ahead, an idea came into his head.
He passed two rocks, then dropped down, hiding behind the third one. His feet were partly sticking out, so he shuffled some sand over them. He lay still as he heard the man approach. The next minute or two would tell whether or not he would be caught.
~
Amy and Sarah came to a stop at the bottom of the hillside. After sitting up in a daze, the girls looked around and discovered they were next to a quarry. Hidden by trees and bushes on all sides, there were piles of rocks strewn all over the area. There also seemed to be a hole, which indicated to Amy that it might also be a mine.
“Golly, how come we didn’t see this before?” Amy asked.
“What is it?” Sarah said.
“It must be where they got the rocks from to build the church and other buildings on this island. After all, it would have been a bit difficult to transport all that rock from the mainland.” Amy stood up and walked around, forgetting for a minute that someone was chasing them.
Hearing a noise, she glanced up and saw Marvin as he emerged from the bushes. He hurried down the hill.
Realizing that they had to hide somewhere, she hurried over to the hole. As soon as she saw that there was a ladder, she started climbing down it, her sister right behind her.
The ladder was old, but still in good condition. Once she was on solid ground, she switched on the torch that she always carried in her pocket and swung it around. There were at least four tunnels going in opposite directions. She didn’t know which one to go down, but as she heard the man’s footsteps, she chose the one closest to her.
The light bobbed to and fro as Amy and Sarah hurried down the tunnel. The torch light picked up the wooden supports, and Amy hoped that they weren’t going to give out when they were in it.
After they had walked for some distance, Amy slowed down and looked at her sister. “Are you all right?”
Sarah nodded. “I can’t hear the man behind us, so hopefully he didn’t see us go down the hole.”
Amy listened and realised that her sister was right. No sound could be heard. She switched off the torch. “We’ll wait here and see if we hear anything.”
~
At the tree house, Will was waiting for Joe and the girls to arrive. He swung his legs back and forth as he sat on the platform and gazed down, searching through the leaves for any sign of movement. But none could be seen.
A minute later, he caught sight of someone heading towards him. He held his breath as he waited to see who it was. A moment later, he saw it was Joe.
Joe started climbing up. As he reached the halfway point, he called up. “Are the girls with you?”
Will shook his head. “No.”
Joe frowned and resumed climbing, reaching the top a minute later. As he reached the platform and sat down, he turned to Will. “How long have you been here?”
“About ten minutes,” Will replied. “I was just starting to wonder if everyone else had been captured when I saw you through the trees.”
“It took longer than I thought to get rid of the man following me,” Joe confessed. “I had to hide behind some rocks and wait until he passed until I could head for here.”
“I hope the girls are all right,” Will said. “We’ll give them thirty minutes. If they don’t show up by then, we’ll start searching, okay?”
Joe nodded. “If they don’t come back in that time, I’m afraid something may have happened to them.”