He wanted to comfort Badger. “I’m sure they read them,” he said. “Or would like to – if they had the time. You told me they were busy.”
“Yes, they are,” said Badger. “They work all the time. They make a lot of money.” He shrugged. “That’s what they do, I suppose.”
But there was no time to think about parents and postcards as the Tobermory sailed gently into the bay. Mr Rigger said that Ben should stick with Badger and Fee should stay with Poppy. “Watch what they do so that you can do it next time,” he said. “That’s the way we learn at sea.”
Poppy and Fee reported for anchor duty. Their job was to watch the anchor chain as it played out of the bow – the nose of the ship – with a loud clanking sound. As the heavy links disappeared into the water, they had to call out if the ship showed any sign of riding over the chain or if the chain itself went off in the wrong direction. They used hand signals to send messages back to the person at the helm. An arm stretched out to the left meant go to port; an arm out to the right meant turn to starboard. And a moving backwards and forwards of the arm, with the palm of the hand flat, meant stop.
“It’s simple,” said Poppy cheerfully. “Anybody could do it.”
Fee was not so sure. She had watched Poppy for much of the day and had been impressed by the other girl’s ability to do everything as if it were the easiest task in the world. Fee thought that she would never remember even half of what Poppy knew. She was already dreading the moment when she had to do something for herself, unable to turn to Poppy and ask her how to do it.
Once the anchor was firmly lodged in the sea-bed, the ship’s engine was turned off. Now the Captain gave a signal to everybody on deck that they were off duty and could do what they liked. The liberty boat, the small boat used to ferry people ashore, would soon be winched down and be ready to take people onto the island. Since just about everybody was keen to see what the island was like, the boat would have to make several trips to get them all to the pier.
“You’ll be collected in time for dinner,” the Captain announced. “So make sure you’re ready at the pier in exactly one hour.”
As they made their way to the island, another sailing ship arrived to drop anchor in the bay. Fee recognised it immediately. “That’s the boat we saw in Tobermory,” she said, pointing. “That’s the Albatross.”
Poppy and Badger looked round.
“Why yes,” said Badger. “That’s the one with the film crew.”
“Maybe we’ll get a part in their movie,” said Poppy.
Henry, the Captain’s dog, was with them in the liberty boat, although the Captain himself was staying on board. When Henry saw the other ship, he started to bark loudly. He did not seem to be pleased.
“He thinks this bay is his yard,” said Badger. “Dogs don’t like other boats coming into their yard.”
Poppy reached out to pat Henry. This calmed him down, although he continued to growl at the Albatross.
“Perhaps Henry would like a part in their movie too,” suggested Badger. “He could be an extra.”
“An extra?” asked Ben. “What’s that?”
Badger explained. Extras, he said, were people you saw in the background of movies. They were the people walking around or driving cars or doing any of the ordinary things that people did. They made the whole thing look real.
“I was an extra once,” said Badger, just a little proudly. “I had to ride my bike along a street and throw a newspaper onto somebody’s porch. I didn’t have to say anything. I just rode my bike.”
Ben was impressed. It seemed to him that Badger had seen much more of the world than he had and knew far more about it.
“Did you get paid?” asked Poppy.
“I did,” said Badger. “But I had to do it seven times, because one of the main actors kept getting it wrong. They had to do the scene over and over again.” He remembered something else. “One of the other extras got into a bit of trouble. He had to pretend to be asleep – that was all he had to do. But he kept sneezing, and they said that wasn’t what they wanted. They said that you don’t sneeze when you’re asleep.”
“Don’t you?” asked Fee. “Are you sure?”
“Of course you don’t,” said Badger. “If you sneeze when you’re asleep, you wake yourself up.”
The discussion was cut short by the liberty boat’s arrival at the pier. Everybody disembarked, and the boat returned to the Tobermory to collect the next load of movie extras. Those who had come ashore made their way to the small local store, ready to spend the pocket money they had brought with them. As Badger had predicted, there were plenty of postcards and stamps for sale, as well as chocolates and other tempting treats.
It was while they were still in the store that a small group arrived from the Albatross. There was a tall man with his hair tied back in a pony tail, a woman with a two-way radio in her pocket, and a young man of about eighteen who was carrying a camera with a large lens. As they entered the shop, these three looked about them with an inquisitive air. Seeing Badger, the young man whispered something to the man with the pony tail. The man stared at Badger for a few moments before going over to speak to him.
“You people from that training ship?” he asked.
Badger replied that they were. He explained that the Tobermory was a school ship, and that they were at the beginning of a new term.
“Great,” said the man. “And can you tell me the name of your Captain?”
“He’s called Captain Macbeth,” he said. “But everybody just calls him Captain.”
The man smiled. “Captain Macbeth is a great name,” he said. “I’ll take a boat over to see him.”
The three visitors then went out of the shop, leaving Badger and his friends to look at one another in puzzlement.
“What on earth was that about?” asked Poppy.
Badger shrugged. “Maybe he wants some help?” he said. “They don’t look as if they know much about sailing.”
At their feet, Henry gave another of his low growls.
“Something’s bugging Henry,” said Fee.
“He didn’t like them,” said Poppy. “I could tell from the way that he was looking at them. He was suspicious.”
“Suspicious of what?” asked Ben.
Poppy had no answer. But she did have something to say about dogs and their ways. “We had a dog at our place in the outback,” she said. “There was one of the men who came to do sheep shearing that he just didn’t like. He always growled at him and tried to bite him. It was really embarrassing. But then we found out why.”
“Had he hurt him?” asked Badger. “Dogs remember people who are cruel to them.”
Poppy shook her head. “No, he’d done nothing to him. But the sheep shearer was a thief. He was wanted by the police in South Australia for stealing cattle. It was as if the dog knew.”
“Maybe he saw his face on a wanted poster,” said Badger, grinning.
“You may laugh, Badger,” said Poppy. “But I’m telling you – dogs know. They just know.”
They returned to the ship just in time for dinner. Then, while they were all seated in the mess hall, the Captain came in to speak to them. He and the other teachers normally had their meals in a separate room, but whenever he had to make an announcement the Captain came into the mess hall.
“Now listen to me,” began the Captain.
This brought complete quiet. When the Captain said ‘Now listen to me’ it was the signal for all noise to stop.
“I have had a visit from the owner of that ship that some of you will have already seen – the one anchored over there.” He pointed out of a porthole. “He’s a well-known film director and is making a movie in these waters about a group of people who are kidnapped by pirates.”
For a brief moment there was a hum of excited chatter – then silence once more.
“He had a request,” the Captain went on. “They need a number of extras. They’ve been let down by an agency and they need people to play various n
on-speaking roles – apprentice pirates and so on.”
This brought a gasp from just about everyone.
“Now then,” said the Captain, “I gave the matter some thought. I know that term has just begun and that you all have a lot of work to do …”
From here and there came groans. It was just their luck, thought some, that schoolwork would spoil a chance like this.
“But,” continued the Captain, “I’m aware that proper classes haven’t started just yet, and a couple of days won’t make much difference to how much you learn.”
This resulted in cheering – and the throwing into the air of caps and other nautical headgear – most of which were caught again, although some ended up on the deck.
The Captain held up a hand to restore order. “There are twenty places, and since I imagine that every single one of you would like to take part, we’re going to have to draw lots to make it fair. Mr Rigger will write everybody’s name on a slip of paper and then we’ll get Matron to pick out twenty names from a hat. The lucky twenty will have two days of filming out at sea. The twenty people selected will spend the day on the Albatross and then come back to the Tobermory to spend the night. That’s all.”
This news brought a wave of excited chatter.
“I hope I’m chosen,” Fee said to Poppy.
“Me too,” said Poppy. “But we probably won’t be. It’ll be people like Hardtack and Shark – you just see.”
“You never know,” said Fee.
There was only one topic of conversation during their meal that evening – the possibility of becoming an extra. There were one or two people who pretended not to care whether or not they were chosen, but nobody asked for their name to be taken out of the draw. William Edward Hardtack was especially scornful of the whole idea. “Who wants be in a movie?” he asked sneeringly at the Upper Deck mess table.
Maximilian Flubber was about to say, “Me – I do,” but bit his tongue when he realised that this was not the answer Hardtack wanted to hear. So instead he muttered, “Not me. Never.” And Geoffrey Shark, who probably wanted to be in a movie more than anything else in the world – he was such a vain boy – made a sound that was meant to be dismissive of the whole idea but that came out, instead, like the sound the plug-hole of a bath tub makes when the last of the bathwater disappears. “I would never settle for being an extra,” said Shark. “Waste of time. Complete waste of time.”
At the Middle Deck table everyone felt that being an extra could lead to much greater things. “A lot of famous film stars started out as extras,” said Poppy.
Badger looked doubtful. “Well, I was an extra,” he pointed out, “and yet I’m not a movie star.”
“Just have patience,” said Poppy. “People wait a long time for the call to come, and they’re just about to give up when the phone rings and it’s Hollywood.”
“I’ve waited for ages,” said Badger, with a grin. “Ages and ages. In fact, I’ve been waiting for so long I’ve forgotten that I’m waiting.”
But of course they would all have to wait, as Mr Rigger had come in halfway through the meal to tell them that the draw would take place first thing the next morning. “You’ll find out then,” he said. “It will be absolutely fair. The names are to be put into Cook’s white hat and will be picked out by Matron, who will have her eyes closed.”
“Very fair hat, my hat is!” shouted Cook. “Anybody disagree?”
Nobody spoke. You did not argue with Cook – not if you wanted any breakfast.
As he climbed into his hammock that night, Ben thought back over his first full day of sailing. Time had passed quickly – probably because everything had been so new and unexpected. It seemed to him that there was a lot to remember, and he wondered whether he would ever master everything he had to learn. It was easy to look as if you knew what you were about, but that did not mean that you really did know. A lot of people were like that, thought Ben, and if you asked them why they were doing what they were doing they would not be able to give you much of an answer.
He was getting used to the hammock, just as they said he would. Although the bay in which they were anchored was sheltered, there was still a bit of movement in the ship. This came from small waves that found their way around the headland. They made a rocking movement, and this in turn made the hammocks swing slightly. It was just the right motion to lull you off to sleep.
Ben found himself drifting. Now he was halfway between being awake and being asleep. He was thinking of the rock he had spotted. What would have happened if he had failed to see it? What would have happened if he had not swung the wheel and sent the ship off on a different course? Rocks were a danger for submarines too, and he had often heard his father warn about them. “The one thing you have to remember,” he had said, “is that rocks don’t move. Boats move. Waves move. But rocks, as a general rule, don’t move. So when you hit a rock, it makes a great big hole in whatever hits it.”
If they had hit that rock, the Tobermory could well have sunk. Ben imagined what that would have been like. Water would have poured in, and although they had pumps, these might not have been able to cope. The ship would have floundered – like a drowning creature in the water, sinking lower and lower beneath the waves until only the masts could be seen. And then those would go too, and all that would be left would be bits and pieces of equipment – boxes, ropes, deck shoes – floating on the surface. And there would be people in the water too, bobbing around in their lifejackets, waiting to be rescued.
Ben was tired, but he was not too tired to give a shudder at the thought. The ship had life rafts – he had seen them – but would there be enough room for everyone? And what if you ended up in a life raft with somebody like William Edward Hardtack?
He tried to get these thoughts out of his mind, and was deliberately thinking of something more pleasant, when he heard footsteps outside. Then came the sound of somebody coughing, followed by the low murmur of voices. He was puzzled. The rules were clear: once lights were out there was to be no wandering around. You stayed in your cabin until it was time to get up in the morning, and you were only allowed to go out if you needed to go to the bathroom. Not bathroom, he thought: heads.
Ben’s curiosity got the better of him. Slipping out of his hammock, he made his way across the cabin to the door. Badger was fast asleep by now, wrapped up tightly in his hammock, his eyes firmly closed.
Ben stopped at the door and listened. He heard nothing now but the creaking of timbers. There were no voices. But then he froze: the door handle was slowly beginning to turn. Somebody on the other side was trying to open it.
It was a frightening moment for Ben, and he had no idea what to do. But then he heard a voice on the other side – a girl’s voice. “No, not that door,” the voice said. “It’s further down.”
The door handle stopped moving. There were footsteps, and then silence. Ben took a deep breath, summoned up all his courage, and cautiously began to open the door. Then, poking his head outside, he looked down the passageway.
There were no lights on in the passageway but Ben was able to make out, at the far end, two figures just about to disappear through a doorway. He could not see their faces, of course, but one of them seemed taller than the other, and they both looked familiar. Yes, it must be Poppy. There was just something about the way she walked that seemed familiar. Yes, he said to himself. Yes, it’s her.
Once the two figures had disappeared, Ben went out into the passageway and made his way down to the end. He tried to make no noise, and when he reached the door through which they had vanished, he even held his breath. He listened – there were voices, or rather, there were whispers. He strained to hear what was being said, but the closed door made it difficult.
Suddenly he heard a voice he recognised. Even if it was whispering, the voice was one that he would know anywhere – it was Fee’s.
“I think we should go back,” she said. “You’ll be all right, won’t you?”
Another, much quieter voi
ce, could be heard. “Come on …” said that voice. And he knew at once this was Poppy.
Realising that Poppy and Fee might come out at any moment, Ben made his way back to his cabin as quickly as he could. Closing the door behind him, he spun round as he heard a voice behind him.
Badger had woken up and was staring at Ben from his hammock. “Where have you been?” he asked in an accusing tone.
Ben explained. “I heard somebody in the passageway. I went to see who it was.”
“And?” prompted Badger.
“It was Poppy and Fee.”
Badger sounded puzzled. “What were they doing?”
Ben shrugged. “I don’t know. I heard them talking about something, but I don’t know what it was.”
“I’m pretty sure Poppy’s hiding something,” said Badger. “She looked preoccupied the other day – as if her mind was on something else altogether – but she wouldn’t tell me what it was.”
Ben told him about how he had met Poppy down below when he had been feeling seasick. “She was carrying something in a bag,” he said. “I didn’t see what it was.”
“Very strange,” said Badger. He paused before continuing. “Will you ask Fee?”
“I could,” said Ben. He and his sister had no secrets from one another – or so he had always believed. Perhaps it would be different now, but at least he could ask.
Badger sounded pleased. “Good,” he said. “If I hear about a secret, I always like to know what it is.”
Ben thought about this as he climbed back into his hammock. He was feeling tired now and it would not be long before he drifted off to sleep. As he closed his eyes and said goodnight to Badger, he thought of all the possible things that Fee and Poppy might be hiding. Did they have some sort of secret society – a club that only they and a few others would know about? If so, what would it be called, and what would it be for? Would boys be allowed to join?