The Secret of the Lonely Isles by Joanne Van Os Page B

yacht, so he sat on the sand, not in the mood for a conversation. He could see himself reflected in the mirror sunglasses the man was wearing. He looks like a humungous bug, he thought to himself. Something about him … The sun beat down on him mercilessly, and he closed his eyes. His head throbbed. He thought he was going to be sick again, when he heard Tyler saying:
    â€˜â€¦ and we’ve got a heap of old letters and stuff,and we think we’ve finally worked out where the gold statue is.’
    The back of Jem’s neck prickled uncomfortably, and he looked up at the young man. Why was he asking so many questions? The mirror sunglasses swam and flared in the sunlight.
    â€˜Cool!’ said the young man. ‘And where d’you reckon it might be? A long way from here, or …?’ He looked encouragingly at Tyler, who was about to leap in and answer when Jem suddenly threw up all over the stranger’s feet.
    â€˜ Errk! Gross OUT! ’ yelled Tyler, leaping out of the way.
    The young man stepped gingerly back, and rinsed his feet in the sea. ‘You okay, mate?’ he asked.
    â€˜He’s just seasick, that’s all,’ said Maddy. She handed Jem her water bottle. ‘Here comes Ella.’
    â€˜Yeah, well, guess I’d better be going. Thanks again for the help. See you ’round.’ The stranger waved goodbye, and hurried off up the beach.
    â€˜Way to go, Jem,’ said Tyler. ‘Did you have to actually vomit on him?’
    Jem coughed a couple of times, drank some water and wiped a hand over his face. Something about the stranger bothered him, but he felt too ill to care.
    Ella made her way across the sand towards them.
    â€˜The ranger said that high tide down at VictoriaSettlement is at eleven-thirty tomorrow morning. We’ll be able to get nice and close to the shore, and motor across in the dinghy then.’ Maddy retrieved the anchor and they waited while Tyler and Zac pushed the dinghy out into the water.
    â€˜He also said that someone was asking about me yesterday. He said he was an old friend, and wanted to know if we had arrived yet. The ranger thought he might have been with one of the bus tours. It’s odd – I don’t know anyone who would be coming out here.’ She started the motor, and they puttered back towards the Freya .
    â€˜Perhaps it was someone the Professor knows, and he told them to see if we’d got here okay?’ suggested Maddy.
    Ella huffed and shook her head. ‘I’ve sailed all the way around the world, and he worries that I might not make it to Port Essington!’ Zac and Tyler laughed. Jem just wished his stomach would settle down, and that his neck would stop prickling.

    Early next morning they sailed over to the white cliffs of Victoria Settlement, and anchored offshore waiting for the tide. Ella re-anchored a few times, so they could take turns at reading the depth sounder, and counting out the five-metre marks on the chain as it rattled overthe bow. ‘You’re all learning very quickly,’ she said, looking pleased. ‘You’ll be expert sailors by the time we get back to Darwin!’
    It was still a while before the tide was right, so to pass the time, Ella pulled out the carved box and the file of copied letters from the Gryphon . They read through them again and looked at the charts, searching for an island that might be a better match for the vague clues they could ferret out of the letters. At ten-thirty they set out in the dinghy, and dragged it up the beach above the high tide line, tying it to a tree with the anchor rope.
    It was only a short walk to the first of the ruins of the Settlement.
    â€˜These were the married quarters,’ said Ella as they came upon a row of circular stone chimneys, all that was left of the houses.
    â€˜Gee, they were small,’ said Tyler, stepping out the perimeter markings.
    â€˜Yes, they were,’ said Ella. ‘And no