by Paul Moxham
This made Will hopeful. However, as he began to work on it, he realized that the one thing that the man did know was how to make the rope tight. The knot might have been unorthodox but it had been pulled so tightly that there wasn’t any slack in the rope. He whispered to Amy. “I need you to move your leg closer to Boris.”
Will hoped this would give the rope the slack he needed to undo it but, as the minutes ticked by, he realized it wasn’t the case. The rope crisscrossed in so many different ways that it wasn’t long before his hands began to get sore. Needing a break, he stood up and walked back to the others. “I can’t do it. I’ve never seen a knot like it.”
“I’ll try then,” Joe said.
“I don’t think you’ll have much luck. What we need is…” Will suddenly paused. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of it earlier?”
“What?” Sarah asked.
“The small pocket knife in the cabin,” Will replied. “You know, the one next to the canned food.”
Joe nodded. “Yes, that knife should be sharp enough to cut the rope.”
“And if we do it this way,” Will said, “we only have to cut the piece of rope that’s between Amy’s leg and the man’s leg.”
Joe looked at his watch. “Boris isn’t going to be asleep for too long so, since Inspector Price still hasn’t come, we do need to do something. I’ll go and get and get the knife straight away. Now, who is going to try to cut the rope? You or me?”
“You could try,” Will replied. “My hands are still a bit sore from trying to undo the knot. Otherwise, I’d be happy to do it.”
“I can do it. Stay here. I won’t be long.” Joe ran to the boat and collected the knife. Returning a few minutes later, he walked quietly but quickly over to Amy.
Without saying a word, for he didn’t want to wake Boris, he showed her the knife and went through the motions of cutting the rope.
Once she knew what he was going to do, Joe began. As the minutes passed, he began to cut through the rope. Finally, the last bit of rope was cut. Joe put the knife in his pocket and the two stood up and quietly walked over to where the others were.
Unfortunately, the man chose that very moment to wake up and, as he sat up, he noticed immediately that there was no one attached to the other end of the rope. He yelled out in anger. “Hey!”
“Quick, to the sailboat!” Joe yelled.
The children ran as fast as they could back towards the sailboat, racing across the sand and then onto the rocks. As Joe leapt across the rocks, he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye and paused. As he realised it was Boris swimming towards the Whispering Wind, he yelled out to the others. “We have to get to the boat before Boris does!”
Half a minute later, they reached the Whispering Wind. Amy untied the rope from around the rock while the boys got out the oars.
Suddenly, Sarah yelled out. “He’s almost here!”
Joe peered around and saw that his sister was right. Boris was less than thirty feet away. Joe knew they wouldn’t stand a chance of getting out of the cove before the man caught up to them, so he stood up and climbed out of the boat. “Back to the beach!”
“What?” Amy exclaimed. “But I—”
“Just follow me! I’ve got a plan!” Joe interrupted.
Will and the girls followed Joe as fast as they could. As they did so, Boris yelled out. “You can’t get away from me. You’re forgetting we’re on an island.”
Once Joe reached the beach, he stopped and glanced back. Seeing that the spy was taking a few moments to catch his breath, he turned to the others. “The only place we’ll be safe is the tower.”
Will smiled. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Do you mean entering through the hole like last time?” Amy questioned.
“Yes, hopefully it will still be there.” Joe looked at the spy once more and saw that he was heading towards them. “Come on!”
As Joe ran to the left, Will grabbed his arm. “The castle is straight ahead, remember?”
“I know,” Joe said, “but we can’t let Boris think we’re going to the castle. We have to lose him first.”
As Joe raced along the beach the others ran after him and, for the next ten minutes, led Boris on a chase from one end of Heron Island to the other. Then, when the children were beginning to get tired legs, they headed towards the castle.
Once they arrived at the large, crumbling structure, they paused, wanting to make absolutely certain that Boris was not in sight. Satisfied he wasn’t, they hurried over to the hole that they had climbed through on their previous trip to the island.
“Oh no!” Amy suddenly exclaimed. “We don’t have any rope which means we can’t use it to climb down.”
“What are we going to do?” Sarah cried out.
“Maybe we should think of a new plan,” Amy suggested.
Will shook his head. “No, we don’t have time. We’ll just have to jump and hope we land safely.” Hearing a sound in the woods, he spun around. A moment later, to his relief, he spotted a large bird fly up from the trees. “Come on, before the spy appears!”
“I’ll go first.” Joe sat down on the side of the hole and let his feet dangle in thin air for a moment or two before he gathered the courage to let himself drop through the hole.
Amy held her breath for a few moments as Joe disappeared from sight, but then she relaxed as she saw her brother stand up and realised he was okay.
The girls were the next to go, then finally Will. He dangled his legs then paused to glance around at his surroundings to make sure Boris wasn’t in sight. He wasn’t, so he let go. As he got to his feet, he realised something. “What if Boris walks near the hole?”
“Just hope he doesn’t see it,” Joe said. “We can’t cover it up, so let’s head for the tower.”
“But we don’t even have a torch,” Sarah said.
“I know, so let’s hold each other’s hands and walk slowly,” Joe replied.
It was slow going, but at least no one fell over and hurt themselves. As they approached the steps to the tower, streams of sunlight appeared.
The children let go of one another and began the long climb up the tower. As they reached the top and were bathed in sunlight once more, Amy smiled. “It’s so nice to be out in the sunshine again. I couldn’t imagine being cooped up inside all day without any light. I really couldn’t.”
Sarah shook her head. “No, I couldn’t either. Darkness makes things seem gloomy and sad, but in the light, everything seems different.” She gasped as she caught sight of Boris emerging from a clump of trees.
As the man spotted the children, he laughed and strode towards the bottom of the tower. “You know, I just realised I don’t need to bother chasing you. After all, you can’t escape and, if all you plan to do is stay up this tower, then that’s fine with me. I just didn’t want you sailing away on your sailboat and telling the police about me.”
As the spy walked away, Amy turned to Joe. “If Boris decides to sail away in the Whistling Wind we will be stuck here.”
“But he wants to go to France,” Joe said. “And he can’t do that in our little sailboat.”
“Either way, we can’t do anything about it,” Will stated.
“If only the police were here,” Sarah said. “That would solve everything.”
“Look! Do you see what I see?” Joe yelled out, pointing to a speck in the distance that was rapidly approaching from across the water.
“That’s a boat! Is it a police boat?” Amy questioned.
“I don’t know, but it’s heading right for us,” Joe replied.
The children eagerly kept their eyes on the boat and, as the craft came closer, the four children beamed with delight. It was a police boat.
“I wonder if Boris has seen the boat,” Sarah said.
“If he hasn’t, he soon will. It looks as though the boat is going to drop anchor beside the Whispering Wind,” Will said.
“Inspector Price must have unders
tood my message after all,” Joe exclaimed in delight.
Sarah smiled. “Yes, and the police got here just at the right time.”
“We still would have been okay,” Joe said. “You heard what Boris said. All he wanted was for us not to leave the island.”
Will peered down at the beach. “I can’t see Boris, only the police.”
“Well, let’s just stay up here for the time being in case there’s a shootout,” Amy suggested.
“Yes, good idea,” Joe said.
Five minutes later, Inspector Price, along with two other fellow officers, appeared and walked towards the tower.
Sarah madly waved her hands. “Hello!”
“Up here inspector!” Will yelled.
“Did you catch the spy?” Amy called out.
“Yes, thanks to you,” the inspector replied. “I’m afraid it took me rather a long time to understand your message. I sent some men to Brackness Castle and it wasn’t until they reported back stating that no one was there that it dawned on me what you meant. So I then took command of a police vessel and headed straight for Heron Island, and here I am.”
“Do you have rope with you?” Will asked. “Getting out of here without one would be a bit tricky because the only way out is through the hole which we dropped down.”
“I see.” Inspector Price turned to one of the officers. “Get the rope from the locker.”
As the policeman departed, the children walked down the stone steps and across the underground room. They had to wait for a few minutes at the bottom of the hole before the policeman returned with the rope.
Once he had done so, the rope was tossed down to the children and it wasn’t long before the four of them were out of the hole.
As they walked back to the police vessel, Joe suddenly remembered something. “Hey! You can catch another spy as well.”
Inspector Price frowned. “I can?”
Joe nodded. “Yes. Boris told us that a friend of his was coming to pick him up from here at nine tonight.”
“I see.” The inspector smiled. “Well, in that case I’d better leave two policemen here just in case his companion does show up.”
Amy laughed. “Mum and Dad are not going to believe us when we tell them what we’ve been up to.”
“I’m sure they will,” Inspector Price said. “After all, it’s not as though this is the first time you’ve helped the police catch a criminal.”
Joe grinned. “You’re right there.”
Sarah shuddered. “I didn’t know what was going to happen when Boris pulled out his gun.”
“At least it ended well,” Amy said.
Will nodded. “Yes, and that’s all that matters. All’s well that ends well.”
Inspector Price smiled. “You can say that again.”
The End
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Here is Chapter 1 and 2 of The Mystery of Smugglers Cove, the first thrilling novel in The Mystery Series
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The Mystery of Smugglers Cove
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Chapter 1: Smugglers Cove
The bicycle skidded to a halt as Joe Mitchell stopped beside a huge oak tree. His slim frame rocked forward, causing a lock of brown hair to fall into his eyes. He glanced back at his two sisters who were still pedalling furiously. Grinning broadly, he called out to them. “I told you I’d win!”
“Well, your legs are much longer than ours,” Sarah panted. “Next time we race, Amy and I need a head start to make it fair.” Only eight years old, she was the younger of Joe’s two siblings and had short blonde hair.
“Look!” Joe exclaimed as he caught sight of a large house in the distance. “That old place looks interesting.”
They headed down a dirt road and, a minute later, found themselves in front of two big, steel gates. At the end of a long, overgrown driveway was a three-storey mansion.
“I wonder who lives there,” Amy said. “It looks terribly old.” The curious ten year old twirled a strand of her brown hair around her finger.
“I bet nobody does,” Sarah stated, her green eyes filled with doubt. “Look at all those weeds and bushes everywhere. If someone lived there, wouldn’t they keep the garden tidy?”
“Let’s see if the gates are open.” Like many twelve year old boys, Joe was always on the lookout for an adventure, and this place looked very intriguing. He tried to open the gates, but they didn’t budge. “Help me, you two.”
The girls threw their bicycles on the grass and joined Joe in trying to move the rusty gates but they had no luck.
Joe stepped back and glanced around. “I wonder what this place is called.”
“Chandler Manor!” Amy exclaimed triumphantly a moment later. She pointed to an old metal nameplate attached to the gatepost.
“Yes, that’s right,” a cheery voice called out.
The children spun around and saw a boy of about Joe’s age with flaming red hair. His freckles and cheeky smile gave him a goofy look, but he looked as though he would be fun to have as a friend.
“My name’s Will,” the boy said. “Actually, it’s William, but most people call me Will. You’re new here, aren’t you? I haven’t seen you around Smugglers Cove before.”
“We just arrived yesterday,” Joe said. “We’re staying at Rose Cottage. It’s a little place on the cliff overlooking the cove.”
“What a coincidence,” Will said. “That’s where my father and I stayed while we were looking for a house to buy. “Have you got the bedroom with the skylight?”
Joe grinned. “Yes, it’s fantastic.”
“There was a fire at our house,” Sarah piped up. “That’s why we came here.”
“Were you there at the time?” Will asked.
“No, it happened while we were at school,” Amy replied. “The house was too badly damaged to stay in, so our parents decided to rent a place here for the summer holidays. It’s a lot smaller than Danfield, though.”
“Isn’t that in London?” Will said.
“Yes, but how did you know?” Joe asked.
Will grinned. “We used to live quite close to Danfield.”
“Why did you move here?” Amy asked.
“My dad wanted some peace and quiet so he could write his novels, so we moved here after the war ended,” Will replied.
Joe turned back towards Chandler Manor. “Does anyone live here?”
Will shook his head. “No. The owner died five years ago, just after we moved in.”
> “It looks very mysterious,” Joe said. “I wouldn’t mind exploring it.”
“If you want to do some exploring, I know just the place,” Will said. “Have you heard anything about the history of Smugglers Cove?”
“No, do tell us,” Amy said.
“How about we go and buy ice creams and I tell you all about it?” Will suggested. “There’s a place called Darby’s that sells really yummy ones.”
Sarah looked disappointed. “But we don’t have any money.”
“Don’t worry, my dad gives me heaps of pocket money, so I can buy ice creams for all of us,” Will replied.
The four children rode back into the village. As they passed the police station, they saw the local constable talking to the baker. Both of them were plumpish with round faces, but the constable was taller than the baker and wore thick-rimmed spectacles.
They brought their bicycles to a halt a few moments later outside Darby’s. It was an attractive little shop with tables and chairs both inside and outside. After grabbing an ice cream each, they went outside and sat at a table surrounded by pots of red geraniums.
Will launched into his story. “A long, long time ago, smuggling was a roaring trade around here. Ships used to anchor off the coast and smugglers would transport the goods to the beach and into the caves where, as legend says, there were a maze of tunnels. These tunnels criss-crossed all over Smugglers Cove, but to this day, only a few have been found.”
“Why didn’t the police discover where the tunnels came out?” Amy asked.
“Well, apparently the smugglers made the exits to the tunnels underneath houses,” Will replied. “That way, they could slip down to the cove, get the goods, transport them to the tunnels, and be back in bed by sunrise, all without going out the front door.”
Joe frowned as he licked the ice cream that was dribbling down the cone. “That sounds a bit farfetched.”
“Why would anyone go to all that trouble?” Sarah asked.
“Smuggling was an easy way to make money back then.” Will glanced around. Apparently satisfied that no one was listening, he looked back at the others. “Can you keep a secret?”
