The Sands of Shark Island

  “I won’t!” she promised.

  The rest of the trip went smoothly, and early the next morning the submarine slipped safely into its berth in Glasgow. All hands went on deck to help tie it to the posts on the edge of the quay and after that it was time to offload everybody’s kit and begin the journey to the MacTavishes’ house. This they did in a hired minibus, large enough to fit them all in, and soon they drew up in front of an old and rather ramshackle house on the edge of a small country town.

  “Here we are,” announced Mr MacTavish with a smile. “MacTavish Headquarters. Ben and Fee will show you all to your accommodation.”

  There were only three bedrooms in the MacTavish house: one for the parents and one for each of the twins. These were large bedrooms, though, as is often the case in older houses, and so it was easy to convert them to a girls’ dormitory for Fee, Poppy and Tanya, and a boys’ dormitory for Ben and Badger. There would certainly be enough room for everybody, but what about beds?

  That problem was easily solved, as all three guests had brought their hammocks from the Tobermory.

  “You can tie one end of your hammock to that clothes-hook,” explained Ben to Badger, “and the other to the cupboard door. You’ll be fine.”

  In the girls’ dormitory, two hammocks had to be slung, but there were more hooks in that room, and so there was no problem with that.

  “Everybody’s fixed up now,” said Fee to her mother. “The hammocks are up and the kit-bags are unpacked.”

  “Good,” said Mrs MacTavish. “I think it’s time for some more fried eggs.”

  As they sat about the large kitchen table, fried eggs were served together with a good helping of baked beans. There were also large bowls of Scottish oatmeal porridge and a slice of chocolate cake to finish. It was a magnificent meal, and everybody felt very full and content at the end of it.

  “I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have a great time here,” remarked Badger as they sat playing cards in the sitting room after the meal.

  “I think so too,” said Poppy.

  Tanya felt the same. “And so do I,” she echoed.

  Although nobody knew it, they were in for a nasty surprise the next day. One that none of them could have foreseen, and one that was going to make them all – and Tanya in particular – extremely scared.

  In the storm drain

  After breakfast Mrs MacTavish asked Ben and Fee to go into the town centre to buy supplies.

  “We need bread and milk,” she said. Then, remembering other things, she added, “And some butter too. Jam. Breakfast cereal. And … oh yes, and potatoes.”

  Fee wrote it all down in her notebook. All the students on the Tobermory had been taught to carry a notebook with them at all times; this was useful for jotting down things like duty rotas or timetables, or new nautical words that they might need to look up. So when somebody shouted out things like, “Haul in the starboard sheets!” they would write down ‘sheets’ and find out later on what the word meant. (It did not mean the sort of sheets you have on a bed, as there were no beds on the Tobermory, just hammocks. Sheets, they soon found out, were a special sort of rope.)

  Fee looked up from her notebook. “And chocolate?”

  Mrs MacTavish hesitated. She knew her daughter had a weakness for chocolate, and she knew that it was not a good idea to eat too much of it, but then a little of the things you like never harms anybody. And so she said, “All right, chocolate too, but not too much, Fee – I know you when it comes to chocolate!” Badger smiled, but said nothing. Chocolate was his weakness too.

  All the friends went into town, making the short journey on foot, carrying bags in which to bring the shopping back to the house. Fee and Ben were well-known in the shops, and were greeted cheerfully by the shopkeepers, who all knew about the Tobermory and were eager to find out how they were getting on at their new school.

  They were in the last of the shops, buying the chocolate, when Fee suddenly broke off from what she was saying.

  “I think we’ll have six bars of that one over …” She trailed off.

  “Which one, Fee?” asked the shopkeeper.

  But Fee did not hear the question. She had noticed there was something wrong with Tanya, who had suddenly stiffened, and then drawn back, her hand coming up to cover her face.

  Poppy had seen this too. “Tanya?” she asked. “Are you all right?”

  Tanya’s response was to move sharply, so that she was standing behind Poppy, sheltered from anybody who might look into the shop through the wide plate-glass window.

  Now Badger became concerned. “There’s something wrong,” he whispered. “Tanya’s had a terrible fright.”

  Ben looked puzzled. What could possibly have had this dramatic effect on Tanya? One moment she had been fine, chatting away with the rest of them, and then the next it was as if she had seen a ghost. Perhaps she has, he said to himself. Perhaps that’s just what she’s seen. But then he noticed her peering through her fingers, and he saw that she was looking out into the street. He followed her gaze. There must be something out there that was frightening her: but what was it?

  It did not take him long to work out what it was. Parked directly outside the shop was an old car, and seated in the front were a man and a woman, both wearing hats. The man had a brown hat with a floppy brim; the woman had a fancy, rather pointless hat – all feathers and ribbons. It was not a hat that served any useful purpose – it wouldn’t provide any protection from the sun, and if it rained it wouldn’t be long before it was reduced to a sodden mess.

  But it was not the hats that really attracted Ben’s attention – it was the faces beneath them. There was only one word for them, he said to himself, and that word was dangerous. In fact, had he thought about it a bit longer, he would have realised there was more than one word that suited them: evil, mean, and dishonest were just as good. Of course, the way people look does not always reflect the way they really are, but there was something about this pair that made Ben think appearances were not deceptive.

  Fee was soon at Tanya’s side.

  “Tanya,” she said. “What is it?”

  Still shielding her face, Tanya replied in not much more than a whisper. “Those people outside,” she said. “Them – do you see them?”

  “Yes,” said Fee. “We’ve all seen them. What about them?”

  “‘It’s my uncle and aunt,” said Tanya in a voice strangled by fear and emotion. “It’s them!”

  Fee drew in her breath. She remembered the story that Tanya had told her of how she had been sent to live with relatives who cared little for her and who made her work for nothing in their dog boarding kennels. She remembered how Tanya had eventually run away and reached Mull, where she had stowed away on the Tobermory.

  Fee beckoned the others over and told them what Tanya had just said.

  Ben glanced out of the window. “They’re still there,” he said. “They’re showing no signs of moving.”

  “Do you think they’ve seen you, Tanya?” asked Poppy.

  “I’m not sure,” replied Tanya. “I can’t really tell.”

  “I don’t think they have,” said Badger. “It looks to me as if they’re just waiting.”

  “What are we going to do?” asked Fee. “We can’t stay in here forever.”

  Poppy decided to take control. She was the oldest member of the group, so she was the natural leader. She had also always been good at getting out of dangerous situations, such as when she had found herself once in a sleeping bag with a snake. That had been a tricky situation: the snake had slithered into her sleeping bag when she was on a school camping trip. Snakes sometimes do that because they like the warmth. Of course, if you rolled over or moved in your sleeping bag too suddenly there might be serious consequences.

  Poppy had done the right thing. Snakes like warmth, but they don’t like to be too warm, so Poppy had told her friends simply to take down the tent, thus allowing the sun to shine directly on her sleeping bag. Under the Australia
n sun, a sleeping bag quickly becomes an oven, and the snake, feeling the heat, decided it was time to slither out again. That had been hard for Poppy, as she had been obliged to lie quite still as the snake slid slowly over her body, then – and this was the hardest part – over her face. She would never forget the sight of its small dark eyes and flickering tongue as it moved its sinuous body over her. Nor would she forget the words of the expedition leader afterwards when he told her what sort of snake it had been. “That was a taipan, Poppy,” he had said. “Not the best snake to have in your sleeping bag! In fact, one of the worst. One bite from that and … well, let’s not think about that.”

  The situation they now found themselves in was bad, but not as bad as that. And, thought Poppy, if I can deal with a taipan, surely I can deal with Tanya’s uncle and aunt.

  A plan came into her mind. “Right,” she said, addressing Ben and Badger. “This is what we do. We’re in here, right?”

  Ben and Badger nodded.

  “And they’re out there,” Poppy continued.

  Again Ben and Badger nodded.

  “So what we need to do is to get Tanya out without their seeing her.”

  “Sure,” said Badger. “But how do we do that? It’s broad daylight and they’re sitting in their car right outside. If anybody comes out of this shop they’ll see.”

  “Only if they’re looking,” said Poppy quickly. “What we need is a diversion.”

  “To make them look at something else?” asked Fee.

  “Exactly,” said Poppy. “So …”

  She began to explain her plan. “Ben,” she said, “you and Badger should go out first. Cross the road, and then, when you’re on the other side, start having an argument. Start shouting.”

  Ben looked at Badger, and Badger looked back at him. They were both puzzled.

  “Then,” went on Poppy, “start a fight.”

  “A real one?” asked Ben.

  “No,” replied Poppy. “But make it look real. Don’t hurt each other, but start pushing and kicking. And all the time keep shouting so that …”

  It dawned on them all at the same time.

  “So that their attention is attracted,” said Badger.

  “And they’ll be looking over there, while back here …” added Ben.

  “… Tanya creeps out with Poppy and me,” finished Fee.

  “You’ve got it,” said Poppy. And then, following what they had all been taught on the Tobermory about briefings, she went on to add: “Any questions?”

  Everyone thought the plan was perfectly clear, so they began to put it into action.

  “Ready, Badger?” asked Poppy. “Ready, Ben?”

  Badger and Ben looked at one another. They were the best of friends, and it was difficult for them to imagine having an argument, let alone actually fighting.

  “What shall we fight over?” asked Ben.

  Badger thought hard. He had never hit anybody – as far as he could remember – and it was difficult to think of a reason to do so now. “Let’s imagine we’re in one of those old western movies,” he said. “One cowboy comes into the saloon and says, ‘You stole my cattle!’ Then they begin to throw punches – you know the sort of thing.”

  Ben tried not to laugh. “All right,” he said. “Let’s try that.”

  Ben and Badger felt the eyes of the man and the woman in the car follow them as they left the shop and started to cross the road. Now was the time for them to begin their argument, and they did so by giving each other a preliminary push. This led to shouting.

  “Watch where you’re going!” shouted Badger, loud enough, he hoped, for the people in the car to hear.

  “You watch where you’re going!” Ben shouted back.

  Now they were on the opposite side of the road and they were aware that the people in the car were still watching them. But they were also aware that in the background Poppy had opened the door of the shop and behind her, ready to come out, were Tanya and Fee.

  “Now,” whispered Badger. “We’d better start right now.”

  Ben glanced towards the car. “Right,” he whispered. “You first.”

  Badger shook a fist at his friend. “You stole my cattle!” he shouted.

  Ben was taken completely by surprise. The absurdity of what they were doing suddenly came home to him. You stole my cattle! How ridiculous. And then, completely unable to control himself, he started to laugh.

  “That’s not what you’re meant to do,” hissed Badger. “Look mean. Look angry.”

  “I can’t,” gasped Ben between fits of laughter. “How could I steal non-existent cattle?”

  This had an unexpected effect on Badger, who started to laugh as well.

  “My cattle!” he shouted. “Where have you hidden them?”

  Ben found this even more amusing, and was now bent double with laughter. Try as he might, he could not stop himself – it was all so ridiculous.

  Over on the other side of the road, Poppy was wondering what was going on. The boys had been told to have a stage fight, not to fall about with laughter. What had gone wrong? But then, when she looked at the car, she saw that the plan was working. The man and woman were both clearly surprised by what was happening and were themselves starting to laugh. Laughter, as we all know, can be infectious. If one person starts to giggle, then soon everybody can find themselves doing the same thing.

  “Now!” whispered Poppy to Tanya and Fee. “Let’s go right now.”

  They stepped out on to the pavement and began to walk away, quickly but, they hoped, not so quickly as to attract attention.

  It worked. As the two people in the car stared at the sight of Ben and Badger doubled up with uncontrollable laughter, the girls made their way down the street and turned the corner to safety. A few minutes later, they were joined by Ben and Badger, who had by now only just managed to stop laughing.

  “What happened to you two?” demanded Poppy. “What was so funny?”

  Fee joined in the accusation. “You could have ruined everything,” she said. “You were meant to have a fight, not to fool around.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Badger. “We just couldn’t help it. You know how it is when you try not to laugh – it gets harder and harder until eventually you lose control.”

  Tanya did not want the boys to feel guilty. “The important thing is that it worked,” she said. “You distracted them for long enough. We got away unnoticed, and that’s what counts.”

  “But what do we do now?” asked Fee. “We can’t go back to pick up our shopping with them still around.”

  While Poppy was thinking how to answer, they heard the sound of a car engine revving. Ben looked up and saw that the car in which Tanya’s aunt and uncle had been sitting was now coming round the corner at high speed straight towards them. Without wasting a moment, he pushed Tanya against a wall while he and Ben stood in front of her. To anybody passing they would have looked just like a group of young people huddled together talking about something.

  It was their best chance, thought Ben, and it worked. As the speeding car drew near, he got a glimpse of the driver and his passenger hunched in their seats, their eyes fixed intently on the road in front of them. But then, just as the car drew level, the woman turned in her seat and looked straight at them.

  And at that precise moment Tanya, anxious to see what was happening, moved to one side of Ben and Badger. She was only exposed for a moment, but it was enough. She had been seen. With a screeching of brakes, the car came to an abrupt halt.

  Poppy realised what had happened and reacted quickly. “Follow me,” she said. “We’re going to run for it.”

  They did not need any further encouragement. Taking to their heels, the group of friends followed Poppy as she dashed down a path that joined the roadside not far from where they had been standing, their legs pumping away as fast as they could.

  For some distance the path ran alongside some gardens. Not far off, though, the houses gave way to countryside, with fields, and, in the dis
tance, a large wood. Poppy hesitated; she was unsure whether to continue that way and so risk being exposed, or whether they should go over a fence and into one of the gardens. She looked behind her, and saw in the distance the man running after them, waving his hands and shouting something she could not make out.

  There was no time to consider other possibilities – Poppy knew that she had to act, and quickly. Looking around, she spotted a smaller path that led off between two gardens. She could not see where it went, but if they followed it they would be out of sight of their pursuer, at least for a minute or two.

  She made up her mind. “Turn here,” she shouted as she swerved off.

  They followed her – Ben, Badger, Tanya and Fee – all of them beginning to feel the exhaustion that comes with pushing your limbs to the limit. As Poppy had suspected, they could not be seen from the path they had just left, and this gave them a precious opportunity to hide. But where? The new path had a low fence on each side, but even if they jumped or clambered over either one, there was not enough cover in the gardens to hide five people.

  It was Fee who saw it. “Look!” she shouted to Poppy, and pointed to the ditch that opened up off one side of the path. “There’s our chance.”

  Poppy looked, and immediately saw what Fee meant. The ditch very quickly became deeper, and at the end of it was the gaping round entrance of a storm drain.

  “Down there,” Poppy shouted, pointing to the mouth of the drain.

  One by one they scrambled into the ditch, and one by one they crawled into the drain’s dark mouth. If they had not been so frightened, it would have been a difficult task, but fear can make things much easier. In no time at all they were inside, crawling forward into the darkness, led by Poppy, with Ben bringing up the rear.

  “I think that’s far enough,” said Poppy, her voice amplified in the cramped space. “He’s not going to find us here.”

  Ben glanced over his shoulder. They were now some distance away from the entrance to the drain, which was a round circle of light behind him.

  “Is everyone all right?” asked Poppy.