* * * * *
Caera was extremely worried about Alex. Why hadn't she suspected he might be missing? She had no one to blame but herself for not noticing his absence, but--it just would be one of the Davenports that caused trouble on an otherwise perfect survival trip. And the purpose of the trip was to survive, after all. She thought of Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest from science the year before and giggled.
The world just might be better off without an Alex Davenport in it, but Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Gordon, and Alex's parents would disagree, and it was up to Caera to find him, now that Mr. Gordon had decided to wait by the river in case Alex returned there. Caera looked over to Andrew's drawn face as they walked down the trail and scolded herself for thinking such terrible thoughts about Alex. Where did she get such ideas from, anyway? she wondered. Maybe from kindergarten, or first grade, or second grade...
Caera turned around for a minute to count heads and make sure that no one else had gotten lost. Nope. All seven present and accounted for. She only hoped that everything was all right with Mr. Gordon's group by the river. All of a sudden Caera spotted people in the distance. She and Andrew ran ahead of the others and found Brian Anderson and two others guarding four large baskets of brambles.
"Where's Claudia?" Caera wheezed between gasps for breath.
"She and the others took off that way." Brian pointed at a large rocky hill that Caera had noticed earlier. "Said something about a call for help and told me to stay here with these guys."
"O.K., right." Caera turned to her group and said, "let's go see if we can find Claudia's group. They may have found Alex."
Andrew nodded, trying hard not to worry about Alex. Why hadn't he noticed Alex wandering off? he wondered. What was he going to do if anything happened to his brother? he thought in horror.
"All right, let's move it!" Caera shouted like a drill sergeant and hurried to the front of the group to take command.
Twenty minutes later, Claudia spotted Caera's group through someone's binoculars, marching dramatically in unison like a conquering Roman legion. A minute before, she had heard them whistling "Colonel Bogie's March" and had guessed who was coming.
"Alex!" Andrew shouted in relief when he spied his brother sitting in the clearing; he could recognize Alex even at a great distance. He ran over to him and Alex started explaining what had happened to him.
Caera didn't really have to ask Claudia what had happened to Alex. Anyone could see that it was just another case of curiosity landing into an unfortunate situation. What she really wanted to know was how Claudia had heard Alex from the path, but Claudia's group were in agreement that she had. While George Stuart was prattling in Caera's ear the age old "Well, there has to be some sort of scientific explanation" (Caera wondered what nerd had coined that phrase), she noticed that Claudia was giving her the "We have to talk privately" look. A minute of casual and slow wandering toward the cave later, Claudia checked to see that Marie Summit was out of earshot and said,
"I have to show you something. Com'ere." Upon finding Alex and having him lifted out of the pit that he had fallen into, Claudia had noticed that a small rectangular slab of stone lined part of the cave's bottom to the right of the pit in the gloom. Now Claudia shone her flashlight to show Caera her discovery. On the slab was engraved an inscription:
"Draw together the clues that you find
For your purpose, keep in mind
You will see that what is is what is not
Search carefully, X marks the spot."
Argyll House
Kate Campbell laughed to herself as she slowly withdrew her popcorn bag from the microwave. She was looking forward to watching her favorite program on t.v. that evening in peace, a change from normal Saturday nights when the twins were downstairs making noise or needing help with doing their homework if for some reason they didn't put it off until the last minute.
Mrs. Campbell was momentarily interrupted from her thinking by a call from the living room, reminding her that the show was about to begin. Mr. Campbell lay with his back propped up against the sofa, sipping at a warm mug of malted milk. By the time his wife entered the room, he had already heard the beginning music of the program and had just started to peel the foil wrapper off a Cadbury's Dairy Milk with almonds and raisins--a sign that both were in a celebratory mood. No sooner than Mrs. Campbell had sat down, whereupon her husband relieved her of the burden of the popcorn bag, both heard a loud knocking at the front door.
Surprising as it was to get any unexpected visitors during the day when one lived so far from town, on a Sunday night it was almost unprecedented, especially on a night when it was pouring rain outside. Anyone who made it from the road to the front door would be soaking wet. Mrs. Campbell got up to open the door and was astonished to see the faces of her twins smiling half-heartedly in the cold, standing beside the young science teacher, Mr. Gordon. Behind them stretched a block of kids to the end of the sidewalk, at a guess about forty. Each and every one was painted with mud and streaked with water, and if there were any who weren't cold, they were sandwiched between half a dozen other people who were pushing their way closer to the house.
"Sorry to bother you, Mrs. Campbell, but could we possibly--" Mr Gordon began tactfully.
"Mom, cccould you lllet us in? We're fffreezing," Caera interrupted impatiently, chattering through clenched teeth. Mrs. Campbell had just enough time to shoot her daughter a questioning look before signaling that everyone could come inside. One by one, each beleaguered member of the ill-fated survival expedition trudged to the front door and removed a pair of something that must have once been shoes from their feet before filing in. Behind a chorus of squelches sounded in harmony as the line moved up. Soon all were in the living room, the study, the dining room, or the kitchen wearing their extra pair of clothes and sipping steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
An hour or so later, Mrs. Campbell sighed for the third time that evening as George Stuart started to sneeze. There were only two boxes of tissues left, and it appeared that her guests would have to spend the night when a flash flood warning appeared across the bottom of the t.v.
"We're all out of milk," she announced to no one in particular (except maybe herself), although it could be said that she had made the comment in Caera's direction.
"Can you believe we got rained out?" Caera grumbled.
Mrs. Campbell smiled. She would have thought the situation was very funny if she and Mr. Campbell didn't have sleeping arrangements to worry about. In fact, she was sure he was busy laundering the campers sheets at that very moment.
"Claudia, could you and Caera look through our DVD's for a movie for your friends to watch while I go get some blankets out of the storage room?" Mrs Campbell asked.
"Sure." Claudia said, and Mrs. Campbell hurried away. Meanwhile, Jason Robinson was already getting another frozen pizza out of the freezer. As Claudia began to think of what she could suggest that everyone would agree to, people snatched all the available food and left for the living room. Caera hung back to clear away a few dishes. She had her back to everyone as she stooped over the dishwasher. Her face was flushed, and beads of sweat trickled down her forehead. As Claudia and Ana turned through the doorway to leave, Claudia thought that she heard a muffled sneeze coming from the abandoned room.